Indigenous Network McGill

Through ISCEI, McGill students, staff, and faculty members are invited to apply for seed funding to support meetings and visits with Indigenous community organizations; bringing community members to McGill; experiential learning opportunities for students on and off campus; and other creative partnership opportunities for Indigenous community support on and off campus.

The deadline to apply for Summer funds is May 15th. Students, staff and faculty can submit an application through our website, or directly apply here.

Requests for funding will be reviewed by an internal committee three times per year, listed below. Funding can be used within 12 months of the review date.

Check out a new Indigenous Spotlight Series that highlights some of the work done by both Indigenous staff and faculty at McGill. Our first installment of the series features Alex Allard-Gray from the Indigenous Health Professions Program.

Stay tuned for more videos of our community at McGill!

Click Here to View the Full Position Summary

On April 7th, Naomi Sayers will join Chadwick Cowie’s course, POLI 372 (Indigenous Peoples and the Canadian State), as a guest lecturer. Sayers is an Indigenous lawyer with a trauma-informed practice based out of Ontario, serving both Ontario and Alberta, Canada. Additionally, her practice is broad and has particular focuses on Indigenous law, administrative law (regulatory law), environmental, energy and mining law, criminal law, and corporate law.

Position Summary:

The Indigenous Studies Program is seeking to expand its Indigenous language research capacity and offer opportunities to students to work in areas of Indigenous language reclamation in community. Under the supervision of Professor Noelani Arista, the RA will be asked to collect information on Indigenous language programs and research labs at Canadian Universities, as well as survey important indigenous language reclamation programs in the Eastern U.S. as a way to understand the current context and climate of research in Indigenous languages today.

Responsibilities:

Conduct a survey of Indigenous language programs in Canada.

Collect program data: Indigenous language focus, minor/major, departmental or institutional affiliations, size of program, number of faculty, instructors, and collaboration with community.

Collect information on infrastructure and facilities.

Organize the data collected and report to supervisor (Noelani Arista)

Experience:

• Previous research and data collection experiende useful
• Preference for students who have taken courses in Indigenous Studies prior to applying for this position
• Preference for students with a demonstrated interest in, or existing connection to, Indigenous languages

Hours: $18/hour, total number of hours and weekly schedule is flexible

Interested students should send a resumé and short statement of interest to Prof. Noelani Arista: noelani.arista@mcgill.ca

On March 31st from 1-2:30pm, join in on a reading and discussion event organized by Indigenous students and professors from the Faculty of Law. Inspired by the fabled meeting place in ancient Rome, the CHRLP Forum Reading Group on Power, Mobilization, and Change is founded on the principles of inclusive citizenship and deliberative democracy.

This forum will be led by students Simon Filiatrault, Poonam Sandhu, and Sayre Potter in conversation with Professor Aaron Mills. The discussion will be moderated by Professor Omar Farahat.

This panel will raise and attempt to address the following questions: how do students’ experience of learning about Indigenous sharpens their sense of social justice? How does studying Indigenous law inform the duty to give Indigenous peoples their rightful place in Canada?

Event details:

Date/Time: March 31st, 1-2:30pm EST

Price: Free

Event link: https://mcgill.zoom.us/j/88094696717

Suggested readings are made available on the official event page.

The Indigenous Health Professions Program will be hosting the second installment of their Student Workshop Series on March 22nd from 5-7 PM. The discussion topic for this event is “Navigating Anti-Indigenous Racism at Work and in the Classroom”. Dr. Kent Saylor, Thomasina Phillips, and Erin Patton will lead discussion based on their experiences, followed by a Q&A and case discussion. For more information, contact indigenous.health@mcgill.ca. This event is open to all Indigenous students.

Use this link to register.

Every other week, meet an Indigenous student in our spotlight series! This week’s student spotlight features Leon Picha, and the initiatives he is currently part of:

Could you tell me a little bit about yourself? What are you studying at McGill?

My name is Leon Picha, and I am Coast Salish from the Kwantlen First Nation in British Columbia. I currently work for the Branches Program within Enrolment Services at McGill to help deliver various programming and provide outreach and support to prospective Indigenous students which has been enjoyable and a very fun way to compliment my studies. I’m in my U1 year where I am working towards a Bachelor’s of Commerce in the Desautels Faculty of Management. I am majoring in strategic management with a concentration in information systems on top of a minor in Indigenous studies.

How did you get involved with Branches?

I got into working with Branches after I met Jeffrey Morneau, who works in Indigenous Recruitment at the McGill Pow Wow back when I was fresh and new and McGill. We kept in contact, I shared my ideas for the future of McGill, and the Branches Program had introduced a new position which they had referred me to. One thing led to another, and now I can say I’m loving the work I’m doing, I’m meeting super cool people, working with people I admire, and things are continuing to amaze me day-by-day.

Are there any projects you guys are working on that you’re particularly excited about?

Something I’m definitely excited about is the Soup & Bannock Podcast. That’s the main project I’ve been working on, where we have a nice time to talk about Indigenous futures, and the present in a given industry. We have a podcast coming up soon where we’re focusing on the mental health field – it is super exciting with just as exciting guests!

Art Night: Celebrating Indigenous Students at McGill, hosted by ISCEI in collaboration with SSMU Indigenous Affairs will now be hosted on the 25th of March at 7:30 PM. If you would like to submit any creative work, please send it to artnight.bicentennial@gmail.com.

For more information on the event and to register, please see our Facebook event.