
April 3, 2025 marks UBC Giving Day—a 24-hour campus-wide fundraising event aimed at bringing together the community to maximize awareness, engagement, and fundraising for important causes across the University.
This UBC Giving Day, we encourage you to support the Indigenous Internship Program (IIP), a joint initiative of the Museum of Anthropology and six Indigenous institutional partners.

The IIP provides paid training for Indigenous interns, offering them customized and individualized opportunities to develop and expand their skills in cultural heritage work, while deepening connections to their cultural belongings, histories and knowledge. Interns can focus on areas that align with their personal and professional goals including collections management, conservation, library and archives, oral history language laboratory and curatorial work. It aims to strengthen Indigenous capacity in museums and to support communities’ self-determined heritage management initiatives. The internships are designed to be flexible in terms of schedule and focus, with training customized to support each intern’s current or future goals.
The Indigenous Internship Program is the only museum training program that provides flexible learning pathways and full financial support. These two components are key to reducing barriers experience by Indigenous people keen to explore and receive training in this career path. The flexibility and cultural sensitivity of the program to family and community commitments make this program a model of collaboration and support. This program is unique and necessary in a sector that is only beginning to understand the barriers it has created. — Ryan Hunt, Executive Director, BC Museums Association
The IIP helps build pathways for Indigenous-led stewardship in museums and beyond. This program is one way MOA is working to build positive, equitable relationships with Indigenous communities, and to implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The hands-on, technical knowledge, coupled with the friendly and supportive environment provided by MOA, gave me the confidence, support and direction I needed to further my professional career. In the three yeas since completing my internship, I have secured two roles in the cultural heritage sector. — Elsie Joe (Nłeʔkepmx)
Your donation today supports interns by covering wages, travel and accommodation—ensuring they can fully participate in this transformative experience. Since its launch in 2020, the IIP has welcomed 31 interns from 21 Nations, and has helped participants secure employment, pursue further education and bring new skills back to their home communities. With your support, this program can continue to uplift the next generation of Indigenous cultural leaders.
Banner image: Shoshannah Greene (Haida), Melvina Mack (Nuxalk) + Trevor Isaac (Kwakwaka’wakw)