“At the Department of Family Medicine, we are committed to creating opportunities for recognizing, and valuing, Indigenous histories, perspectives and contemporary realities. The Department of Family Medicine welcomes and honours our Indigenous faculty members and students, Indigenous knowledge holders, current and future scholars, medicine people, health professionals and others. Our Graduate Programs are uniquely positioned to create opportunities for students to develop their understanding of Indigenous perspectives and the need for inclusive, integrated and culturally safe health and wellness systems. Via Indigenous Health courses, an Indigenous Health concentration that we are developing, and the indigenous health program we are launching in our department’s indigenous space, our Family Medicine graduate students truly have the opportunity to “honour the past and reconcile the future”, as called upon by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.”
Dr. Marion Dove, Department Chair
Learn more about Indigenous Health in our department here.
Indigenous Faculty in Family Medicine
Learn more about our distinguished Indigenous faculty members, Professor Richard Budgell and Professor Alex McComber, both of whom figure on our programs’ list of potential Supervisors.
Indigenous Curriculum in Family Medicine
We are honoured to offer two unique courses developed in our department specifically to respond to the histories, perspectives, and contexts of Indigenous and Inuit Peoples in Canada. In development, with a planned launch in Fall 2023, is a concentration in Indigenous Health, which will be housed under our MSc in Family Medicine.
*New in Winter 2022*
FMED 527 Inuit Health in Canadian Context (1 credit)
The course will explore the histories, perspectives and contemporary realities of Inuit health in the four regions of Inuit Nunangat (the Inuit homeland) with a particular focus on the Nunavik region of northern Quebec. The Inuit of Nunavik are the second-largest Inuit community in Canada, with a population of 11,000 living in 14 communities. Nunavik is part of the McGill Réseau universitaire intégré de santé et services sociaux.
FMED 506 Indigenous Perspectives Decolonizing Health Research (3 credits)
This course will explore the nature of Indigenous peoples' ways of understanding the world and cultural ways of knowing and doing, with a special focus on health and wellness. It will review the Canadian history of colonization, assimilation and genocide as well as the outcomes and impacts through the lens of Indigenous peoples. The course will review and discuss the gradual powershift as Indigenous scholars, students and communities increasingly participate, share and control the research agenda of their health and wellness.
Are you an Indigenous prospective graduate student?
Support and Funding
We invite Indigenous prospective graduate students to contact Isabelle Vedel (Program Director, MSc in Family Medicine), Tibor Schuster (Program Director, PhD in Family Medicine and Primary Care), or our Indigenous faculty members, Professor Richard Budgell or Professor Alex McComber to discuss how their academic trajectory aligns with our programs.
Consult what support is available to you at First Peoples’ House, whose mission is to provide First Nations, Inuit and Métis students attending McGill with a "home away from home", where they can find support and encouragement to succeed in their studies and remain connected to their culture.
The First Peoples’ House is committed to increasing the admission of Indigenous students and also serves as a residence for Indigenous Graduate students. First People’s House also has a compilation of funding available to Indigenous students at McGill. On this page, links to are available follow towards useful tools, and websites which offer financial aid and resources.