Indigenous Botany Collection Technician
Your place at the Museum
We value diversity and believe we benefit from working in a place where everyone feels included and where the unique qualities and strengths inherent in a diverse workforce are combined. You have a place at the Museum!
This position is designated for an Indigenous person, and we welcome applications from Indigenous persons who may also identify as a member of one or more other equity seeking groups (for e.g. visible minorities, disabled, 2SLGBTQIA+, religious or cultural minority).
At this point in carefully and respectfully increasing Indigenous influence on and within the Canadian Museum of Nature, we have partnered with an Indigenous organization for this recruitment process. We are collaborating at all stages – from crafting the job description, to posting the opportunity, to interviews and selection – to ensure that applicants’ Indigenous perspectives will be recognized and heard.
We will also work closely with the selected applicant to determine the support the Museum will provide to ensure that our new team member is included within the collection team and our larger Museum community, and that they can maintain connections with Indigenous people and their communities as part of their employment experience.
For more information regarding this opportunity, please contact: Jennifer Doubt (jdoubt@nature.ca)
About the position
As a growing public collection of over one million preserved specimens of plants, lichens and algae, collected between 1766 and the present day, the National Herbarium of Canada maintains a significant part of the specimen record, or physical evidence, through which Canada’s changing natural history is documented and from which many stories have yet to be told, including stories from Indigenous perspectives.
Duties
Within this “botanical library”, the Indigenous Botany Collections Technician works at the hub of a diverse community of collections and research staff, students, interns, research associates, volunteers, and guests to build, preserve, and share the collection as productively and inclusively as possible.
Handling a dynamic array of concurrent projects, from meticulous repairs of fragile objects, to
preparing specimen loans, to providing young visitors with memorable first introductions to botany, the Indigenous Botany Collections Technician maintains excellent standards of organization, conservation, and documentation, and responds to changing needs and priorities. They comfortably interact with herbarium users representing public, government and academic sectors, and work both independently and in a wide array of teams.
The Indigenous Botany Collections Technician is a museum professional in a team that enables diverse education and research. They contribute an Indigenous perspective regarding plants and/or lichens and/or algae - and nature - to all activities that develop, preserve, and mobilize the National Herbarium of Canada at the Canadian Museum of Nature
