Indigenous Gender and Wellness Knowledge Sharing Grant
Phase 4

The Indigenous Gender and Wellness (IGW) Knowledge Sharing grant is the fourth phase of the IGW Initiative, co-led by CIHR's Institute of Gender and Health and Institute of Indigenous Peoples' Health.

The first phase of the IGW supported travel grants to attend a 2019 Idea Fair and Learning Circle. The second phase (2020) assisted Idea Fair attendees to continue building relationships with community members and partners through a one-year development grant. The third phase provided three years of Team Grant funding (2021-2024) for Indigenous-led teams to implement their ideas through research and action-oriented, community-based participatory projects aiming to improve wellness by, with, and for Indigenous People from a gendered perspective.

By focusing on Knowledge Sharing, this fourth funding opportunity ensures that research learnings about First Nations, Inuit and Métis Gender and Wellness effectively reach those who need to hear them – including First Nations, Inuit and Métis individuals, communities and community partners, clinicians, decision-makers, the research community, research funders, trainees, and the general public, among others.

The funding opportunity encourages the use of culturally relevant and/or arts-based methods to acknowledge and uphold Indigenous approaches to Knowledge Sharing in Gender and Wellness, and support work that is meaningful and culturally safe for First Nations, Inuit and/or Métis communities. In this context, wellness is broadly defined to encompass an Indigenous, holistic view of health.

Funds Available

Grants up to $200,000 for one year have been awarded.

Objectives

The specific objective(s) of this funding opportunity are to:

• Support Knowledge Sharing activities from ongoing or recently completed, community-engaged research projects that aim to improve the wellness of Indigenous Peoples in Canada from a gendered perspective, including how Indigenous concepts of gender affect wellness
• Promote the use of culturally relevant Knowledge Sharing activities and approaches and/or arts-based methods, among other possible Knowledge Sharing approaches, to share learnings about Indigenous Gender and Wellness
• Encourage strengths- and distinctions-based Knowledge Sharing that will build lasting relationships and improve shared learning and understanding, application, and opportunity to increase wellness for Indigenous individuals and communities using a gendered lens
• Bridge capacity of the next generation of Indigenous health researchers and community partners in Knowledge Sharing focused on Indigenous Gender and Wellness
• Support the evaluation of Knowledge Sharing activities and approaches, to support ongoing learning with the goal to improve the wellness of Indigenous Peoples in Canada from a gendered perspective, including how Indigenous concepts of gender affect wellness

Awardees

CIHR has invested $2.9 million through the Indigenous Gender and Wellness – Phase 4: Knowledge Sharing operating grant to support 15 Indigenous-led teams from across the country to deliver on the vision of sharing health research knowledge and learnings about First Nations, Inuit and Métis gender and wellness with Indigenous individuals and communities, clinicians, decision-makers, the research community, research funders, trainees, the public, and beyond.

These researchers are exploring a wide range of topics. The titles of the 15 funded grants include:

• Sharing the lessons of Lil'wat Cultural Re-Connection Classroom: Four Directions Storytelling and the 'I am the Missing Link' Workshops
• Psiw-ote ntolonapemok – Identities, genders, relationships, and realities: bringing together our knowledge on the needs, access to services, and aspirations of Indigenous peoples in cities in Quebec.
• Voicing Survivance: New Care Pathways for Sexual Assault Survivors & the Disruption of Chronic Pain Later in Life
• Sharing Knowledge Together: Creating Ethical, Community-Based Urban Indigenous for Women, Men and Gender-Diverse First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Community Members
• Ilagiingniq: Sharing Inuit Perinatal Knowledge With Kivallirmiut Women, Youth and Elders in Nunavut
• Living Teachings: Youth Voices for Indigenous Wellbeing
• Mobilizing community-based monitoring for Inuit wellness: gendered and generational roles redefining holistic goose health towards Inuit food sovereignty
• Listening to the words of the S-ul'hween (respected Elders): Our story, our identity, our well-being.
• Sharing Indigenous Knowledge through intergenerational mentorship: Strengthening cultural identity and community wellness among Indigenous boys and young men through relationships with Elders, Knowledge Holders, and each other
• Expanding the Circle of Sharing: Cree Values and Practices and the Health of Boys and Men
• Building Gender Diverse Communities (BGDC): Intergenerational Storytelling with Urban Indigenous 2SLGBTQQIA+ Youth, Knowledge Carriers, and Elders
• Weaving Stories of Gender: A Wabanaki-Labrador Indigenous Health Research Network Knowledge Sharing Initiative
• Sharing What We Hold Together
• Kotawêw: Sharing Indigenous HIV/STBBI Doula Knowledge through Digital Stories and Ceremony-Based Art Workshops
• Ceremony is gender-affirming care: Experiences of Two-Spirit youth and their kinship relations in inclusive rites of passage

Read the full list of awardees and the project abstracts.

Date modified:

2026-02-17