September 23, 2026

Seven Generations Education Institute has received a $50M funding commitment from the Mastercard Foundation. The institute will use the funds to transform and expand education and training pathways connected to Anishinaabe language and worldviews. Over the next 10 years, the institute will ensure youth in the region will have access to new and expanded programs, resources, supports, and career opportunities in priority areas. “Our First Nation’s children have a right to their culture, their traditions and songs. With this funding commitment, our responsibility is to steward this funding in ways that strengthen learners and respect our accountability to the community. We look forward and are ready for the work ahead,” said SGEI Board of Directors Chair Naomi Field.

Surrey Schools recently announced that it would be allocating $2.7M in new ongoing funding to expand several student programs and supports. This will include the creation of inclusive education support worker positions, Indigenous graduation advocates, and youth and child-care workers. Surrey Schools Superintendent Mark Pearmain stated that the Indigenous graduation advocates will be distributed among the institution’s secondary schools, where they will help youth find pathways to pursue their interests at a postsecondary institution. The district will also expand its universal lunch program to ensure students experiencing food insecurity can still focus and learn in class.

Anishinabek Educational Institute has achieved accreditation as an Indigenous Institute through the Indigenous Advanced Education & Skills Council (IAESC). With this accreditation, the institute can bring independently developed programs through the IAESC program approval process. Anishinabek News reports that AEI is working on the development of four priority programs: Anishinaabemowin, Childcare Management, Community Development Worker, and Community Resource Worker (Neurodiversity/Exceptionalities). “This accomplishment reflects the vision of an institute created by and for Anishinabek people, where our students could access post-secondary education grounded in our culture, knowledge, and communities, and the work of Anishinabek leadership who brought this vision to life more than 30 years ago,” states AEI Education Director Mindy Taylor.

The Government of British Columbia recently announced the opening of 23 new and improved schools across 16 communities. These included a 340-seat school building that will host cəw̓as Ch’elxwá7elch Skwuláw̓txw Seaside Elementary in Vancouver, which has been gifted a name that means “facing out onto the water, facing away from the shore” and references the region. A new 485-seat school building in Kamloops will host Sníne Elementary, which is named for an owl in Secwepemctsín. In a statement, the Kamloops-Thompson School District explained that the new school for Sníne includes a library, outdoor classrooms, and an Indigenous garden.

Kenjgewin Teg has announced that it has achieved institutional grant eligibility from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. This eligibility allows the institution to administer CIHR grants and awards. “Research can be mystifying at first, but at its core, it’s about ‘making meaning’ and getting to a greater understanding of why things are happening or not happening,” said Kenjgewin Teg President Dr Beverley Roy. “In our context of Anishinaabe higher education, for Kenjgewin Teg, this new funding eligibility status from CIHR will allow us to bring forth and expand our conversations about holistic health and wellness for learners and their communities, wellness models, and Mino Bmaadziwin – all from our Anishinaabe worldview lens.” CIHR is the second federal funding agency to give grant eligibility to the institution, preceded by SSHRC in 2023.

A recent report from the Sea to Sky School District shows how Indigenous students’ numeracy, literacy, and graduation rates have changed since the previous year. While Indigenous literacy and numeracy rates were often lower than the rate for all students, the Squamish Chief reports that improvements were seen on the fronts of Grade 4 literacy (from 39% in 2023/24 to 75% in 2024/25), Grade 10 literacy (35% to 49%), and Grade 10 numeracy (19% to 30%), while a slight decline was noted in Grade 7 literacy (56% to 50%). Indigenous students had a five-year graduation rate of 67% and approximately 38% transitioned to postsecondary immediately. Among Indigenous students, a sense of belonging improved from 33% in 2020/21 to 54% this year, though students who live on reserve had a lower sense of belonging (42%). Sea to Sky superintendent Chris Nicholson explained that the school district is implementing initiatives such as place-based learning aligned with corridor First Nations to improve the sense of belonging and connection.

The Government of the Northwest Territories and the University of Alberta have signed a research agreement that will run until March 31, 2035. The partnership is focused on research related to the future of the North, including AI, climate change, and social transformation. It establishes a framework that will ensure research activities are either Indigenous-led or co-developed with local communities. It will also bring new educational opportunities for Northern youth, such as expanded access to scholarships, remote learning programs, and on-the land training. NWT staff may be appointed as UAlberta adjunct faculty if they participate in graduate supervision, providing them with access to the university’s resources. “By engaging with traditional knowledge and leveraging academic excellence, the Government of the Northwest Territories and the University of Alberta are establishing a modern blueprint for ethical, community-led research,” explained UAlberta VP Research Aminah Robinson Fayek.

Neskantaga First Nation’s youth from JK-8 began classes on Monday, September 14, at a Toronto hotel that they are staying at as evacuees. The First Nation was evacuated in August after sewage backup contaminated the Rachael Bessie Sakanee Memorial Health Centre, and its members have been living in a hotel in Toronto during renovations and remediation. While classes at the hotel will be different from the experience of learning at the familiar Neskantaga Education Centre, it will ensure that the about 90 Neskantaga children can attend classes, explained Neskantaga First Nation Chief Gary Quisess told Newswatch. “They’re not happy right now, because they know the school year has started and they want to attend classes,” he said in a phone interview. Creating a means for those youngsters to

The Saskatchewan Court of Appeals heard an appeal of a $70K defamation judgment from University of Ottawa researcher Darryl Leroux. Leroux was ordered to pay $70K to University of Regina associate professor Michelle Coupal for a series of comments made in 2021 and 2022. Lawyers representing the two parties were heard by a three-judge panel on Friday. Leroux’s appeal argued that he used strong words to imply Coupal knew her professional claims to Indigenous identity were likely false; Coupal’s lawyer argued that the comment did not meet the conditions of the defence of fair comment. The appeal court reserved its decision on whether to overturn the judgment.

Lindsay Gibson (University of British Columbia) and James Miles (University of Alberta) recently wrote an article for The Conversation outlining five ways that teachers can respond to residential school denialism in the classroom. The authors discuss the five Ds—detect, debunk, disregard, debate, and deconstruct—and how each of these can help educators to play a key role in advancing truth and reconciliation. They explain that these five Ds offer different response options, and that teachers should consider contextual cues such as the type of denialism they are encountering, the students involved, and their broader school and community context when deciding on their response. “If students are expected to respond effectively to residential school denialism, they need to learn the truth about what happened in residential schools, but also how to distinguish legitimate historical disagreement from misleading attempts to deny and distort that history,” conclude Gibson and Miles.