![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/51266218111_7398597796_o.jpg\")
<\/a>\u201cIt was a hot day,\u201d he says. \u201cWe were in the shade, so that was nice, but [we] started doing some chanting in there and the echo coming off the bridge\u2014it was really, really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
Humphries says the experience was positive, but as the last few weeks have highlighted, there is a long way to go.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur work’s not going to be done for many generations. I was looking for the hope, and how to make things better going forward,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was really positive getting out on the canoe.\u201d<\/p>\n
The college is working to move forward into phase two of the Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC); Humphries says he took some time to pause and reflect on what he wants to see happen at the college moving forward. (The calls to action are split into two parts, or phases: the first is \u201clegacy,\u201d which is calls 1 to 42, and the second is \u201creconciliation,\u201d which is calls 43 to 94).<\/p>\n
\u201cI’d like to see [Indigenous Studies] courses as electives in more areas of the college,\u201d he says. \u201cThat’s something we’re planning on.\u201d<\/p>\n
A task force at Camosun was assembled during phase one and Humphries says something similar will be done for phase two. The challenge at this point is there are \u201cdifferent people with different thoughts\u201d regarding what goes in phase two for the college.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s lots of work to be done on anti-racism, for example,\u201d he says. \u201cHow does that fit in there?\u201d<\/p>\n
As well, preferential hiring for Indigenous people\u2014which came into effect at the college as of July 1\u2014is of particular importance to Humphries.<\/p>\n
\u201cCertain areas identified in the TRC’s Call to Action\u2014for example, criminal justice, social work, public administration\u2014there’s certain areas there where we feel strongly that there is value in offering preferential hiring to people of Indigenous ancestry with appropriate levels of knowledge,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Through the office of the BC Human Rights Commissioner, Camosun has been given approval to implement the preferential hiring as of July 1, says Humphries.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have trades training that goes out in Bella Coola, or wherever else, we’ll turn on the preferential hiring there,\u201d he says. \u201cAlso, if we’re doing anything that is funded by the Indigenous community, it’ll get turned on there, as well. There’s a number of places… we would be seeking people with Indigenous ancestry, but also, lived experience. In and of itself, to have Indigenous ancestry, that’s not enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Humphries draws attention back to institutional learning outcomes related to Indigenization, as well as the possibility of asking questions to everyone applying for jobs at Camosun about how they plan to support Camosun in responding to the TRC’s Calls to Action.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn’t mind seeing a question like that put to everyone that applies for work with the college,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
The reason phase one was so successful at the college, says Humphries, is because of the work that Camosun president Sherri Bell did around accountability when Camosun first made an Indigenous and Reconciliation plan in 2015 that consisted of 39 actions for the college to take in response to the TRC’s Calls to Action.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach of the 39 recommendations,\u201d he says, \u201cwhen we built the project charter for it, had a college executive team member’s name beside it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For Camosun School of Access dean Ian Humphries, the private smudging ceremony and launch of Camosun’s new Indigenous canoe into the Gorge waterway on Monday, July 21\u2014National Indigenous Peoples Day\u2014was a special experience. Considering the many hundreds of bodies of Indigenous children that have been discovered across Canada recently, Humphries knows work in reconciliation will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21273,"comment_status":"closed","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":[9,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-webexclusive","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21272","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=21272"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21274,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21272\/revisions\/21274"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}