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<\/a>Is there a reason why you think Camosun specifically should be making acts of reconciliation?\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Doucet: Out of the two years I\u2019ve been here I\u2019ve seen very wonderful things with Camosun as far as Indigenization. A lot of it is not only allowing spaces like Na\u2019tsa\u2019maht; UVic does that too with their First Peoples House, they have a space. The CCSS, we\u2019re 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\u2019s 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\u2019re 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\u2019s part of their course. And I find we\u2019re, in my own opinion, that we are way ahead of many of the academic learning places throughout the province at Camosun. We\u2019ve got a lot of things that need to be focused on through academic learning; there\u2019s still a lot of problems in some certain courses and wrong terminology and wrong knowledge but we\u2019re making strides. I think more than most.<\/p>\n 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?<\/i><\/p>\n Manomie: I\u2019m hoping that it\u2019s not just something that\u2019s 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 \u201860s 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\u2019s going to be a committee that I\u2019m going to be sitting on and I\u2019m going to be putting that forward.<\/p>\n Do you think there are programs missing from this list?<\/i><\/p>\n Manomie: I feel that cultural safety needs to be taught and maybe it should be mandatory, because there\u2019s been instances where terminology has been very poor and not taken well when given feedback about that. So, as somebody that\u2019s Inuk I feel like there\u2019s terminologies that shouldn\u2019t be used. And I think the course material needs to be really, really looked at in order to be safer for Indigenous students. Let\u2019s say a really young person that\u2019s come from reserve hears these words and it really triggers them and effects them and they don\u2019t want to come back to class and they don\u2019t talk about it with anyone because they don\u2019t have the resources or the courage to even talk about it. So I think it\u2019s really important to have these safe places and open dialogues about terminology.<\/p>\n Doucet: There\u2019s so many courses and programs that are available out there now for teaching of Indigenous ways and Indigenous history and there\u2019s 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\u2019t. They shouldn\u2019t be. I know right now Camosun offers a course, but it\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019t see the emphasis on a training of those academic teachers.<\/p>\n Manomie: I think it\u2019s important to remember that we\u2019re 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\u2019re not willing to listen to the students, then that\u2019s really not reconciliation, right?<\/p>\n Do you feel that there\u2019s 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?<\/i><\/p>\n 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\u2019s not a lot of Indigenous representation. The history is there, because that\u2019s what they teach you is where those places are, what they\u2019re 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\u2019t really in there. I approached the instructor and I said, \u201cSo, coming up next year, can I be part of your class?\u201d 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\u2019re going to have that mindfulness of the love and respect we have for our mother Earth. So, it\u2019s implementing our Indigenous ways into some of these programs and they\u2019re starting to be accepted as part of it. We\u2019re slowly changing to where they\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n In that Archaeology class did you feel any responsibility for having to speak up for yourself and making your voice heard?<\/i><\/p>\n Doucet: Not making my voice heard, because it\u2019s not about me as an Indigenous person but about a respect for our mother Earth and it\u2019s a respect for all Indigenous people, so that\u2019s 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\u2019m going to be permanently part of that every year now, teaching those two days. I\u2019d like to see that more in archeological areas.<\/p>\n