In order to respect the diversity of peoples and voices across the country, the Centre privileges community voices, listening to and respecting their perspectives and interests.
This diagram illustrates the primacy of communities in their relationships with NCCIE.
The groups connecting with communities for NCCIE have been the regional teams, comprised of a Regional Lead (or Co-Leads) and ‘research associates’ or ‘interviewers’ who have been youth, students, and community members. The location of each team is illustrated on the map. Regional teams reached out to communities, sought approvals, organized workshops, and collaborated together to gather stories about Indigenous education initiatives and to produce teaching resources.
NCCIE has been supported by a national team of academic leaders and community members, all with histories of involvement in Indigenous education. Regional Teams have been supported by administrative, logistical and technical assistance headquartered in Saskatchewan through First Nations University of Canada, (FNUniv), which is the Centre’s home.
FNUniv is an Indigenous-led and governed post-secondary institution. Project funding for the NCCIE was awarded to FNUniv in 2017 through a New Paths for Education grant program by Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC, now Department of Indigenous Services Canada, DISC).
FNUniv selected three organizations through a proposal process to facilitate and implement the Centre’s work. The Chanie Wenjack School for Indigenous Studies, Trent University, (Peterborough, ON) has been tasked with coordinating the work in the regions. Engineered Code (Regina, SK) has been the website development team, and Creative Fire (Saskatoon, SK) has provided administrative and logistical support to the regions. A Content Support Team at First Nations University of Canada has provided regional teams with technical support and has been tasked with taking care of the many stories gathered by the regional teams.