Melanie Goodchild
Anishinaabe gikendaasowin (our original way of knowing) offers insights into complexity and a systemic view of life based in kinship with each other and the natural world — gidinawendimin (we are all related). I am on a wisdom journey to uncover pathways to address society’s most entrenched problems through Anishinaabe ancestral teachings. The original article, Relational Systems Thinking (Goodchild, 2021), has had almost 60,000 downloads to date! Here is a tea flight of some of my work. Sit by the ishkode (fire) with me and have a cup of niibiishabo (tea). Relational Systems Thinking is explored in depth throughout Dr. Goodchild’s doctoral dissertation, published in 2023.
—From melaniegoodchild.com
Profile
Melanie Goodchild
Anishinaabe systems thinking
Melanie Goodchild is Anishinaabe (Ojibway), moose clan, from Biigtigong Nishnaabeg and Ketegaunseebee First Nations. She is a design and innovation strategist with over 30 years’ experience working with First Nations communities across Turtle Island. Her work bridges applied sociology and Anishinaabe, decolonial and participatory approaches to address complex systems challenges through culturally grounded, relational practices.
Melanie is a contributing faculty member with the u-school for Transformation by the Presencing Institute at MIT and with the Wolf Willow Institute for Systems Learning. She combines complexity-aware tools with Anishinaabe gikendaasowin (our original ways of knowing) to foster deep systems awareness and transformative systems change.
She currently serves as Systems Changer in Residence with the Canadian Association of Science Centres and sits on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change. She is a member of the Measuring Systems Practice Development Group at Social Impact Exchange (New York), the Pathways to Planetary Health advisory group at the Garrison Institute, and Policy Horizons Canada’s Deputy Minister Steering Committee. In 2024, she served as an advisor to the Edge Finance Accelerator at Solvable and as a Systems Coach with the Centre for Care Innovations (California). She is also a certified Three Horizons facilitator.
Melanie holds a PhD in Social and Ecological Sustainability from the University of Waterloo and an MA and HBA in Sociology from Lakehead University. She is an alumna of the International Women’s Forum Leadership Foundation Fellows Program, sponsored by Harvard Business School and INSEAD.
