Canada’s First Nations people and business schools partner on leadership

Canada’s First Nations people have always emphasised the importance of living in harmony with nature. Now, with more recent western interest in environmental issues and community responsibility, they are starting to find common ground with the country’s universities.

Ghislain Picard, chief of the Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador, says: “Indigenous knowledge is about how we adapt to the environment, not the other way round. The land owns us, we don’t own the land.”

His sentiment is reflected in a pioneering series of First Nations Executive Education (FNEE) courses launched with HEC-Montreal in late 2021, developed in partnership with and jointly taught by indigenous leaders alongside the business school’s faculty.

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The lessons have a particular resonance as higher education institutions embrace sustainability and new approaches to management amid calls for greater recognition of — and reconciliation after — abuses of indigenous rights in North America.

For example, the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, a joint initiative between the University of Regina and the University of Saskatchewan, offers a bespoke two-day Indigenous Leadership Programme of executive education, in partnership with the First Nations University of Canada.

The University of British Columbia Sauder School of Business also provides a free four-month part-time Aboriginal Management Program on business concepts and fundamentals, currently to 15 participants each year who must be First Nation, Métis or Inuit Canadian Indigenous applicants.

And, at HEC Montreal, the First Nations Executive Education programme demonstrates a significant escalation in approach, focus and scale. It aims to train 1,000 people from the different indigenous communities over five years, underpinned by C$10mn in government funding. The programme offers typically 5-12 day training for groups including community chiefs, managers, entrepreneurs, economic leaders, and women.

Indigenous community leaders recognise a need to strengthen their skills in response to being granted greater budgets and authority by the Canadian government — for health, education and social services.

“We have the responsibilities, but we don’t have the tools to manage all these programmes,” explains Manon Jeannotte, former chief of the Micmac Nation of Gespeg, an alumna of the McGill-HEC Montreal Executive MBA programme, and co-founder of FNEE.

“This is about demonstrating economic reconciliation, with indigenous and non-indigenous people working together on project design,” says Jeannotte. “We presented the project to our chiefs’ table. But traditional higher education was not designed for the reality of First Nations.”

Ken Rock, who graduated from the same EMBA programme and is the other FNEE co-founder, agrees: “I’m in the first generation that was educated. First Nations are way behind on education, housing, employment and income. Many communities are isolated, which is a hurdle to going to university.”

Rock has spent much of his career as a legal adviser and negotiator for First Nations, dealing with mining, hydropower and other companies seeking access to indigenous lands. “One of our main goals is to make sure the communities have all [the] tools, power and knowledge on how to negotiate and defend interests of the community for leaders to bring more impact,” he says.

While he argues that some skills — such as finance — vary little with culture, others need to be shaped more distinctively for First Nations people. “We’re more human in our relationships with our brothers and sisters in the community,” he says. “We come from a nation of people which has survived because we have lived together and shared the values that are within us.”

There is also a difference in style. FNEE has its own identity, including a specially designed logo of a canoe moving forward through the water. The programme itself was developed with First Nation people, and its courses are jointly led by participants from their communities. Every programme is carefully designed to ensure a good mix from different indigenous groups, each with their own characteristics.

Jean-Marc Gauthier, director of development and FNEE’s special projects, says his academic colleagues on the faculty at HEC Montreal also had to adapt. “The programme is for and by First Nations, propelled by HEC. HEC professors were very scared to go into the class at first. They have to share the stage.”

Teaching materials, including case studies — such as one on inclusive and consultative governance (as opposed to hierarchical) — were developed about, and for, the community. In addition, the community controls access to them and does not allow them to be sold to other educators — reflecting their own thoughts on ownership of the concepts and scenarios that the materials contain.

FNEE classes start with an opening ceremony and a sharing circle between participants, and conclude with a closing ceremony. “We take more time to talk together,” says Jeannotte — in contrast to more traditional executive education courses. “It’s very important to have time to share experiences.”

“In 10 years, I think we’ll be very proud,” she says. “People have told us FNEE has changed their lives.” That includes her own: she was appointed lieutenant-governor for Quebec at the start of this year.

And Jeannotte is just one of 630 people already trained — putting FNEE well on track to achieve its goals.