Sustainability Background

About Ishka consulting

The name ishka is the anglicized form of the Gaelic word for water, *uisce*.

This term reflects my ancestral ties to the lands and waters of Scotland, Ireland and England, acknowledging the historical context of my work.

Nice to meet you

Ishka Consulting is led by Erin Ellis, working alongside a trusted network of skilled associates. Agile and adaptable, Erin can assemble a tailored team for any project or merge seamlessly into existing networks.

Often described as a bridge, Erin brings together diverse partners, fosters collaboration, and guides initiatives that don’t come with a ready-made blueprint. Colleagues know her as a “workhorse” and a “Swiss army knife”-reliable, versatile, and ready to dive in.

Before founding Ishka Consulting, Erin honed her skills in small- and medium-sized organizations including Oceans North, Inuit Circumpolar Council, and Stratos Management Consulting. These roles shaped her strategic, relationship-driven approach and expanded her expertise across policy, partnership development, negotiation, and facilitation.

As Director of Policy at Oceans North, Erin championed community-based partnerships, working closely with Inuit Organizations to launch innovative programs. Her work has taken her from remote Arctic communities to national and international forums, collaborating with governments, Indigenous organizations, industry, academics, and the United Nations.

With over a decade of experience building partnerships with Indigenous communities, Erin understands that trust and respect are the foundation of meaningful collaborations. She brings technical know-how, leadership skills, and policy insight to tackle complex challenges and advance sustainability.

Erin holds a Master’s in Natural Resource Management from Simon Fraser University (REM) and a BSc in Biology from Queen’s University, specializing in ecology and evolution. She is trained in Indigenous governance, facilitation, negotiation, and conflict resolution. She lives with her family in Eastern Ontario, on unceded Algonquin Anishinabe Aki.

Areas of Expertise

  • Sustainable development
  • Indigenous governance and partnership
  • Conservation, environmental monitoring, and management
  • Climate change, forest ecology, marine ecology, Arctic ecology
  • Research and policy
  • Strategy and campaign development
  • Outreach and partnerships
  • Community engagement and program development
  • Strategic evaluation and program assessment

Sustainability through respect and innovation

What does your tagline mean?

True sustainability is a radical concept with profound implications – but only recently so. For millennia, we lived in alignment with the basic operating principle that guides the rest of life on Earth – to bring about more life. Today I live in Canada, where our per capita resource consumption is the seventh largest in the world. This unsustainability is driving breaches of Earth’s boundaries on multiple fronts. It’s in our hands to change that.

Respect is the next concept. It centers the Earth, reconciliation, anti-racism, women and LGBTQ2S+. It includes consent; integrity and sovereignty; and all beings.

In this world, with that goal and that principle – innovation gets us out of this mess.

This is where we have fun. Let’s go!

Sustainability Background

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Land and Responsibility

Wherever possible, Ishka Consulting operates within the Indigenous governance framework in which a project takes place.

Erin’s experience, understanding and approach was shaped over time working closely with Inuit throughout Inuit Nunaat and by early career experiences with the Heiltsuk Nation and the Lower Fraser Fisheries Alliance on the West Coast. A seventh generation Canadian, Erin’s early teachers were the animals and plants of Algonquin Anishinabe Aki in Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec. She is committed to deepening her relationships with the communities, practices, and philosophies of the places she loves so much and calls home.