Educators and aboriginal leaders meet for national forum in Saskatoon

SASKATOON – Officials from various Canadian universities are in Saskatoon for a national forum discussing how a number of recommendations could facilitate aboriginal success on and off campus.

Roughly 180 educators and aboriginal leaders will take part in a number of sessions at the University of Saskatchewan (U of S) until Thursday. The goal is for institutions to address recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

“They need to start looking at indigenizing their university campuses … indigenizing all their faculties,” said Perry Bellegarde, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations.

“The universities have a big role to play in bringing about reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples in Canada,” he added.

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The TRC has put forward 94 calls to action that work to combat the long-standing effects of residential schools on Canada’s aboriginal population. Its full report is expected to be released next month.

“We’re here to hear those kinds of things and then try to figure out how universities can put them into action,” said U of S president Peter Stoicheff.

Justice Murray Sinclair, the chair of the TRC, urged those gathered Wednesday to keep pursuing their efforts after the conclusion of the event. He said post-secondary institutions should facilitate more discussion on aboriginal issues and revisit how aboriginal history is taught.

“What has been teaching to this point in time has not been accurate and has been very incomplete,” said Sinclair, after speaking to the forum.

“It’s important for the universities to begin to take control of what it is that they are doing and what they’ve been doing and recognize that they’re part of the solution, part of the work for reconciliation.”

University-wide curriculum changes to include aboriginal content in all disciplines would also go a far way in achieving the TRC’s goals, according to U of S Students’ Union (USSU) president Jack Saddelback.

“We shouldn’t just have everything siloed in indigenous studies; it should be across the board,” said Saddleback, who is of indigenous background.

“People are going to learn what indigenous knowledge is and they’re going to open to it, they’re going to understand the barriers that are there both internal for an indigenous person and external for an indigenous person.”