CFUW Indigenous Women's Award (IWA)
Indigenous Women’s Award (IWA) 2025-2026
Value Range: $10,000 – $25,000 (Renewable)
In March 2015, the Education Council-Wolfville transferred the proceeds of their education fund to the CFUW Charitable Trust to establish a new award, the CFUW Indigenous Women’s Award (AWA).
This award was designed to honour Dr. Marion Elder Grant’s life-long commitment to education of women. Dr. Grant has an outstanding record of leadership as the 11th CFUW President (1949-52), CFUW Wolfville President, and Dean of Women and Professor of Psychology, Acadia University.
An applicant for the CFUW IWA will be considered eligible on the basis of the following criteria:
- Canadian Indigenous woman;
- Study in Canada;
- Holds or will hold an undergraduate university degree or equivalent before the CFUW IWA for which she applied is granted; and
- Must have applied to be a full-time student in any year of an eligible program at a recognized or accredited Canadian post-secondary degree-granting institution.
Eligible programs: are the academic programs for which a CFUW IWA Applicant may be studying. They include:
- Programs leading to a first degree in law – Bachelor of Laws (LLB); Juris Doctor (JD).
- Programs leading to the following first degrees in medicine – Medical Doctor (MD); Doctor of Optometry (OD).
- Programs leading to qualifying for a licence to practice as a Nurse Practitioner in the province or territory of the graduate’s choice.
- Programs leading to a Master’s degree in fields dealing with important Canadian Indigenous issues at the time the IWA is given as defined by the most recent Canadian report by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples.
2025-2026 Winner: Rachelle Grabarczyk
RACHELLE GRABARCZYK
Research/Thesis: “Advancing Metis Rights and Self Governance: Evaluating the Role of Modern Treaties in Strengthening Metis Communities.”
I am a proud citizen of Métis Nation–Saskatchewan and a 2026 Juris Doctor candidate at the Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia. I was awarded the John E. Sullivan Memorial Prize for achieving high academic standing in my law school’s Aboriginal and Treaty Rights course. I am currently completing a directed research paper on the social and legal construction of Métis identity, examining how Métis people have been defined in law, how we understand ourselves as Métis people, and how both framings continue to shape Métis self-governance and legal rights across Canada.
Alongside my legal studies, I work as a research assistant with the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia on the Linguistic Indicators of Framing Tool, a project focused on reducing the negative framing of Indigenous Peoples in academic literature.
