Supporting Indigenous excellence
Our commitment to truth and reconciliation
Taking action on truth and reconciliation by supporting the excellence and success of Indigenous students and staff.
The world is facing dramatic transformations. From increasing political polarization and emerging technologies to persistent social inequities and the sustainability crisis, the challenges that await Arts graduates are more complex than ever before.
These are urgent issues – but also opportunities for positive change. In the Faculty of Arts, we are cultivating the leaders of tomorrow: researchers with the creativity to transcend boundaries, and graduates who can not only navigate rapid changes, but help drive them.
Guided by 52 Calls to Action, McGill is advancing a transformative vision – one that embraces Indigenous knowledges, languages and traditions as essential to academic excellence and societal healing.
Philanthropy is vital to this journey.
With donor support, we can empower Indigenous students, reimagine curricula, and build lasting partnerships with communities. Together, we can help ensure that the next seven generations thrive in a more inclusive, respectful and equitable future.
Join us as we commit fully to truth and reconciliation – with enthusiasm, courage and humility.
The Indigenous Excellence Fund
Giving through the McGill Indigenous Excellence Fund is one of the most impactful ways to make a difference with your donation. Flexible, unrestricted gifts will help the University maintain its high standards, stay agile and address the evolving needs of Indigenous communities.
Your gift will help us advance our major priorities detailed below, as well as respond quickly to other emerging needs and opportunities.
Advancing Indigenous student success
Over the past decade, McGill has made major strides in Indigenous student recruitment and retention with initiatives that span the student journey. With your support, we can continue to remove barriers to higher education and enhance Indigenous student success.
Your gift will help us: Student success
- Broaden the Indigenous Tuition Initiative to eventually provide tuition-free education to all First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples in Canada
- Increase access to remote learning options
- Strengthen programs that create pathways to a McGill education
- Enhance cultural and living spaces for Indigenous students
- Create a comprehensive support system that includes tailored health and wellness services, experiential learning and mentorship opportunities, and travel awards
Strengthening Indigeneity in the academy
Our goal is to strengthen knowledge of Indigenous cultures, languages, histories and ways of life across the University, and facilitate the incorporation of culturally appropriate content into a range of academic subjects for all McGill students.
This work must be grounded in respectful relationships with local and regional Indigenous communities.
With your support, we can:
- Enhance the Indigenous Knowledges and Community Relations Program, which supports the inclusion of Indigenous knowledges through initiatives like visiting Indigenous scholars, artists and community leaders
- Enhance the Elders/Cultural Knowledge Holders Program, which welcomes Indigenous Elders and Cultural Knowledge Keepers to share their lived experiences and traditional teachings at McGill, which is central to Indigenous student success
- Increase Indigenous physical representation and symbolic recognition on our campuses
- Further develop Indigenous academic programs in collaboration with Indigenous communities
Creating an Indigenous learning and sharing space (ILSS)
A campus environment that supports students’ physical, mental and social health and well-being is critical to student success. As the Indigenous community at McGill grows, there is an urgent need to update the existing First Peoples’ House to meet the evolving needs of Indigenous students, faculty and staff at McGill.
Envisioned as a holistic living and learning hub, the ILSS would help promote Indigenous cultural and knowledge exchange among students, faculty, staff and communities, and foster overall inclusion for the Indigenous community at McGill. The ILSS could include:
- Indigenous workspaces, including individual and common areas
- A ceremonial gathering space for approximately 120 people
- Space for programming by the Faculty of Education’s Office of First Nations and Inuit Education
Philanthropic support will be critical to the launch, sustainability and long-term impact of the ILSS.