Speaking Across Worlds: Cross-Cultural Communication Isn’t Just Translation — It’s Transformation

June is National Indigenous History Month in Canada. For many, it’s a time of remembrance and reconciliation. For those in leadership, it should also be a time of reckoning. Because if your work touches Indigenous communities, lands, or lives — you’re in a cross-cultural space. And in those spaces, communication is never just about clarity. It’s about respect.

Too often, institutions treat communication like a transaction. Say what you mean. Say it simply. Say it fast. But that approach misses what Indigenous leaders have long known: that true communication lives in relationships, stories, histories, and ceremony. It cannot be lifted cleanly from one worldview and dropped into another. It has to be carried.

We’ve watched too many consultation processes fall apart because someone demanded answers in the language of Western logic, without doing the work to understand the logic of the land. We’ve seen Indigenous leaders pressed to make others comfortable, to “translate” their lived truth into institutional terms, to explain pain in policy language. That’s not communication - it’s erasure with a polite tone.

Cross-cultural communication is not about making yourself understood. It’s about being willing to understand someone else — on their terms. It means recognizing that words carry different weight depending on who says them, where they’re spoken, and what history is still echoing in the background.

In Indigenous worldviews, communication often begins with listening. Not to respond, not to manage, not to extract. Just to witness. Storytelling isn’t a delay to decision-making — it’s the decision-making. Silence isn’t awkward — it’s respectful. Relationships aren’t peripheral — they’re foundational.

And yet, many Indigenous leaders are forced to carry the burden of interpretation. They’re asked to bridge worlds, translate trauma, and package generational knowledge into digestible formats for governments, boards, and corporations. Allyship means we stop putting that burden solely on them. It means we start learning to do some of that work ourselves.

This isn’t about political correctness. It’s about cultural intelligence. If you’re engaging across worldviews — and in Canada, most leaders are — then you’re not just leading a project. You’re stewarding a relationship. And that requires humility, patience, and a willingness to be changed by what you hear.

Cross-cultural communication isn’t just translation. It’s transformation. And if that makes you uncomfortable, good. That’s where the real learning begins.

Need help navigating cross-cultural communication?
CORE Strategic supports leaders working across Indigenous and institutional contexts — helping you listen better, communicate with respect, and build trust that lasts. Let’s talk about strategies to help you bridge the gap and build meaningful relationships. >>> Let’s talk