McMaster Indigenous
Research Institute

McMaster University sits on land protected by the Dish With One Spoon Wampum agreement and is a guest on the traditional territories of the Mississauga and Haudenosaunee Nations. This territory was never ceded or surrendered. Further, the Crown has ignored and reneged many of Nation-to-Nation treaties. Settlements and promises of these treaties remained unfulfilled. We stand with all Indigenous Peoples who defend their territories, lands and waters.

Prison Education Project

The Prison Education Project increases access to post-secondary education for incarcerated Indigenous peoples.

IndigiNerds

IndigiNerds Summer Program

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Contribute to MIRI's Flagship Projects.

“Believe Indigenous Peoples when they tell you what Indigenous research entails. We have been here for over 15,000 years, and our research has grown, evolved, and changed in ways that fit our communities’ needs. The ongoing evolution of the Three Sisters farming, astronomy and star stories of the Inuit, the migrations of geese, caribou, buffalo, and Indigenous genomics (to name a few) are intellectually and mindfully driven.

Across the globe, every single research community should feel incredibly fortunate to be enriched by the vastness of time and the breadth that Indigenous research encapsulates. Indigenous Peoples’ research is the past, present and our future.”
Tracy Bear
"Indigenous Research is Indigenous sovereignty in thought and action. It is responsive, transformative, collaborative, alive, timeless, expansive, centres the heart and fundamental to process and practice in Indigenous lands, waters and with kinship relations.”
Santee Smith
“Indigenous research is an opportunity to uphold and utilize sovereign, diverse Indigenous ways of knowing and being in the research that we engage in as Indigenous researchers. It is also about how research Allies walk alongside Indigenous community partners in their collaborative research efforts.”
Bernice Downey
“Indigenous literary research and scholarship stem from Indigenous stories: oral, aural, visual (telling, listening, reading and viewing) by Indigenous creatives. Stories birthed from Indigenous languages, relations, experiences, and imaginations give insight into Indigeneity as living and present forevermore.”
Renae Watchman
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“Believe Indigenous Peoples when they tell you what Indigenous research entails. We have been here for over 15,000 years, and our research has grown, evolved, and changed in ways that fit our communities’ needs. The ongoing evolution of the Three Sisters farming, astronomy and star stories of the Inuit, the migrations of geese, caribou, buffalo, and Indigenous genomics (to name a few) are intellectually and mindfully driven.

Across the globe, every single research community should feel incredibly fortunate to be enriched by the vastness of time and the breadth that Indigenous research encapsulates. Indigenous Peoples’ research is the past, present and our future.”

Savage Bear
"Indigenous Research is Indigenous sovereignty in thought and action. It is responsive, transformative, collaborative, alive, timeless, expansive, centres the heart and fundamental to process and practice in Indigenous lands, waters and with kinship relations.”

Santee Smith
“Indigenous research is an opportunity to uphold and utilize sovereign, diverse Indigenous ways of knowing and being in the research that we engage in as Indigenous researchers. It is also about how research Allies walk alongside Indigenous community partners in their collaborative research efforts.”

Bernice Downey
“Indigenous literary research and scholarship stem from Indigenous stories: oral, aural, visual (telling, listening, reading and viewing) by Indigenous creatives. Stories birthed from Indigenous languages, relations, experiences, and imaginations give insight into Indigeneity as living and present forevermore.”

Renae Watchman
“Research provides us the privileged space to work towards social justice, it is a sacred trust with our community and should be treated as such.

My research is guided by ancient laws of the Haudenosaunee to navigate modern challenges, thus actualizing our matriarchal duty to ensure ethical relationships of reciprocity are upheld.

Our responsibility is our stewardship handed down by our ancestors to care for the next seven generations.”

Dr. Dawn Martin-Hill
"Indigenous research is a process; a growing and weaving of thought, knowledge and creation. Indigenous research is about building relationships.

We have the knowledge of the millennia behind us and a future full of stars to guide us; what we need is a relationship to navigate the fruitful abundance that comes with working together.

My world is a garden and Indigenous research allows me to share the landscape with others, growing, caring for and sharing the knowledge of the world.”

Dr. Adrienne Lickers Xavier 
“Indigenous research is an act of resurgence and intellectual sovereignty. 

In Indigenous history, it means empowering Indigenous voices, sources, and methods to share the brilliance of our stories on their own terms.”

Dr. Allan Downey
“Indigenous research foregrounds the persistent relationships and unrelenting philosophies that guide how we operate as diverse and sophisticated societies.

In convening Indigenous voices, thought, culture and methodologies, we honour the integrity of Indigenous knowledges as full systems by which we come to understand, to know and to make new knowledges.

The principles of sharing and responsibility are central to how we do this - our communities must have the space to lead us.”

Dr. Vanessa Watts
"The best Indigenous research is that which benefits current and future Indigenous populations by doing the work that will restore land and resources back to them.

Indigenous research has a responsibility to attend to the health and well-being of Indigenous peoples through honest examination of the colonial past in this country, find ways to address and rectify this injustice, and then putting in the effort to help revitalize Indigenous thought and practice upon the very lands that created and shaped these traditions into being a very long time ago."

Dr. Rick Monture
"Indigenous research is an integral part of Indigenous self-determination, nationhood and governance.

It can support our Nations to shift from patterns of intergenerational trauma to intergenerational healing. It is a light that shows us where we are going, where we have been, and where we are now."

Dr. Jen Walker
"Indigenous research involves authentic partnerships and full community engagement. It privileges community knowledge and experience, it emphasizes equal partnership and participation and provides opportunities for reciprocal decision-making.

Indigenous research demands thorough and continuous reflection, as well as accountability to our communities with the intention of being."

Dr. Chelsea Gabel
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Our Objectives

Lead and inform Indigenous research reform at McMaster University as well as across multiple universities and community environments.

Build and enhance the existing research infrastructure and trusted relationships both at McMaster University and within the region through the sharing of research expertise, helping advance understanding of working by and with Indigenous communities, and by bringing together faculty and researchers across multiple disciplines. It is envisioned that MIRI’s initiatives will bring together expertise from across foundational and applied disciplines, Faculties, and affiliated institutions.

Create opportunities for innovative interdisciplinary research, experiential, problem based student learning, mentorship for undergraduates, graduates and post-doctoral students. The benefits to this include both the building of Indigenous research capacity and recruitment of new researchers and faculty to McMaster by using monies made available by national granting agencies and philanthropic efforts.

Enhance knowledge translation capacity though the building of a digital portal that can be used to help educate McMaster staff and local community on reconciliation and Indigenous Knowledge,provide meaningful support to researchers, and create best-in-class protocols, practices and policies for research, teaching, and learning at McMaster and beyond.

Create and mobilize an information clearinghouse focusing on Indigenous research, enhance understanding of Indigenous Knowledge and reconciliation amongst both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, and position McMaster as a leading authority on Indigenous research and Indigenous Knowledge, and as a resource for post- secondary Universities across the country and around the world.

Quick McMaster Links

Research and Innovation
Indigenous Student Services
The Feast Centre for Indigenous STBBI Research
Indigenous Studies Program
The McPherson Institute
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