MISSION

The Indigenous Futures Research Centre (IFRC) supports research that is led by and/or for Indigenous peoples and communities.

We are interested in responding to community-identified needs and dreams, and in growing the capacity of Indigenous researchers with the ability to conduct research in ways that are grounded in community knowledge, values and culture. We welcome all researchers, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, who engage in research that prioritizes the co-generation of knowledge that is of direct use to Indigenous peoples and our communities.

The Indigenous Futures Research Centre is an environment where Indigenous methods for knowledge recovery, discovery, and transmission are respected, and where faculty can learn different Indigenous research frameworks from one another while educating students in those methods.

Supporting a mix of research approaches, topics, and collaborations ranging across art - and technology - making, scholarly analysis, community collaboration, experimental pedagogy, and theoretical development, the IFRC aims to illuminate how the challenges of the present can be addressed, in part, through concrete, constructive, and critical dreams of the future.

Broadly, the goals of the IFRC are to:

  • Foster cross-disciplinary research and community-led collaboration;

  • Increase the capacity of Indigenous researchers;

  • Host a vibrant space where questions of importance to Indigenous peoples can be engaged fro multiple perspectives; and

  • Facilitate a learning environment where faculty and students can operate within a context of advanced Indigenous thinking and creation.

  • Important to the goals of the Indigenous Futures Research Centre is supporting the growth of future generations of Indigenous researchers who can integrate their communities’ knowledge, values, and priorities into their careers.

    Using a mentorship model, we bring students into an active research environment where they can learn what research is, understand how it might be of interest to them and their communities, and help them develop the skills necessary to conduct that research.

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    Research is often considered a “dirty word” in Indigenous communities due to its historical use in dehumanizing Indigenous bodies and cultures, and contributing to the justification of colonialism and imperialism (See Linda Tuhiwai Smith’s Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples). Many of the effects of ill-informed, decontextualized, factually inaccurate, and non-consensual research conducted by non-Indigenous people in the past are still felt.

    Today, however, there are increasingly more Indigenous researchers who are transforming what the word “research” means for our communities, seeking the reclamation and maintenance of our cultural traditions connection to place, and sense of identity and belonging.

    We welcome Indigenous students at the undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral levels, and can also offer support to non-Indigenous students in the pursuit of academic interests that are in line with the goals of the IFRC. If you are an Indigenous student interested in Indigenous-led research training and mentorship, please visit our Contact Us page to get in touch.

  • The Indigenous Futures Research Centre was grown from needs articulated by Indigenous faculty and students in the Indigenous Directions Action Plan published in 2019. Further, Concordia’s critical mass of Indigenous faculty and researchers has been steadily increasing since 2010 and with them the number of Indigenous research initiatives at the university.

    The IFRC was created to better coordinate these initiatives across the university; to help support and sustain Concordia’s growing Indigenous research capacity; and to act as a robust, cohesive platform for showcasing Concordia’s strengths in Indigenous research across broader Canadian and international landscapes.

    The IFRC is home to a number of initiatives such as AbTeC, Inuit Futures, and Abundant Intelligences.