Jonathan Dewar

Dr. Jonathan Dewar is the Executive Director of the First Nations Information Governance Centre (FNIGC) in Ottawa. An incorporated non-profit operating with a special mandate from the Assembly of First Nations’ Chiefs in Assembly, FNIGC leads national-level research, including designing and implementing the longstanding and influential First Nations Regional Health Survey and other region-by-region national surveys, and provides OCAP® and information governance education and training. FNIGC envisions that every First Nation will achieve data sovereignty in alignment with its distinct worldview.

Jonathan has been recognized as a leader in healing and reconciliation and Indigenous health and well-being education, policy, and research for over a decade. He has published and spoken extensively on these subjects, with a specialization in the role of the arts in health, healing, and reconciliation, and has lectured nationally and internationally. From 2012-2016, Jonathan served as the first Director of the Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre and Special Advisor to the President at Algoma University, where he led research, education, curatorial, and community service programming, and taught courses in Anishinaabe Studies, Political Science, and Fine Arts. He continues to support the Shingwauk Residential School Survivors as the lead curator of a multi-phase historical exhibition called “Reclaiming Shingwauk Hall.” From 2007-2012, Jonathan served as Director of Research at the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, where he led the Foundation’s research and evaluation and knowledge translation efforts.

Jonathan is of mixed heritage, descended from Huron-Wendat, French-, and Scottish-Canadian grandparents with an academic background in Indigenous arts and literatures and Indigenous studies. He completed a doctorate in the School of Indigenous and Canadian Studies at Carleton University and holds an appointment as Adjunct Research Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology.