JOURNAL

We are proud to share NUICC’s first journal publication, Stories Have Always Been Our Governance

Stories Have Always Been Our Governance is produced by NUICC’s Urban Indigenous Knowledge Mobilization Hub and is about sharing stories between coalitions and lifting up work being done within urban Indigenous communities across Canada.

Our first issue, Issue 1.0, focuses on the role of Indigenous stories in policy development, and showcases more than 12 articles and art pieces by and for urban Indigenous people in both English and French. In sharing these stories, the journal works to focus, amplify and disseminate the emergent knowledge, practices and futures for urban Indigenous people. In respect to providing resources to coalitions and local urban Indigenous community members and leaders, this issue features a 20-page bilingual toolkit for Bringing Indigenous Stories/‘Research’ into Policy (pg. 44).

As a means of introducing coalitions across Canada, we’ve included a map and contact directory, as well as a thorough and diverse scan of the victories, challenges, and needs of urban Indigenous coalitions and their communities.

Call for Submissions

If you are currently working on research related to knowledge, governance, practices and rights of urban Indigenous people, we warmly invite you to consider submitting your work and pitching ideas for the second issue of the journal (see guidelines included in the submission form). Stories Have Always Been Our Governance is widely distributed across the country, with expanded content on NUICC’s website and across social media channels. We offer competitive publication rates as well as editorial mentorship and support.

Submit your pieces for our second issue!

Building a Community
of Practice

The National Urban Indigenous Coalition Council’s Knowledge Mobilisation Hub (“The Hub”) is being built to support urban Indigenous coalitions across the country as we undertake and mobilize Indigenous knowledge to advance their policy and action priorities in community and beyond.

Collaborate

Interested to collaborate, meet with your peers and join a community of practice? Check our monthly online meetings of the Knowledge Hub Working Group.

To join, please email us a quick message about what you are working on for a meeting invite and Zoom link.

Gather

The Hub hosts a series of digital lectures, workshops, and discussions on a range of topics that engage Coalition members and the urban Indigenous research community on what Indigenous knowledge is and how we carry it into research, policy, and decision-making. By sharing our practices, successes, and challenges, we hope to foster research skills that lead to positive and meaningful benefits for urban Indigenous communities. Go to our Events page, or subscribe to our newsletter to get event updates.

Publish

Stories Have Always Been Our Governance showcases the work of NUICC’s Urban Indigenous Knowledge Mobilization Hub in order to amplify, focus and disseminate emergent knowledge, practices and futures for urban Indigenous people. This is an open call for stories, reports, papers, op-eds, songs, podcasts, and creative knowledge which we want to amplify! See guidelines included in the submission form.

Work With Us

NUICC is hiring for a Research Assistant position in Eastern Canada and in Western Canada who will advance the rights and visibility of the urban Indigenous population across Canada. Join us in this unique flexible part-time remote research assistant role supporting projects advancing public policy that addresses challenges for urban Indigenous peoples. We are also hiring a Research Assistant position at Simon Fraser University where we are delivering a series of briefs on ways urban Indigenous knowledge mobilisation is affecting policy in 16 Canadian cities.

Mobilise Indigenous Knowledge

Trends as reported by StatCan point to growing numbers of Indigenous People in Canada living in urban centres, with estimates of approximately 1,000,000 living off reserve today. Such statistics hide the fact that many Indigenous territories have been subsumed by urban areas. Approximately one-quarter of Indigenous people living in urban areas in the provinces are living in poverty. Urban organisations which provide support are therefore vital to the overall health of Indigenous Peoples, and to Canadian society. From this urban encroachment, Indigenous Peoples engaged with researchers more often. However, much of the results did not benefit our communities for a variety of reasons, including lack of access (either behind academic paywalls or language barriers) and that research agendas were created primarily to meet the needs of non-Indigenous stakeholders. As a contributor to NUICC’s Urban Indigenous Knowledge Mobilisation Journal: “Stories Have Always Been Our Governance,” you will be a part of changing the conversation about community-engaged research that will have a positive impact on countless urban Indigenous populations in Canada.

Distribution of your article on the Knowledge Hub

NUICC’s Indigenous Knowledge Mobilisation Hub exists to support urban Indigenous coalitions across Canada to undertake and mobilise knowledge in their communities to advance their policy and action priorities. The Hub enables members and their communities to come together in one place to learn about, share, and access resources, research, and tools that support their programming, services, reports, and policy recommendations. The Hub will support coalition members and the urban Indigenous populations they serve to build capacity with access to knowledge, and lift up the best community-engaged research that is impacting policy change. The Hub will also host resources and online programming that build on promising practices for culturally-located, trauma-informed, intersectional, and accessible research.

Submission Guidelines

For this pilot issue, we are open to your ideas, please pitch us! While academic style is acceptable, submissions are best written in plain language for a general readership. We invite you to connect with the experienced editors on our resource team who can assist you with article length, editorial mentorship, and support. Keep the length of your article between 800 to 3,000 words for publication in the print journal. If you wish to submit work that is over 3,000 words, or written in specific academic language, please do so, but the work may need to be abridged and edited for the print edition with support from our editors. Any submissions will be reviewed and permissions will be received before publishing. While we will pay publication fees, authors/content creators retain copyright of their work. Written submissions may be in Google Docs, Microsoft Word, or other open document format. Please contact us for details on visual submissions. If you are ready to submit material now, use this Google Form.

Get Urban Indigenous Knowledge Mobilisation Hub updates in your inbox.

Receive updates from the Urban Indigenous Knowledge Mobilization Hub research caucus. The Caucus will meet once per month and be a space made specifically for sharing questions, strategies, challenges, and successes in your research activities.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS | CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS

Stories Have Always Been Our Governance

Urban Indigenous Knowledge Mobilisation Journal

A program of the National Urban Indigenous Coalitions Council (NUICC)

The National Urban Indigenous Coalitions Council (NUICC) is a network of coalitions working to advance the rights and visibility of urban Indigenous People in 32 Canadian cities. NUICC is currently commissioning written submissions for papers and research to be published this Spring in its inaugural issue of our Urban Indigenous Knowledge Mobilisation Journal: “Stories Have Always Been Our Governance” from NUICC’s Indigenous Knowledge Mobilisation Hub.

We want to hear from university researchers (professors, graduate and undergrad students), journalists, and independent writers focused on urban Indigenous issues. NUICC’s Urban Indigenous Research Journal will be published with 10,000 copies of English and French editions and widely distributed in cities across Canada. We believe our readers are actively looking to build their knowledge with impactful research and engaging written and visual work. This is your opportunity to share your research related to issues of concern, rights of urban Indigenous Peoples, and urban governance. We welcome diverse forms of knowledge mobilisation, including storytelling, artmaking, journalism, and data analysis. We also encourage reflexive contributions exploring principles, methods and ethics of urban Indigenous research. We encourage you to get in touch with your ideas and/or submissions.