Braiding Interim Report Card
It has been three years since the launch of the 雅伎著’s inaugural Indigenous Strategic Plan, Braiding Past, Present and Future. In alignment with commitments to track its implementation, the Interim Report Card aims to benchmark progress on the goals and strategies outlined within the plan.
With Gratitude
As the Vice-Provost, Indigenous Programming and Research, I would like to acknowledge the contributions of internal and external, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, community members and the Indigenous Advisory Council who set a long-term vision for institutional actions. I’d like to also acknowledge the leadership from diverse spaces, with college deans, administrators, community partners, and others working on these far-reaching goals, goals that impact all areas of the institutional mandate—in teaching, research and community engagement over the past three years. Work has included creating and enacting policies, changing existing practices and building structures and capacity across all areas of the University. This Interim Report Card offers a reflection on that progress —highlighting key developments in this work.
Florence Glanfield
Vice-Provost, Indigenous Programming and Research
September 22, 2025
Importance of this Work
It has been ten years since the was issued and are on a journey to build the wise practices needed for this work. The 雅伎著 is also on this journey, learning what will best support Indigenous student outcomes, strengthen ethical research with Indigenous communities and build responsive, respectful, community engagement. Taking direction from Indigenous colleagues and community is a deep commitment, reinforcing the goal of co-developing changes to policies and practice. Indigenous teachings tell us that learning is a recursive journey, offering the opportunity to learn from one another with humility, building upon learnings with new understandings and new intent.
Universities have compelling reasons for engaging in the reconciliation journey, educating all students on Indigenous histories, knowledges, and contemporary realities. These reasons are grounded in the legal, professional, and curricular responsibilities institutions must fulfill as they prepare graduates for a changing societal and regulatory landscape. Professional accreditation bodies now require knowledge of Indigenous realities as part of licensure or program approval. This includes the Federation of Law Societies of Canada, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, teaching regulatory bodies, the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board and business and governance, which increasingly demand competency in Indigenous relations, public administration, and corporate training.
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), now part of Canadian law through the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (UNDA, 2021), is a sui generis statute that affirms the unique status and framework of UNDRIP within the Canadian legal context. Its enactment places new interpretive duties on professionals, public servants, and the public at large, requiring that laws and policies be understood and applied in a manner consistent with the rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Indigenous leadership—rooted in the inherent rights of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis — continues to drive a fundamental reset of laws and policies that were designed to erode those very rights. Through the strategic use of key policy instruments such as the UNDRIP, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action, and other frameworks, Indigenous Peoples are reasserting those inherent rights. These instruments collectively affirm obligations under both Canadian and international law, compelling governments, institutions, and sectors across society to uphold constitutionally protected rights, and co-develop approaches grounded in respect, reciprocity, and consent. In response, public bodies, private organizations, and academic institutions are revising policies, reforming practices, and building partnerships that reflect this shift toward recognition, restitution, and shared decision-making.
A growing body of research has demonstrated the profound economic, cultural, and social return on investment when Indigenous learners, leaders, and communities are meaningfully engaged as partners. A 2019 Conference Board of Canada report found that closing the Indigenous education gap alone could add $27.7 billion to Canada’s GDP annually — with $5.9 billion from Alberta alone[1] . As the fastest growing and most youthful demographic in Canada, an investment in Indigenous-focused work honours institutional responsibilities to reconciliation, participating in Indigenous-led resurgence, wellbeing and prosperity.
Reflections on the 雅伎著’s Journey
The 雅伎著’s threefold mandate—to Educate, to Research, and to Engage with Purpose—continues to shape the implementation of Braiding and in alignment with the complexity of this work, key strategic commitments have also emerged across diverse institutional plans, including Shape: A Strategic Plan of Impact 2023-33, Forward with Purpose: A Strategic Plan for Innovation 2023-33, Igniting Purpose: Student Experience Action Plan 2023–26, the People Strategy 2024–34, and A Culture of Care: 雅伎著’s Safety Action Plan (2023–25), among others. All explicitly reference or embed goals from Braiding to ensure Indigenous-focused strategic commitments are not siloed but central to institutional change. See these strategic commitments »
Critically, the necessary capacity to carry out the wide-ranging accountabilities outlined in Braiding Past, Present & Future has been put in place with Indigenous-focused positions, while structures, such as the Indigenous Research Strategies Task Force, established in December 2020, guide changes in university research ethics, protocols and services. Examples of these roles include the Indigenous Research Partners in the Office of the Vice-President, Research and Innovation, who lend capacity to emerging practices and Tri-Council funding compliance while also building opportunities for new funding and innovative collaboration. In the Colleges of Health Sciences, Natural and Applied Sciences, and Social Sciences and Humanities, an 雅伎著 Officer has been hired in each to support institutional commitments to Braiding Past, Present & Future but also to the college-level related work and strategic objectives.
Invitation
I invite each of you to explore the interactive Interim Report Card, to see developments and exemplars that have emerged over the reporting period and to consider what role you have in the efforts underway in your respective areas that support Indigenous-focused institutional goals and strategies.
The Interim Report Card focuses:
- primarily on work commenced between July 1, 2022 and December 31, 2024;
- only on those units/portfolios that have assigned accountabilities issued within this timeframe;
- on whether the conversation and/or work has begun on each strategy, rather than measuring completion (a note: the assigned years in the strategic plan was an expectation of when the work would begin);
- on benchmarking via a “Fully Complete / Progressing with Impact / In Progress / Little Progress” rubric; and,
- this interim report card is not comprehensive, but rather focuses on exemplars or developments that detail the structural, resourcing or other work across institutional spaces that move the goals and strategies of Braiding Past, Present & Future forward. A more fulsome report will follow in 2027 in collaboration with the diverse spaces across the University.
This interim report card reflects the collective work or journey of the 雅伎著 community — as Treaty people, as educators, as researchers, and as knowledge stewards — to build a future rooted in justice, opportunity and equity.