From Consulting to Co-Developing

On August 10^th, 2026, the NCIS hosted its inaugural meeting with the National Indigenous Scholars Advisory Circle, a diverse group of scholars from different nations, disciplines, and communities across Canada. Scholars were flown into Saskatoon from across the country to attend the one-day gathering here at the First Nations University of Canada Saskatoon Campus.

The purpose of this gathering was primarily to discuss and dream. In the discussion phase, it’s important to note that the concerns shared by the Advisory Circle strongly connected to findings from three previous engagement sessions and current research: There are strong feelings of isolation, imposter syndrome, and experiences of racial microaggressions. Service burden, rooting culture in academic practices, and tokenistic hiring experiences tied to issues related to collective agreements were also strongly shared by the group. While we are in the early stages of this development process, there is substantial excitement in how effective this pilot program could be for Indigenous scholars from across the country.

In the dreaming phase, we explored what an Indigenous-led faculty development and mentorship pilot program could look like. Scholars had the opportunity to share their ideas and concerns, and we emerged with an early vision for the national pilot program.

The next step is to organize the ideas shared in the discussion and dreaming phases of the meeting into the pilot program. Moreover, the NCIS has established another Advisory Circle composed of FNUniv faculty, and our first virtual meeting will take place on August 26^th. We will share details from the National Indigenous Scholars Advisory Circle meeting with FNUniv faculty, and they will have an opportunity to contribute to the development of the pilot program.

Lastly, the NCIS team would like to extend another huge ‘thank you’ to Megan Currie of X-ing Design for designing our logo and branding guidelines. We would also like to thank Chris Ross of Chris Ross Productions and his team for their amazing work on our website, which is now live: www.indigenousscholars.ca – as the work and development grows within NCIS, so too will our website. We are grateful to work with a team of amazing artists and designers who gave us a strong platform to get NCIS off the ground.

Submission by: Anthony Nickel, NCIS