U of S hosts first national forum on building reconciliation
- Fraser Needham | November 19, 2015
Canadian post-secondary institutions are moving ahead on implementing recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the University of Saskatchewan is leading the way.
The U of S hosted a national “building reconciliation” forum, the first of its kind, November 18-19.
The forum attracted about 200 people from across Canada including 25 Aboriginal leaders and 14 presidents of post-secondary institutions.
The TRC interim report makes a number of recommendations regarding education including that public schools make a concerted effort to teach about the dark legacy of the residential school system in their curriculum.
Post-secondary institutions also have a strong role to play in terms of equipping their students with the proper tools and knowledge to create greater awareness about residential schools both within the school system and larger society.
Universities and colleges serve as research institutions as well where academics can delve further into some of the negative long-term effects of residential schools and how these effects may be remedied.
In recent years, Canadian post-secondary institutions have made a concerted effort to Indigenize campuses and make them much more welcoming places for Aboriginal students to thrive and succeed.
Universities across the country have also adopted a commitment to a shared set of 13 principles to enhance educational opportunities for Indigenous students.
Assembly of First Nations Chief Perry Bellegarde was one of the keynote speakers at the forum.
He says post-secondary institutions like the U of S have made a good start in terms of creating an environment for Aboriginal students to succeed but more needs to be done.
“They need to start Indigenizing their university campuses,” he says. “The Gordon Oakes Students’ Centre here is a start, Indigenizing all their faculties, making sure that the teachers coming out – because they’re the ones who are becoming teachers in the school systems and they are going to have to teach treaties – so the universities need to focus on that.”
Truth and Reconciliation Commission Chair Murray Sinclair was also one of the featured speakers.
He says a faulty education system created the current poor relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples and it will be education, both institutional and public, that will renew and improve this relationship.
However, it will take time.
“We need to understand that residential schools and the federal policy of inferiority of Indigenous people have been in place since Confederation and that’s well over seven generations,” Sinclair says. “And, it’s going to take us several generations to overcome that. Particularly if part of the answer is accepted to be that we need to revitalize culture, revitalize language and help young people to regain their sense of direction and self respect.”
Newly appointed University of Saskatchewan President Peter Stoicheff says the institution is currently examining ways in which the curriculum can be further Indigenized.
How this specifically plays out remains to be seen, he says.
“If that means there will be a single mandatory course that all students must take, we have to discuss that,” Stoicheff says. “You could imagine that there could actually be a backlash to something like that. If we’re talking about the fact that students have to be exposed in a meaningful way to what it means to be an Aboriginal person in this country whether it’s what the history of the treaties looks like, what the future for Aboriginal people looks like, whether that’s in the form of courses, exposure to elders, all sorts of experiential learning opportunities – we will be doing that at the University of Saskatchewan.”
At the building reconciliation forum, Stoicheff also announced the U of S and all 23 other post-secondary institutions in the province have made a commitment to work together to close the education gap for Aboriginal people in the province.
In the new year, the university will be holding a series of campus events with faculty, staff and students to see how the institution can move forward on reconciliation and ensure the U of S is a place where Aboriginal students feel welcome, can succeed and excel.
Across Canada, fewer than 10 per cent of Indigenous people have a university degree – about one-third of the national rate which is around 27 per cent.
Related story: Saskatchewan post-secondary leaders commit to closing the Aboriginal education gap