In a powerful step toward reconciliation, some universities continue to provide a welcoming space for Indigenous students to heal, gather, and thrive.
Concordia University’s Kaié:ri Nikawerá:ke Indigenous Bridging Program created an opportunity for Indigenous students to pursue studies without the standard admission requirements at Concordia.
Launched in 2023, the program prepares students to enter the following degree programs: Engineering, Commerce, Bachelor of Science, and two streams of Psychology, then, in fall 2025, the program will include Journalism.
According to Saba Din, the Indigenous Bridging Program coordinator, the program has three main goals such as providing access to undergraduate programs for Indigenous students, supporting the transition into university life and the city environment, and building a strong Indigenous student community.
“Whether it’s academic success, personal or professional growth, we want to make sure that our students are immersed in a network of supports,” she explained.
In the bridging program students take prerequisite courses aligned with their chosen degree, along with writing, skill development, and a weekly seminar during one-and-half year to accommodate additional coursework, Din said.
In her opinion, there is no need “to force students to stay on a path if it doesn’t work for them”, so some flexibility built into the program structure.
”If they started in Bachelor of Engineering, but they really like the chemistry or a different science course and they want to switch into the Bachelor of Science,” she said, “We do have a process to support students and making that kind of change.”
The program offers academic tutoring and access to career counselors, and mentorship through the Otsenhákta Student Centre.
“We want to check with them on a weekly basis to see that they’re okay,” Din said.
In her opinion, students’ financial burden can interfere with their studies, so the program provides a needs-based bursary, along with a tuition waiver.
“We also offer an achievement award for students who successfully complete the bridging program,” Din said, “There’s a variety of different funding sources that are available to all of our Indigenous students.”
“We also connected with the Cree school board in Quebec,” she said, “As we try to support our students and to understand how their funding works, so that we can properly advise the Cree students in the bridging program on the different options.”
She believes cultural engagement is another vital element. Through the Otsenhákta Student Centre, students take part in workshops like moccasin-making, ribbon shirt and skirt creation, and sharing circles.
“We are also trying to integrate different cultural and traditional programming to highlight Indigenous knowledges and to engage in land-based learning that takes place in Kahnawake, which is our local community,” she said.
This program is rooted in national and institutional efforts toward reconciliation “to highlight this need for supporting Indigenous students,” she said.
While the program’s growth is promising, she believes challenges remain around scheduling and funding.
”We try to follow a cohort model, as much as possible,” said Din, “So we’ve come across some scheduling challenges trying to make sure that students are in the same classes together.”
Looking ahead, the team hopes to expand the program’s reach even further, eventually opening access to all undergraduate degrees at Concordia, she added. In a meaningful act of reconciliation, Bishop’s University has transformed a once-condemned theology Divinity House into Kwigw8mna, a new Indigenous student support center, that acknowledges the institution’s colonial past while fostering a more inclusive future.
Last month, over 200 people attended the opening ceremony of Kwigw8mna, meaning “our house and yours” in Abenaki, a space where Indigenous students gather, learn, and find support.
Vicky Boldo, Associate Director of Indigenous Initiatives, said that while no direct ties to residential schools have been confirmed, the university recognizes a likely indirect connection.
According to her, today Kwigw8mna features an Indigenous study space with secure access, a private group workroom, a large gathering space with a full kitchen, an office for student interns, a conference room, and a two-bedroom apartment for the elders or family members.“Indigenous faculty members, Associate professors and contractor Indigenous professors will have priority on those spaces,” Boldo said, “We could have rotation of elders from communities, Indigenous scholars, musicians, scientists, delegates, who come to visit the university.”
Kwigw8mna also serves as a shared space for students from multiple post-secondary institutions in the region such as Champlain College, fostering early connections to university life, she said.
Kwigw8mna plans to create a garden and a small vegetable and herb patch closer to the building, she said, “there’s no limit, it’s just limitations in funding.”
”We just received notification that funding for Indigenous student support and post-secondary has been cut,” she said, “We’ll have to go to other sources to compensate for that loss.”Alicia Moore-Iserhoff, a Bishop’s alumna who is Cree-Atikamekw, returned for the opening and was overwhelmed by the transformation of the building.
“I think it’s very important because it’s one of the goals of the truth and reconciliation calls to action,” she said, “Bishop’s have started to act on that. Just having the building in place provides like a safe space for Indigenous students.”
Until now, she explained, Indigenous students often had to rely on a chance encounter to find community, they had just a library to meet.
“We still were able to find each other,” Moore-Iserhoff said, “Whether I was Cree, or my friends were Abenaki, or from other nations, we found each other, but now, the space will only help make that easier.”
“Having one spot for Indigenous students to feel like their home, to feel like they can connect with one another, to find each other is very important,” she continues.The opening ceremony, started with drumming from the Odanak group, for a historical first time in place of the university, was deeply emotional for Moore-Iserhoff.
”They sung a chant that represented symbolic to the opening of Kwigw8mna,” she recalled, “Like, it meant something.”
She thinks the transformation of Divinity House, once tied to Canada’s residential school system, represents a vital act of institutional accountability and healing.