Turtle Island Jobs is a Canadian job board built specifically for Indigenous talent — First Nations, Métis, Inuit, and Indigenous youth — and the employers committed to inclusive hiring across every province and sector. This page exists because trust matters more than features: here is how we operate, what we commit to, and how we want to be told when we get something wrong.
Who runs this
Turtle Island Jobs is operated by a small team based in Canada. We are not an Indigenous-owned company, and we want to be honest about that from the start. We started this platform because we saw a real recruitment-infrastructure gap and wanted to build something useful — but we know that means our role is to support and amplify, not to lead the conversation about what Indigenous employment should look like.
Job seekers, students, training-program graduates, and community members never pay to use Turtle Island Jobs. There are no premium tiers for finding or applying to jobs — that side of the platform is and will remain free.
2. CHRA-aware posting form
The job-posting form actively flags requirements that may violate the Canadian Human Rights Act — for example, "Canadian experience required" language. We encourage employers to focus on transferable skills instead. Postings that ignore these warnings are still flagged in our admin review queue.
3. LMIA-compliant Canadian advertising
Postings on Turtle Island Jobs meet the federal advertising-window requirements set by Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) for LMIA submissions. Indigenous-owned employers needing this documentation can rely on the platform.
4. OCAP® principles guide our data choices
The First Nations principles of Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession (FNIGC) shape what data we collect and don't collect. We do not require race or Indigenous-identity disclosure from job seekers. Postings remain the property of the posting employer; account-level data remains accessible to the account holder. We do not sell user data or share it with non-platform third parties beyond what is operationally required (Stripe for payments, Supabase for storage).
5. UNDRIP-aligned cultural commitments
The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples — particularly Article 31 on cultural heritage and traditional knowledge — informs how we approach branding and content. Where we use Indigenous-related symbolism (the platform name itself, for one), we are open to feedback from Indigenous communities and committed to changing course where input shows we got it wrong.
6. Community input over polish
If you find something on Turtle Island Jobs that misrepresents your community, uses inappropriate language, or extracts value without giving back — please tell us. Email goes to a real human. We would rather change something quickly than defend a bad choice.
How we work with partner organizations
We are actively building partnerships with Indigenous-led organizations whose work supports the people Turtle Island Jobs is meant to serve. Where partnerships are formal, we acknowledge them publicly and link to those organizations on relevant landing pages. Where a partnership is informal — for example, a friendship centre asking members to share a link — we support that without requiring branding obligations.
Friendship centres — through NAFC and provincial associations (OFIFC, BCAAFC)
Skills and employment training programs (ISETs holders) — for graduate placement pipelines
Youth-focused Indigenous organizations — Indspire among others
What we do not do
We do not gate any job-seeker functionality behind payment.
We do not buy email lists or send unsolicited bulk email. All marketing email is CASL-compliant: explicit opt-in required, one-click unsubscribe, full sender identification.
We do not collect Indigenous-identity disclosure or band/treaty information from job seekers — that information belongs to the individual.
We do not republish or scrape Indigenous-managed content (community sites, news outlets, training program databases). Content reaches us through partnership or first-party submission.
We do not use AI to screen applicants on the employer's behalf, and our posting form requires employers to disclose their own AI use under Canadian transparency norms.
Got feedback? If you represent a community, organization, or program and want to discuss partnership, content, or a concern about how Turtle Island Jobs operates — please write to tijobs.ca@gmail.com. A real person reads it.