How Niigaan Sinclair is helping shape the future of Indigenous education.
Professor Niigaan Sinclair has spent his career opening doors and creating spaces for Indigenous voices.
An award-winning author, columnist, educator and public speaker, Sinclair is one of Canada's most influential voices on Indigenous issues; and is also helping shape generations of students at the University of Manitoba.
Earlier this year, Sinclair was named the 2025 Canadian Columnist of the Year at the National Newspaper Awards, the second time he has received the honour after first winning the award in 2018, his first year as a columnist with the Winnipeg Free Press. Last year, his bestselling book Wînipêk: Visions of Canada from an Indigenous Centre earned the 2024 Governor General's Literary Award for Non-Fiction, one of the country's most prestigious literary honours.
Yet despite national recognition, Sinclair measures success differently.
"Personally, the only role that really matters to me is being a dad," he says. "Well, and an uncle."
Those roles, rooted in teaching and relationship-building, have become a guiding philosophy for nearly everything he does.
Whether he's leading a university classroom, writing a newspaper column, advising community organizations or fostering public conversations about Reconciliation, Sinclair approaches his work with the same goal: creating space for others to succeed.
"I often tell my students: I try to teach you like an uncle would," he says. "Sometimes I will teach gently, sometimes I will teach bluntly – maybe even harshly – but everything I say is meant to encourage and empower you."
Since joining UM in 2012, Sinclair has taught thousands of students, often in large introductory courses and Indigenous Content Requirement (ICR) classes that bring Indigenous perspectives to students from every corner of the university.
Engineering students, business students, artists, scientists, future teachers and future health professionals have all passed through his classroom or encountered his teaching.
Former PhD student and UM graduate Adrienne Huard (Couchiching First Nation) has known Sinclair for nearly 25 years, first encountering him as their grade nine drama teacher.
"He was the first Indigenous teacher I’ve ever had, and it made me realize how important that representation is, especially for Indigenous students," says Huard. "When I reached out regarding the PhD program, he strongly recommended that I go for it, and I don’t think I’d be here without his encouragement."
Huard is now an assistant professor in Indigenous Studies at UM and hopes they will have the same impact on their students as Sinclair does with his.
Sinclair has also emerged as one of Canada's leading voices confronting residential school denialism, a movement that seeks to deny or downplay the documented history and harms of the residential school system. Drawing on years of research and advocacy, Sinclair is working to challenge misinformation and ensure that the experiences of Survivors remain at the centre of public conversations about truth and Reconciliation.
That work is reflected in Truth Before Reconciliation: Confronting Residential School Denialism, an upcoming collection co-edited by Sinclair and UM historian and Associate Professor Sean Carleton. Bringing together historians, educators, Survivors, archivists and researchers, the book examines how denialist narratives emerge, the damage they cause and the evidence that refutes them.
"It’s no coincidence that just as Canada starts to hear residential school Survivors and learn the truth about this country’s most painful and genocidal actions," Sinclair says, "a small – but loud – group of miseducated, misinformed and even nefarious individuals want to eliminate the facts and maintain the structures that have created an unbalanced and unfair society."
Sinclair is quick to point out that Indigenous academics often carry responsibilities that extend well beyond traditional expectations of teaching and research.
"Academics are usually graded on how they distance themselves from community, focusing on their individual conclusions while writing books and articles few will read," Sinclair points out. "For Indigenous scholars, our work is exactly the opposite."
Alongside his academic career, Sinclair serves as an Indigenous curator at The Forks, director of Indigenous relations for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and has trained and spoken to hundreds of thousands of teachers, educational administrators and private and public organizations such as the City of Toronto, Yellowknife District School Board, the British Columbia Teachers Federation, Fairmont Hotels, the Winnipeg Airports Authority and the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada.
Dean of Arts Heidi Marx says Sinclair's commitment to relationships has helped strengthen connections between the university and Indigenous communities across Manitoba and Canada.
"Niigaan is a relationship builder. He is always out there in the community giving talks and connecting," she says. "This work has created trust, much needed trust between Indigenous community members and our institution, trust that we now have to honour and nurture."
She notes that Indigenous student enrolment in the Faculty of Arts continues to grow each year, something she believes is closely connected to the visibility and credibility Sinclair has built through his community-engaged work.
While teaching remains central to his identity, Sinclair says he is most proud of his writing.
Through his award-winning column, regular media commentary on CBC and APTN and national bestselling book, Wînipêk: Visions of Canada from an Indigenous Centre, he has helped bring important conversations to audiences across Canada.
Along with Truth Before Reconciliation: Confronting Residential School Denialism, which is due to be released later this month, Sinclair and Carleton are also working on A Knock on the Door: The Essential Comic Book History of the Residential School System from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. This comic book adaptation combines visual storytelling with the TRC's authoritative historical understanding of the system's creation, development and ongoing legacy.
"A problem is that, now we are ten years after the TRC, few are reading the (admittedly lengthy) final report. Formatting the report into a graphic story will hopefully inspire that next generation."
As debates about Canada's colonial history continue to unfold, Sinclair sees truth-telling as both an academic responsibility and a public one. His work reinforces the message that reconciliation cannot move forward without an honest understanding of the past, and that defending the truth of Survivors' experiences remains essential to building a more just future.
For Marx, that ability to move between academia and public life is one of the most distinctive aspects of Sinclair's career. Rather than following a traditional academic path, he has built a platform that connects scholarship, journalism and community engagement.
"He's really charted his own course," Marx says. "That was not always easy. It took great courage and determination. But we can see clearly from all of the accolades, honours and awards he's received for his work that it was the right choice."
The honour that remains closest to his heart, however, is the recognition he shared with his father, the late Murray Sinclair.
The pair received national recognition together through Maclean's, an experience Sinclair describes as deeply personal.
"You always want to make your dad proud," he says.
In some cultures of the world, stepping away from the history of one’s parents is encouraged. As Sinclair reminds, though, this is not what Indigenous peoples seek to do.
"When I introduce myself traditionally, I directly state I am my father’s son and the grandson of my entire ancestral line," Sinclair says. "I want everyone to know where my teachings come from."
That understanding of legacy extends beyond family.
Sinclair often speaks about the Indigenous leaders and activists who opened doors for those who followed.
"My dad and those of his generation were the first Indigenous peoples in nearly every room they walked in," Sinclair says. "When you are a first, your job isn’t to change the room but open the door for a critical mass to come in. Together, that’s how long-lasting and real change happens."
Because of the doors earlier generations worked so hard to open, Sinclair says he now sees reasons for hope everywhere.
He points to young, growing Indigenous representation across public life, from universities and courts to governments, professions and cultural institutions. He sees evidence of progress in his students and his daughter's generation, who are imagining futures never considered before.
"They’re creating whole new rooms," says Sinclair.
Sinclair believes the possibilities for the next chapter are only expanding.
His students, he says, remind him of that every day. And they are the reason he remains hopeful.
"I always say to students, you're a miracle. There are a billion reasons for you not to be here. But yet, you are. You have overcome it all."
Truth Before Reconciliation: Confronting Residential School Denialism will be officially released with a book launch event at McNally Robinson Booksellers on Sept. 17, 2026, at 7 p.m.
At UM, we are working together to advance reconciliation for transformative change, which is among the commitments you’ll find in MomentUM: Leading change together, the University of Manitoba’s 2024–2029 strategic plan.
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