The following are a few disclaimers and facts related to Walking Together:

1) I am not an authority or an expert of First Nations cultural, social or economic development ways. What I share in Walking Together is what I learned while working with remote First Nation people;

2) the learnings, insights, and experiences were shared with me, or created for me and my team, mostly by remote Ontario First Nations mentors, community members, band leaders, and band advisors. The remote First Nations own the learnings;

3) many of the First Nations people encouraged me to share their lessons to help raise the awareness of non-Indigenous people;

4) the First Nations engagement strategy, processes, and practices evolved as my team and I adapted them to fit our comfort level, abilities, the rules and culture of the First Nations and the Ontario government, and within our respective roles, authorities and responsibilities;

5) I do not speak for any First Nation;

6) I do not compare different First Nations. They are all different, having their own worldviews, issues, and engagement expectations;

7) my engagement experience was almost exclusively with remote First Nations people who lived in on-reserve communities located in Ontario’s far north, augmented by experiences gained through discussions with First Nations tribal council staff and leaders and while travelling across other parts of Canada. I did not engage with any First Nations political territorial organization (PTO);

8) what you learn from the book or through your engagement journey will differ from what I learned, because our backgrounds and goals differ and what we see and interpret differ. But there will be some common foundations;

9) Ontario government political, policy, legislative, or legal factors or perspectives were important but are outside the scope of this book;

10) for simplicity, in this book, I define a business as an organization, enterprise, or government engaged in commercial, industrial, professional, or societal governance activities, regardless if they are for-profit or non-profit.