ABOUT US

SAGE was created to provide support for Aboriginal graduate students and student researchers working with Aboriginal communities.

Through our monthly gatherings, we hope to:
- Create a sense of shared experience by hosting Elder-led or faculty-led talking circles.
- Provide a platform for answering questions through information sessions such as how to write a thesis, community research protocols etc.
- Encourage and coordinate networking with professors, research teams, funding resources and other students working on similar projects.
- Create opportunities to meet one another across departments and faculties and from other universities in Ontario.

We also provide practical support by coordinating a series of skill-building workshops throughout the year. Examples of topics covered include grant writing, research skills, library navigation, enhancing technology skills, to name just a few.
Have an idea for an upcoming workshop? Get in touch. SAGE exists to help you succeed.

Background
The SAGE program is based on the successful New Zealand program called `MAI' (Maori And Indigenous Graduate Students Program). The MAI program aimed to develop (or have in process) 500 Maori Ph.D.s in five years - this program is well on the way to achieving that target comfortably. The MAI program was designed to develop a critical mass of Maori intellectual talent and change-makers that would also have a strong commitment and consciousness about being Maori and contributing to Maori development. In Canada, the SAGE program originated in B.C. and is a successful province-wide initiative. After recognizing the success of both programs, the Southern Ontario team was developed by Aboriginal faculty at the University of Toronto, and though independent of SAGE B.C. shares similar goals.

SAGE Ontario was created to provide support to Aboriginal, First Nations (status or non-status), Inuit, Métis and Indigenous communities by supporting the graduate students who are from these communities or who work with them as allies. It also assists students in the process of making the transition from undergraduate to graduate studies.

Non-Aboriginal students who are undertaking doctoral and masters projects with First Nations/ Indigenous topics and who also have the ongoing support of a First Nations, Aboriginal or Indigenous community are welcome to join SAGE.