NorthThe Yellowhead Institute, an Indigenous-led think tank, wants to establish more of a presence across Dene and Inuit lands with research and writing on northern issues, including Indigenous governance, self-determination, land and resources, devolution, and modern treaty implementation. ‘Critical Indigenous voices in the North haven’t necessarily had a lot of platforms,’ says executive directorAvery Zingel · CBC News · Posted: Sep 23, 2025 4:46 PM EDT | Last Updated: September 23A snapshot of Yellowhead North’s existing scholarship, research and writing available online and focused on northern topics like Inuit food sovereignty, economic develpment, imperialism and resource regulation, northern agriculture, racism, and abolition. (Yellowhead Institute)The Yellowhead Institute, an Indigenous-led think tank, wants to establish more of a presence across Dene and Inuit lands with research and writing on northern issues, including Indigenous governance, self-determination, land and resources, devolution, and modern treaty implementation. The Toronto-based institute wants to see “more and diverse Northern voices” in discussions around Indigenous sovereignty, economy, land use, and social issues.Yellowhead Institute executive director Hayden King says it’s about changing the relationship between Indigenous peoples and non-Indigenous Canadians by offering up criticism and solutions. “We have conversations around modern treaty implementation, unresolved questions of racism and settlement in the North, devolution, the land, and resource regime,” King said. Historically, those discussions in Canada have often been dominated by non-Indigenous academics, lawyers, leaders and technical experts. The Yellowhead Institute wants to broaden those discussions by encouraging writers, especially emergent Northern Indigenous authors, to pitch ideas to its editorial team.King said that includes young people who want support and mentorship in the writing and editing process.”Critical Indigenous voices in the North haven’t necessarily had a lot of platforms to express those ideas” and challenge the status quo, he said.”Yellowhead can be a useful tool for people seeking to intervene in those discussions and provide a more community-based critical perspective that people can talk about, mobilize around and push for alternative solutions.”Hayden King is the executive director of the Yellowhead Institute, a First Nation-led research centre based at Toronto Metropolitan University. (Submitted by Hayden King)The Yellowhead Institute was founded in 2018 and is based at the Faculty of Arts at Toronto Metropolitan University. It publishes research reports, policy papers and educational resources on a variety of topics and issues. It’s funded by several private foundations that focus on social justice issues, including the Laidlaw Foundation and Inspirit Foundation. King argues that larger, well-funded and conservative-leaning think tanks like the Fraser Institute and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation tend to hold a “monopoly on the research” influencing Canadian legislative policy.He feels that Yellowhead North can play an important role especially as Canada looks to develop major resource projects in the North, by offering different voices and perspectives.Along with more research and writing about the North, Yellowhead hopes to one day have physical offices across the country.’Resources that people can use’Yellowhead is focused both on policy, and community programming. One of Yellowhead North’s first intiatives is to launch its Inuksiutit Toolkit, a Nunavut-based project that supports Inuit food systems and sovereignty.It includes information on Inuit food traditions, nutrition and preparation. These are “resources that people can use in their communities today,” King said.The Yellowhead Institute produced a treaty map to describe the context, negotiation process and terms of treaties in Canada. (Yellowhead Institute)Yellowhead has relationships with Northern governments, rights-based advocacy organizations, and has even advised members of Parliament on policy issues. Its reports on child welfare are presented in parliamentary and senate committees. King says a Yellowhead Institute “red paper,” which focuses on how Canada dispossesses Indigenous people of their lands, is widely relied upon by intellectual and community advocates asserting Indigenous jurisdiction.Writers at Yellowhead North have the potential to similarly influence northern policy, said King.Dr. Crystal Gail Fraser, a Gwichya Gwich’in associate professor of history and Native studies at the University of Alberta, is excited to hear of Yellowhead’s growing focus on northern issues. She said the institute emphasizes research, critical thought, and scholarship, and its writers are “extremely attentive” to relationships. Fraser says academic institutions and researchers are “slowly moving away from exploitative and extractive models,” and that the Yellowhead Institute leads by example with Indigenous-engaged approaches to research. She said the findings of its research are highly accessible, easily digestible, and available online without a paywall.Crystal Gail Fraser from the University of Alberta says Yellowhead’s attentive research methods and critical thinking are helpful to communities. (Submitted by Sarah Ens)Fraser points to the institute’s tracking of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 calls to action, and Yellowhead’s analysis of Canada’s relationship to Indigenous peoples during the COVID-19 pandemic. She said the institute’s published treaty map is an “innovative” project that engages questions of land use, treaty and Indigenous sovereignty.”They really focus on the issues of our people and of our histories in a way that is helpful to Indigenous Nations and communities,” said Fraser. ABOUT THE AUTHORAvery Zingel is a reporter with CBC North in Yellowknife. Email Avery at avery.zingel@cbc.ca.
Indigenous-led think tank looks to expand northern focus with Yellowhead North
