Camosun Indigenization coordinator Dianne Biin says there is always more Indigenization to be done at the college (photo by Camosun College A\/V Services).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nCamosun College Student Society First Nations director Ren Louie says the Indigenization guides are powerful steps toward reconciliation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThey\u2019ll do a lot for Indigenous students, and students as a whole,\u201d says Louie. \u201cIndigenous 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.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nBiin took a break from her position at the college to tackle the role of the guide\u2019s project manager. She was officially offered the position in late August 2016, which presented its own unique challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo then, I had two weeks here to find replacement instructors because I was all ready to teach for the fall,\u201d says Biin. \u201cSo, I had to find replacement instructors, brief them on all the content. All of my workload had to then be transferred onto somebody else\u2014I had to do all of that process. Then I had to go over to BCcampus to do the project.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ey\u0113\u0294 Sq\u0203\u2019lewen director Janice Simcoe says she was absolutely supportive of Biin\u2019s decision to take on the project.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was thrilled to know that she was moving towards that,\u201d says Simcoe, who was part of the hiring committee (although not of the hiring of Biin herself).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAs hectic as her transition was, Biin, who has been involved in Indigenization at the college since 2009, says the guides are a passion project.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a product of going through the post-secondary system here in BC in spaces that weren\u2019t friendly for Indigenous students,\u201d says Biin. \u201cThe work that Ey\u0113\u0294 Sq\u0203\u2019lewen has done here for the past two decades is amazing, and they\u2019ve 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\u2019t have the capacity, or they can\u2019t 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?\u201d<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThere 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?\u201d says Biin. \u201cSo, the guides are a nice set of benchmarks for a lot of people to kind of see what\u2019s out there, what\u2019s being done, and what can we do here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The guides are set to help post-secondary staff who are working with Indigenous content as well as staff who are lacking the content.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s for both,\u201d explains Biin. \u201cAnd it\u2019s not just teachers. It\u2019s support staff, it\u2019s folks working in student services, it\u2019s people who are doing research in their departments and working with Indigenous communities. It\u2019s for advisors, it\u2019s for counsellors, it\u2019s for librarians. It\u2019s for all staff across the college, including custodians and physical services.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bringing Indigenization to all aspects of the college was one of the fun parts of the job for Biin.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s for sure focusing on Indigenous students and creating space for them here in the institution,\u201d she says, \u201cbut it\u2019s also providing opportunity for non-Indigenous students to start learning our shared history, and start figuring out \u2018what are these new working relationships? And how do I, now that I\u2019ve graduated from Camosun and I\u2019m out in industry, how do I carry this forward in what I do?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstructors, curriculum developers, student services providers, researchers, and leaders are all for different functions within the college,\u201d explains Simcoe. \u201cI\u2019m really excited for all of those functions to have access to some learning that was developed specifically for their field.\u201d<\/p>\n
Simcoe says that these guides are a tool to further meet the needs and goals of Indigenization, which, she says, is completely about students.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThe first [goal of Indigenization at the college] is for Indigenous students to see themselves reflected in their educational experience at Camosun College,\u201d says Simcoe. \u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Biin told the over 50 writers working on the guides a story of coming together to help direct their work on the project.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe story is of pulling together in a canoe,\u201d explains Biin. \u201cAnd 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will definitely reshape the educational landscape of the future,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
With files from Adam Marsh, student editor.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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\u2019s 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,223],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-november-21-2018"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16740"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16742,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16740\/revisions\/16742"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/7-news-photo-by-Camosun-AV-Services.jpg\")
<\/a>