Three Voices: on Reconciliation, and Indigenous Engagement

I am doing quite well, thanks for asking! How does that saying go again?

….everyday above ground is a good one, right?

Seraphine: 

Great, just in the grind of reviewing my literature review, which can sometimes be a bottomless pit of knowledge, especially when we discuss Indigenous rights.

Adina:

Great!

I come from Treaty 6 territory, back in Saskatchewan. My background is Northern European and Red River Metis (Cree, Ojibway, and Scottish). I have been at UBC for six years now. Initially I came here as a student, but I have been working as a program manager at Ch’nook with UBC Sauder since January of this year.

Seraphine:

I am Sto:lo and Dakelh First Nations near the community of Fort St. James. I am from a hereditary traditional Dakelh territory known as the Maiyoo Keyoh.

Adina:

I’m from the Squamish Nation and I also descend from the ‘Namgis Kwakwaka’wakw peoples from Alert Bay, B.C. I grew up on Xwemelch’stn, or the Capilano Reserve, in what is now more commonly known as West Vancouver.

I always knew that I wanted to be a UBC student; I spent a lot of time at the UBC Longhouse during my childhood and youth. However, I came a bit earlier than expected because I was attracted to the First Nations and Indigenous Studies program (FNIS) in the Faculty of Arts. I transferred to UBC after doing one year of sciences at Capilano University, and although I planned on transferring into sciences at UBC in my third year, I made the switch to FNIS in my second year. It’s the best choice I’ve made as a student!

To me, reconciliation is about healing and moving forward – it is about making things right and creating hope for a different Canada. This really requires a huge, collective societal shift. I think that shift is definitely starting to be felt in many ways, but sometimes it feels hard to understand how true reconciliation can take place when Indigenous peoples are still subject to countless injustices related to the imposition of ongoing colonialism; how does reconciliation take place on stolen land?  It is a complicated word, but I like the collective spirit of reconciliation and that there are so many leaders with clear and sincere intentions championing the movement.

Seraphine:

That relations between settlers and Indigenous peoples would be restored to a true “nation to nation” relationship. That our agreements would be honoured in good faith. That our Institutions be enhanced to teach the correct history on the subject of the treatment of Native peoples, aiding to dispel common stereotypes against First Nations, and that all efforts to “reconcile” by governments and institutions would be done with a real effort alongside Native peoples.

Adina:

I truly believe in the spirit of reconciliation, but I think it requires more willful participation of settler Canadians in order for it to be a meaningful process. As non-Indigenous Canadians continue to work towards better understanding and acknowledging the history of this place and the intergenerational effects that continue to impact many Indigenous peoples in Canada, as well as engaging with the truths that Indigenous peoples are continually sharing, I hope that they continue to recognize the important roles that they each can play in helping all of us move forward in a good way. There are so many components to reconciliation, but these are just some of my thoughts in a general sense. There is a lot of good work being done by Indigenous peoples and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada and at UBC, and I’m hopeful that the outcomes of all this work will be positive!

I think there are some great initiatives taking place at UBC and I have met many wonderful people who are working hard to advocate for change and push for progress across campus. That being said, I feel that most public educational institutions could be doing more. I think stricter policies coming from a higher level at universities would instigate societal change much faster. Education and awareness are key in the reconciliation process; I believe that every individual whether studying or working at a university in Canada, should be required to learn about Indigenous peoples, perspectives and worldviews. While I am optimistic about the direction UBC is heading in and the commitments to reconciliation that have been made, I continue to sense a largely uninformed campus community when it comes to Indigenous issues and I find this troubling.

Seraphine:

This is a good question as several have been good with intent, but sometimes events have missed the mark and fallen short of my expectations. In my own experience, the Reconciliation Pole event, and the months leading up to the raising could have been utilized for educational purposes on why the pole signifies the loss of our families through institutional violence of a school, on school grounds. Acts such as this demonstrates opportunities for reconciliation apart from just the pole itself. Universities tend to showcase how much money they put into statues, signs, and poles, but may often have little follow up and affirmative action.

Another point of frustration that I and others have seen as an act of reconciliation here at UBC has been the Centre for Dialogue for Residential School. UBC is considered a world-class university, yet the centre has not even been in operation since its opening earlier this year.  Additionally, the school should take advantage of important commemorative days to utilize the space for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’s (MMIW) Vigils, Orange shirt day events, or general touring for our students and outlying communities.

Most importantly UBC needs to take seriously the recommendations outlined by the Truth and Reconciliations Calls to Action (TRC) as further solidified in our Indigenous strategic plan to extend the contextual knowledge of Indigenous peoples into all programs. The encompassing of Indigenous curricula is an action marked by the true intent of reconciliations towards a “changing relationship” for the better, education is the key to our future relationships. Much of my observations these past years, has been that there is no sense of urgency in general on implementation, or passed off as a problem for Indigenous peoples or that of future faculty and staff. Reconciliation is our efforts together, not the placement of burden on Indigenous peoples. That being said, many of the events hosted by the UBC Longhouse, have been very inspiring and modelled the commitments of reconciliation.

Adina:

I think that just during my time as a UBC student there have been a lot of great things that have happened at UBC. The development and opening of the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre and the raising of Reconciliation Pole are just a couple of the larger initiatives that I’ve been proud to witness as a student here in the last few years. There have certainly been many people involved to bring these phenomenal spaces to campus, and I particularly commend all of the Indigenous faculty, staff, students, and community members who have really led the work that’s resulted in their reality.

Now that these new spaces and initiatives are here at UBC, it’s important that we continue to engage with them and continually reflect on why they are here. How we can learn from them and contribute to the ongoing reconciliation process that is happening here?

Broadly speaking, I think some important aspects of good engagement would be doing your background research before engaging with a community, ensuring you’re working towards building trusting and respectful (business) relationships that are mutually beneficial and being flexible and adaptive – understanding that community priorities and timelines are dynamic.

Seraphine:

Good engagement looks at the process from the ground up. In other words, we must be critical of our position and our intents, positionality is everything. Understanding knowledge representation, and that our communities are protected, and their knowledge is not being taken advantage of by white tower empire builders. Engagement goes beyond our due diligence within, for instance, BREB [Behavioural Research Ethics Board] and to prioritize the proper protocols and terms established by the community.  Also, to be clear [as to] the expected objectives with the community, transparency from the beginning, to not mislead the community in any way [in terms of] institutional contributions to the First Nations. Good engagement also means to do your homework… who, what, why and when. Who is the group you are intending to engage with, what is the cultural outline of how they operate, such as their form of governance and protocols. Also, how are we even defining “communities”, is this through Indian Act bands, through systems of traditional organization or through urban centres. Again, we must do our homework and understand possible implications that our engagement may have on the group, [as] ignorance or assumptions can cause problems for the communities further down the road.

Adina:

I think that it’s really important to engage the voices, knowledge, and perspectives of the Indigenous peoples and communities that are involved with the work. There can be work done with Indigenous peoples and communities, but if the final outcome doesn’t involve or center the work that Indigenous peoples are putting into it, then is the work as beneficial to the involved Indigenous peoples and communities as it potentially could be? I think that this is an important thing to reflect on when engaging with Indigenous communities.

I think that for those who work for the university, the demands and incentives put in place for their positions will often conflict with what good community engagement would look like. The university rewards systems for faculty does not seem to be congruent with community based research. Timelines can be stressful to balance, another example would be the pressure to publish research vs. collaborating on meaningful research projects with communities who do not wish to publish the research. 

Seraphine:

For me, it has been timelines. You must be clear and strong on the objectives of research and the big picture from the outset with your committee. The timeline and expectations to maintain does not always account for personal and academic challenges. Especially when working with Indigenous peoples, as stated before, circumstances for Indigenous peoples may often lead them to not be in the best position to be fully engaged with the researcher’s objectives. Plans change, and people need to be flexible and understanding to this. Also, to understand how you may or may not contribute to the community in a positive way. For instance, a project I began [during] my masters had to be dropped at my own discretion, since it was not seen by some to be helpful for the current political climate and could have potentially brought more internal divide. Timelines and pressures to uphold them may not always work for you.

Adina:

Well, I’m a very novice student researcher, however, I think that one of the current barriers I’m noticing as I begin to do more research is the lack of time that I believe is needed in order to build meaningful relationships with the communities that we may potentially work with as student researchers. I think that genuine and meaningful relationships are at the core of engaging with Indigenous communities for anything, and time is an important factor in creating those relationships, particularly for research.