Awareness-raising workshops and trainings
For many years, non-Indigenous allies have been asking how to shift their privileges to better support Indigenous communities and take concrete steps towards (re)concili-ACTION.
In an attempt to answer these questions, we have compiled a list of organizations and training providers from the Indigenous sector offering workshops on what to do and what not to do when engaging in this anti-oppression work.
By examining the issues of power imbalances from a systemic perspective and clarifying the place of allies, alongside Indigenous communities, participants are invited to reflect on their positionalities, roles and impacts.
Organizations and training providers offering awareness-raising workshops
Mikana offers conferences, workshops, and training; each with its objective, pedagogical methodology, and duration. The workshops offered are divided into different levels of learning to allow participants to follow a progression.
Question periods are always included during the activity. Mikana wishes to create safe spaces for meeting and sharing. Dialogue, respect, and well-being are fundamental to the success of Mikana’s activities.
Wapikoni mobile offers workshops to raise awareness of First Nations realities in primary and secondary schools, CEGEPs, universities, community organizations and businesses. These workshops also provide an opportunity to discover and appreciate the different Indigenous cultures of the territory known today as Quebec.
The workshops cover history, geography, social issues and the daily lives of today’s Indigenous youth, between tradition and modernity. Participants are invited to comment on and discuss the films shown during the awareness-raising activities. These participatory workshops can also be adapted to a particular theme (residential school, tradition, youth, addiction, maternity, etc.).
First Nations Human Resources Development Commission of Quebec (FNHRDCQ)
The Commission provides valuable services to businesses and organizations looking to foster a more inclusive and culturally safe workplace. Through specialized training and awareness programs, FNHRDCQ helps non-Indigenous employers and teams better understand First Nations perspectives, workplace realities, and best practices for reconciliation in employment.
By equipping companies with the tools to engage meaningfully with Indigenous talent, FNHRDCQ plays a key role in bridging knowledge gaps and promoting lasting, positive change in the workforce.
KAIROS offers the KAIROS Blanket Exercise (KBE), an interactive and experiential workshop that explores the historic and contemporary relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada. Developed in collaboration with Indigenous Elders and educators, the exercise takes participants through key moments in history, encouraging reflection and dialogue.
Guided by trained facilitators, including Elders and Knowledge Keepers, the KBE engages participants emotionally and intellectually, fostering deeper understanding and empathy. For over 25 years, it has been delivered in schools, workplaces, government institutions, and community organizations across Canada and beyond.
Uashashkutan (French only)
Uashashkutuan works to offer training on Indigenous realities, as well as awareness-raising workshops, in a spirit of collaboration and togetherness. They are driven by the desire to raise awareness among the non-Indigenous population by approaching Indigenous experiences, issues and realities with humility and openness.
In addition to providing basic training in First Nations history, relationships and values, Uashashkutuan also offers training in First Nations health and wellness for integrated health and social services centers, integrated university health and social services centers, health teaching institutions or health and social services programs, non-profit organizations involved in health and social services, and businesses.
Université de Montréal (French only)
Université de Montréal offers training on Indigenous realities to staff, managers and decision-makers in public health, the health and social services network, in public, private or community practice, or in veterinary services.
The aim of this training is to enhance cultural competencies for working with Indigenous peoples and communities. It enables the ability to implement a decolonizing, reconciliatory and culturally safe approach, to question practices and become aware of prejudices and unconscious biases, to raise awareness of Indigenous philosophies, knowledge and cultures, and to explore best practices for co-creating a relevant service offer in community, off-community and urban settings.
Utapi Consultants (French only)
Utapi Consultants is an Indigenous social enterprise offering consulting, training and workshop services to build allies for Indigenous causes, with a view to reconciliation and the decolonization of thinking in the French-speaking population.
With a mission to support a process of decolonization by accompanying change among individuals, managers, students, teachers and professionals allied with the causes and rights of indigenous peoples, the Utapi approach is based on critical concepts such as anti-racism, cultural security and decolonization.
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