A University College of the North (UCN) faculty member and a project to use elder’s perspectives to shape teaching are receiving grant funding.
Dr. Ramona Neckoway, director of UCN’s Centre for Aboriginal Languages and Culture, is one of three principal investigators on a project that is receiving a $200,000 Canadian Institutes of Health Research grant. Entitled “kitatipithitamak mithwayawin [Cree for control over sovereignty over well-being]: Evaluating past, present and future activities of an Indigenous led project on COVID-19,” the project builds on an existing project.
“I’m excited to be able to continue to document the past, present and future impacts of pandemics and to support Indigenous communities as they respond to COVID-19,” said Neckoway in a press release.
UCN has also been awarded a $25,050 grant from the NIB Trust for a project call “Indigegogy Community of Practice by University College of the North,” which will bring UCN elders into a conversation about Indigenous content and teaching methods and incorporate them into courses by developing learning materials.
“Elders are an essential source of knowledge for us,” said UCN associate vice-president of reconciliation, research and academic innovation Harvey Briggs. “UCN is one of the few post-secondary institutions that incorporates elder teachings into the curriculum.”
UCN is now eligible to apply for funding from Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI), a federal initiative that supports the development of research capacity by funding infrastructure such as labs, databases, scientific collections, computer hardware and software, communications links and buildings required for research. CFI funding is awarded based on the merits of research project applications.
“This new eligibility opens the opportunity to continue to grow research initiatives at UCN,” said academic and research vice-president Dan Smith.
