SFU Indigenous Studies

Celebrating SFU’s Graduate Indigenous Convocation Medal Recipients This year, we are pleased to share that three of our 13 graduate medal recipients are Indigenous. Read more about them, their research, and this achievement.

“I am the first in my family to go to university, and now I am the first in my family to complete a bachelor's degree,” says Simon Fraser University Indigenous Studies alumnus Akira Iahtail (BA and Research Certificate, 2026), who hopes to inspire her younger siblings and cousins to follow the same path. “My advice to Indigenous students is not to limit yourself because we deserve to be here.”

Pursuing her education has helped Iahtail to embrace and reconnect with her Indigeneity. “Having a space to learn about Indigenous history throughout Turtle Island intrigued me. My courses have also supported me to learn about where my family comes from, and our connection to Attawapiskat.”

In 2026, Iahtail was selected as one of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Dean's Undergraduate Fellows — one of the faculty's highest honours for an undergraduate student. “I really enjoyed learning from different leaders in the Vancouver arts community,” she recalls.

Iahtail was also involved in the SFU First Nations, Metis, and Inuit Student Association and was the head lady dancer for the Honouring Indigenous Students Traditional Powwow in 2026, “I also researched powwows for one of my Indigenous Studies courses, and it made me realize how important gathering spaces and dancing itself are as a part of culture.”

While pursuing her degree, Iahtail brought awareness to Indigenous storytellers and leaders as a film programmer. “Whatever I was going through at school, it was usually reflected in the monthly series that I program with The Cinematheque,” says Iahtail of the educational power of film.

In her next chapter, Iahtail aspires to work with a non-profit or arts organization supporting Indigenous communities. “I would love to uplift Indigenous youth and show them how the arts can help us to love ourselves and our culture.”

Read the full story: https://www.sfu.ca/indg/news-events/news/2026/iahtail-alumni.html

SFU Alumni

Congratulations, Dr. Michaela McGuire!

When Michaela McGuire decided to return to school in 2016 to complete her undergraduate degree, her eyes were set on a future as a youth probation office. A decade later, she graduated with a PhD in Criminology, earning multiple accolades along the way, including this year’s Dean of Graduate Studies Convocation Medal.

Read more about her remarkable academic journey, rooted in community and Indigenous justice:
https://buff.ly/1dZJlfS

Listen to Zoe Todd, SFU INDG associate professor and Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Indigenous Governance and Freshwater Fish Futures, on 'Beyond Fires and Floods', an extended series on Indigenous climate narratives from MEDIA INDIGENA with Rick Harp.

https://mediaindigena.libsyn.com/beyond-fires-floods-pt-9-ep-374

More about the episode: Oceans cover some two-thirds of the planet; watersheds traverse and transcend human borders. Water is literally everywhere, yet that hasn’t stopped colonial governments from trying to control and contain its movements, along with the lives of those it sustains. From rivers and lakes, to oceans and ice, this session looks at how Indigenous narratives work to convey the upstream sources and downstream consequences of melting glaciers, rising sea levels, floods, and droughts, both for aquatic life and the Indigenous lifeways dependent on them. Meanwhile, with bodies like wide-ranging watersheds complicating any formulation of climate-related problems and solutions, what does that imply for the structure and scope of our storytelling?

MEDIA INDIGENA : Indigenous current affairs: Beyond Fires & Floods: Pt 9 (ep 374) ON THIS EPISODE: The ninth instalment of BFF: Beyond Fires & Floods—our on Indigenous climate narratives—presents the beginning of “Taking on Water,” the fourth session of our gathering's second day, encapsulated as follows: Oceans cover some two-thirds of the planet; watersheds traverse...

As we get ready to celebrate this year’s grads, you may notice that Convocation Mall now proudly displays the flags of the four Host Nations in which SFU’s Burnaby campus resides -- kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil Waututh).

Displaying Host Nation flags represents SFU’s commitment to Truth and Reconciliation and creating meaningful partnerships with Indigenous communities.

Learn more: https://www.sfu.ca/about/sfu-strategy/uphold-reconciliation.html

Congratulations to SFU INDG Term Lecture Dr. Michaela McGuire, the 2026 recipient of the Dean of Graduate Studies Convocation Medal from Faculty of Arts and Sciences!

Meet SFU’s 2026 Graduate Convocation Medalists! Celebrating excellence: https://www.sfu.ca/gradstudies/life-community/news-events/news/2026/graduate-convocation-medalists.html

Chelsey Geralda Armstrong, an assistant professor in Indigenous Studies at Simon Fraser University, has been awarded an Exploration grant by the New Frontiers in Research Fund ( ).

Armstrong, an archaeologist and historical ecologist, will lead the two-year project, titled “Reshaping Nature: Disentangling Colonial Myths from Indigenous Landscape Management.”

Working in partnership with Wilp Luutkuziiwus and Wilp ‘Wii K’aax, Armstrong and an interdisciplinary team of research collaborators will examine how long-term Gitxsan land-use practices and engineering shaped landscapes across the Skeena River watershed.

Story: https://www.sfu.ca/indg/news-events/news/2026/nfrf-armstrong.html

Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)

Congratulations to Dr. Amy Parent, Sigidimnak Nox̱s Ts’aawit, on receiving the 2026 YWCA BC Women of Distinction Award in the Reconciliation category.

This honour recognizes Dr. Parent’s longstanding leadership in Indigenous governance, education, rematriation and reconciliation. Guided by Indigenous values and principles, her work supports Indigenous self-determination and advances community-led approaches to research, policy and education.

Dr. Parent’s leadership has also contributed to national and international conversations on the return of Indigenous cultural treasures, including rematriation efforts connected to the historic return of the Ni’isjoohl Memorial Pole.

Read more: https://www.sfu.ca/education/news-events/2026/may-2026/dr--amy-parent-honoured-with-2026-ywca-woman-of-distinction-award.html

Read a new op-ed contributed by Michaela McGuire, SFU INDG term lecturer.