A new series of educational guides has been launched to provide post-secondary staff members with the tools to help incorporate Indigenization and reconciliation into curriculum and campus life, and there’s a Camosun connection to it.
The six-book series, titled Pulling Together: A Guide for Indigenization of Post-Secondary Education Institutions, was a collaborative project between the Ministry of Advanced Education, Skills and Training; BCcampus; and a large group of Indigenous writers across BC. At the helm of the project was Camosun Indigenization coordinator Dianne Biin.
Biin says it’s important for non-Indigenous students to approach Indigenization with openness and curiosity.
“One of the main messages in the guides is to always come at this with curiosity and to know that you don’t have the answers—and most of us, we don’t have the answers. There’s not ‘one way’ to do this right, and that we have to unlearn a lot of what we’ve learned along the way,” says Biin. “And so, it’s being open to that curiosity. It’s having that genuine appreciation and not coming in as trying to fix something. That it’s just becoming more comfortable with how you see the world, and how you interact with the world, and how you interact with your colleagues and peers.”
Camosun College Student Society First Nations director Ren Louie says the Indigenization guides are powerful steps toward reconciliation.
“They’ll do a lot for Indigenous students, and students as a whole,” says Louie. “Indigenous people have a rough relationship with western educational institutions, but I think this new guideline will help us into a better future where we can walk, in a proper way, to the same destination together.”
Biin took a break from her position at the college to tackle the role of the guide’s project manager. She was officially offered the position in late August 2016, which presented its own unique challenges.
“So then, I had two weeks here to find replacement instructors because I was all ready to teach for the fall,” says Biin. “So, I had to find replacement instructors, brief them on all the content. All of my workload had to then be transferred onto somebody else—I had to do all of that process. Then I had to go over to BCcampus to do the project.”
Eyēʔ Sqȃ’lewen director Janice Simcoe says she was absolutely supportive of Biin’s decision to take on the project.
“I was thrilled to know that she was moving towards that,” says Simcoe, who was part of the hiring committee (although not of the hiring of Biin herself).
As hectic as her transition was, Biin, who has been involved in Indigenization at the college since 2009, says the guides are a passion project.
“I’m a product of going through the post-secondary system here in BC in spaces that weren’t friendly for Indigenous students,” says Biin. “The work that Eyēʔ Sqȃ’lewen has done here for the past two decades is amazing, and they’ve created such a welcoming environment that it was time for us to start sharing that model outwards. And out of the 25 post-secondaries here in the province, not everybody is Indigenizing because they don’t have the capacity, or they can’t keep the resources. So, doing the guides was just a great opportunity to just start talking about what it takes to do this type of work in the institutions: what are the processes, what are the practices that need to be recognized and then changed?”
According to Biin, Camosun is in a realm of ebbs and flows when it comes to its success with Indigenization. Despite the college being praised and awarded for Indigenization, there is always more work to be done.
“There are parts of the college that are exemplary in practice, and there are parts of the college that need to start looking at this more seriously, and the guides give them that open door to kind of come in and start exploring in their own departments, in their own units: what are we doing, are we doing it okay, and what else can we do?” says Biin. “So, the guides are a nice set of benchmarks for a lot of people to kind of see what’s out there, what’s being done, and what can we do here.”
The guides are set to help post-secondary staff who are working with Indigenous content as well as staff who are lacking the content.
“It’s for both,” explains Biin. “And it’s not just teachers. It’s support staff, it’s folks working in student services, it’s people who are doing research in their departments and working with Indigenous communities. It’s for advisors, it’s for counsellors, it’s for librarians. It’s for all staff across the college, including custodians and physical services.”
Bringing Indigenization to all aspects of the college was one of the fun parts of the job for Biin.
“It’s for sure focusing on Indigenous students and creating space for them here in the institution,” she says, “but it’s also providing opportunity for non-Indigenous students to start learning our shared history, and start figuring out ‘what are these new working relationships? And how do I, now that I’ve graduated from Camosun and I’m out in industry, how do I carry this forward in what I do?’”
Only one of the guides is for instructors, with the remaining five dedicated to other roles within post-secondary institutions, with the goal of bringing Indigenization across the board. This is one of the reasons that Simcoe believes the modules of the guides are important.
“Instructors, curriculum developers, student services providers, researchers, and leaders are all for different functions within the college,” explains Simcoe. “I’m really excited for all of those functions to have access to some learning that was developed specifically for their field.”
Simcoe says that these guides are a tool to further meet the needs and goals of Indigenization, which, she says, is completely about students.
“The first [goal of Indigenization at the college] is for Indigenous students to see themselves reflected in their educational experience at Camosun College,” says Simcoe. “The second goal is for non-Indigenous students to come away from Camosun knowing more, understanding more, and being better prepared to be good neighbours and partners to Indigenous people.”
Biin told the over 50 writers working on the guides a story of coming together to help direct their work on the project.
“The story is of pulling together in a canoe,” explains Biin. “And together in that canoe we are navigating the levels of Indigenization, from people who are genuinely curious to those who are resisting the process, and how do we work within those realms. And the metaphor for the canoe and the pulling together is what kept us going.”
Louie says the guides will help Indigenize parts of academia that may not even have previously been considered as areas that were possible to Indigenize.
“It will definitely reshape the educational landscape of the future,” he says.
With files from Adam Marsh, student editor.