Over the past several years, Nexus has covered Camosun College’s reconciliation efforts in detail several times, usually by talking to those involved at the college. For this piece, however, we decided we’d go right to the students to get an honest opinion on what the college has done, and on what the college needs to do.
Camosun talks about Indigenization and reconciliation a lot, so I recently sat down with Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) Indigenous director Katie Manomie and Lansdowne director-at-large Richard Doucet to find out what it’s actually doing on a student level.
This conversation has been edited for clarity.
Why do you think it’s important that colleges put effort into reconciliation?
Manomie: Institutions like this have a responsibility, and moving forward in reconciliation we have to be open to having those uncomfortable discussions that will in turn make it more aware for non-Indigenous about what happened to our people. I think the revealings that happened have been able to make it more aware about residential schools. It’s not a good thing that it happened but it has opened a door for these hard discussions, and it’s going to be happening for the rest of our lives—there’s only been a handful of schools that have been searched. So it takes that off of Indigenous and makes non-Indigenous have to do that work and create those spaces for us.
Doucet: The creation of a safe space and how that is so needed. And because of everything that’s happened through colonialism—you know, ‘60s scoop, etc.—so many of our parents and our grandparents and many of our old ones don’t trust the system. So they don’t want our young ones being part of that system. A lot of it is the whitewashing, a lot of it is the many things that have happened. And it’s up to the colleges and universities to start to create those safe spaces, and it’s not just through gestures, it’s not just through “Here’s a room; we’re going to give you that.” It’s within the teachings as well… and having a real mindfulness towards our ways of being, knowing, and living, so that parents, Indigenous parents, they can send us here. That we can practice our ways of knowing, and being, and living. We just need that safe space.
Is there a reason why you think Camosun specifically should be making acts of reconciliation?
Doucet: Out of the two years I’ve been here I’ve seen very wonderful things with Camosun as far as Indigenization. A lot of it is not only allowing spaces like Na’tsa’maht; UVic does that too with their First Peoples House, they have a space. The CCSS, we’re affiliated with the British Columbia Federation of Students [BCFS], about a year and a half ago I noticed something being at their conference, the BCFS. I was able to bring together a committee of all of us that came together once a month to discuss what’s happening at our colleges or universities. I had so many things to say that we were doing some really really good work here. For instance, right now they’re trying to implement IST 120, which is an introductory course into our ways, and they want to implement that into the health section of the college, into the classes. So when these people are training to be nurses, or dentists, that’s part of their course. And I find we’re, in my own opinion, that we are way ahead of many of the academic learning places throughout the province at Camosun. We’ve got a lot of things that need to be focused on through academic learning; there’s still a lot of problems in some certain courses and wrong terminology and wrong knowledge but we’re making strides. I think more than most.
Another way that Camosun has aimed to promote Indigenous learning is through courses that they offer now. Some of these courses are now required in the Ways of Indigenous Leadership and Learning, Education Assistant and Community Support, Criminal Justice, Mental Health and Addictions, Medical Lab Assistant, and Diagnostic Medical Sonography programs at Camosun. What effect do you think this will have on graduates of these programs as they enter the workforce?
Manomie: I’m hoping that it’s not just something that’s just mandatory, but people actually want to be taking these courses, like our interest in learning about the effects of colonization and, moreso, the uplifting parts of Indigenous learning. I feel that IST is very trauma based. Having been someone who has been part of the ‘60s scoop, I want to learn about the uplifting moments of the important Indigenous that are making changes right now and not just have it always be trauma, trauma, trauma. There’s going to be a committee that I’m going to be sitting on and I’m going to be putting that forward.
Do you think there are programs missing from this list?
Manomie: I feel that cultural safety needs to be taught and maybe it should be mandatory, because there’s been instances where terminology has been very poor and not taken well when given feedback about that. So, as somebody that’s Inuk I feel like there’s terminologies that shouldn’t be used. And I think the course material needs to be really, really looked at in order to be safer for Indigenous students. Let’s say a really young person that’s come from reserve hears these words and it really triggers them and effects them and they don’t want to come back to class and they don’t talk about it with anyone because they don’t have the resources or the courage to even talk about it. So I think it’s really important to have these safe places and open dialogues about terminology.
Doucet: There’s so many courses and programs that are available out there now for teaching of Indigenous ways and Indigenous history and there’s many components there, but there needs to be a strong emphasis on these programs to also be taught to the teachers, the professors, the instructors because of cultural appropriation, like she said, using language that should not be used. A lot of these teachings have to be focused on training for our academic teachers to understand, and they don’t. They shouldn’t be. I know right now Camosun offers a course, but it’s not mandatory, and the participation rate I believe was around 50 percent, which actually is not that bad compared to what you think it would be… but it’s nowhere near what it should be. So in a place like Camosun, or other academic places that are in British Columbia or across the world, I don’t see the emphasis on a training of those academic teachers.
Manomie: I think it’s important to remember that we’re all human and we all make mistakes. You have to be apologizing and forgiving and moving forward in a good way, but if your ego gets in the way, say you have a PhD and you’re not willing to listen to the students, then that’s really not reconciliation, right?
Do you feel that there’s enough Indigenous content in the curriculum of programs listed as [related to] Indigenous learning, such as the Archaeological Field Assistant certificate and the Arts and Science Studies diploma?
Doucet: I took the Archaeological Field Assistant program and I found some of it was really a hard pill to swallow, if you will, in some of the teachings. There’s not a lot of Indigenous representation. The history is there, because that’s what they teach you is where those places are, what they’re about, and I think they do a wonderful job with that, but the teachings are missing appropriation to the land and what is our connection to the language to the land, why is the land so important. Those kinds of teachings aren’t really in there. I approached the instructor and I said, “So, coming up next year, can I be part of your class?” and we worked it out together to where I would walk in for two days of those teachings and I taught them about us and about the land and that connection. I was able to give them that connection to the land, because now when they go to do the work they’re going to have that mindfulness of the love and respect we have for our mother Earth. So, it’s implementing our Indigenous ways into some of these programs and they’re starting to be accepted as part of it. We’re slowly changing to where they’re giving me as an Indigenous person an opportunity to just emphasize to them the importance of the land and our connection to that land through our language and culture.
In that Archaeology class did you feel any responsibility for having to speak up for yourself and making your voice heard?
Doucet: Not making my voice heard, because it’s not about me as an Indigenous person but about a respect for our mother Earth and it’s a respect for all Indigenous people, so that’s what I felt was the most important part, is that that respect is there. I felt a need to emphasize how important that land is to us, to this generation. So I’m going to be permanently part of that every year now, teaching those two days. I’d like to see that more in archeological areas.
Manomie: I haven’t taken those, but I am going to speak to the Indigenous art class… It’s little small opportunities like that that have really opened up Indigenous ways of knowing and being through Camosun that I’m forever grateful for, because I feel like I’ve always had this knowledge inside me. I just needed that one little push from the teacher to show me that I had them.
How do you feel about reconciliation within Camosun Student Services and the opportunities that are given to Indigenous students through Student Services?
Manomie: I think Eyēʔ Sqȃ’lewen is doing a great part. As for services, I wasn’t really aware of many services, because I did start during COVID, that was all online. As Indigenous director in the new fall semester I’m going to be introducing these services so the Indigenous students can be like, “Look, this is our own and you can go speak to them about any of the issues that you’re having,” and then the sexual assault team and just people that I wasn’t aware of myself that I want to be made aware of to the new students so we have these resources and tools that are super available to us. We need to use them.
Are students benefiting from Camosun’s acts of reconciliation on an individual level? How effective are the acts of reconciliation at Camosun?
Manomie: I think we can only speak to personal use and now viewed as a pan-Indigenous thing because everybody has different perceptions and realities from the reconciliation here. On a personal level for myself I think there’s a lot of work that needs to be done, and I’m really excited to be part of this Truth and Reconciliation Task Force so my voice can be heard.
What steps should be taken moving forward?
Manomie: I just think that Indigenous and non-Indigenous really need to come together and start apologizing and forgiving in order to move forward in a good way and have accurate representation in classes… There’s a lot of work that needs to be done, though, not just in post-secondary in general, which is happening because of programs like the Indigenous Law program, that’s a new program that’s being offered. So we’re moving forward.
Doucet: That work needs to be done by everybody. We just don’t need certain parts, or certain schools, or the government. It’s an equilibrium, just a circle where everybody needs to hopefully eventually be on board with working together.
From a student perspective, what can students do to start supporting Camosun’s reconciliation efforts?
Manomie: I think we could hold more events. We have a few events planned this upcoming year, and just being open to teaching others about our culture and having good receptive learners from non-Indigenous. Stuff like our beading workshops and drum workshops.
Doucet: It’s up to them to do the work. To want to engage, and how do you do that? That’s through what she’s saying. Through having more cultural emphasis at the college and participation with that. We have the pit cook at Camosun every year, and that’s culturally appropriate that we have the right to food sovereignty on our own territories. It would be so beautiful if we had so many more students that were there, to experience that culture that we have always done here, tens of thousands of years, so it would just be nice if they wanted to be part of it more. How do we do that? That’s a tough question.
Since both of you have been through some form of Indigenous learning at Camosun, what would you recommend to a student going into one of those programs?
Manomie: I think just being super open, and Camosun has so much to offer for Indigenous ways. This is the most I’ve learned about Indigenous culture my whole life. It’s amazing to see how many Indigenous are open to learning. It just makes my heart feel really full, because I just love my classmates and teachers.
Doucet: I think it’s just really important to emphasize to them that you’re going to be trauma informed by a lot of things that you may not have been told. It’s very heavy but the best advice is you have an opportunity to be you, you have an opportunity to be your culture, you have an opportunity to introduce yourself, to be proud of who you are and where you’re from and carry that pride with you; carry your father, your grandfather, your grandmother on your back with you, because, like I say, when the old ones see us going to these places here they’re in tears many times because they never thought that would ever happen. So just be open and take that opportunity as an open window to just be free and express yourself, because there’s going to be no discrimination within those courses with you as an individual. You get to say, “Hey, I’m from Esquimalt nation,” or “I’m from here.” You get to be proud walking in there. Look where you are: you’re at college. You made it this far. You look at the dropout rate of our Indigenous people, which is super heavy because of a lot of the trauma. You’re here, now your voice is being heard. Be proud of who you are.