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Indigenous Student Museum Internship

The Indigenous Student Museum Internship (ISMI) program is a 16-week paid internship for First Nations, Métis and Inuit post-secondary students.

2024 applications now closed, thanks for applying.

Are you interested in developing valuable skills by working in one of Canada’s best museums? The Indigenous Student Museum Internship (ISMI) program may be for you.

Offered by FRAMS, the ISMI internship invites First Nations, Inuit and Métis post secondary students to spend a summer exploring a field that inspires them at the Royal Alberta Museum.

Whether it is archaeology or botany, communications or conservation, education, geology, Indigenous studies, invertebrate zoology, mammalogy, ornithology, palaeontology, or history—there is a field for you. If you’re enrolled in a college or university program, identify as First Nations, Inuit or Métis, and have related academic interests, this may be the right opportunity for you.

The ISMI program runs for 16 weeks and begins May 2024.

Application Deadline: Friday, March 8, 2024


  • Eligibility
    You are eligible to apply if:
    • You identify as First Nations, Inuit or Métis;
    • You are currently enrolled in a college or university program and you will be returning to your studies in fall 2024 or you are currently completing your final year; and
    • You have related academic interests to the Royal Alberta Museum.
  • Application Process
    To apply, complete the form at the Apply Now link below. In addition to completing the form, you will be asked to provide:
    • A cover letter outlining your field of study and why you would like a museum learning experience (in 500 words or less);
    • Your resume; and
    • Your most recent grade transcript.
    We thank everyone who applies but only those selected for an interview will be contacted.

About ISMI

FRAMS is proud to sponsor and administer the ISMI program, a 16-week paid internship for First Nations, Métis and Inuit post-secondary students. Interns work in their areas of study in the fields of cultural and natural heritage to gain valuable hands-on experience in a museum setting. Since the program’s inception in 1998, nearly 60 Indigenous post-secondary students have worked in numerous areas at the Royal Alberta Museum.

For nearly 25 years, this highly successful program has operated as a partnership between the Friends of Royal Alberta Museum Society and the Royal Alberta Museum.

ISMI has created new links between the museum and First Nations communities, and has enabled the museum to implement one of the key recommendations made by the landmark Task Force Report on Museums and First Peoples issued by the Assembly of First Nations and the Canadian Museums Association. The report identified the training of First Nations peoples “in all phases of museology” as a matter of critical importance.

The 16 weeks of intensive work in the Royal Alberta Museum can have a tangible, and profound, effect on a students life and career:

If you’re interested in working in a museum, you’re going to get so much out of the ISMI program. The environment is one where questions and discussions are encouraged. It’s a good learning experience that I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere else.

Maria (ISMI 2020)

Working at the museum in the Indigenous Studies department has connected me with my upbringing, to traditional teachings and knowledge of Indigenous crafts. I came away from the program with a better sense of direction about what I want to do and with more confidence.

Skye (ISMI 2019 and 2020)

I wanted to try and find the intersection between what I enjoy, what I’m good at and how I can help others. I found that intersection in the museum database work I have been able to do at RAM. Collecting the stories of others, organizing them in a consistent and repeatable way, and then helping to share those stories so everyone can learn from those experiences.

 Drew (ISMI 2022 and 2023)  

Questions?
Contact us: info@frams.ca

This unique opportunity for First Nations, Métis, and Inuit students is made possible by FRAMS as well as our program sponsors and supporters.

FRAMS gratefully thanks Peace Hills Insurance for their four-year funding commitment (beginning in 2021) in support of the ISMI program. 

FRAMS acknowledges with thanks the Royal Alberta Museum for supporting this program since its inception in 1998.