{"id":23572,"date":"2023-02-08T09:00:57","date_gmt":"2023-02-08T17:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=23572"},"modified":"2023-02-02T10:21:39","modified_gmt":"2023-02-02T18:21:39","slug":"open-space-camosuns-indigenization-needs-to-be-more-concrete","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2023\/02\/08\/open-space-camosuns-indigenization-needs-to-be-more-concrete\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Space<\/em>: Camosun\u2019s Indigenization needs to be more concrete"},"content":{"rendered":"

Camosun College must take more concrete steps toward Indigenization if real change is going to happen. On its website, Camosun has its posted acknowledgement, which is a good reminder to respect the peoples who are allowing us to seek knowledge on their land. Having this territorial acknowledgement on its site is an important initial step in cultivating an environment where Indigenous peoples and their land are respected.<\/p>\n

Camosun has attempted to integrate Indigenous peoples into the college since its opening. Camosun\u2019s name change was surprisingly swift following its establishment in October 1970 as Juan de Fuca College. In January of the next year, the college changed its name to Camosun, a Lekwungen name meaning \u201cwhere different waters meet and are transformed\u201d (Camosun officially opened its doors to students on September 16, 1971). This quick change in name to honour Indigenous peoples was an important step in reconciliation, but it\u2019s not enough.<\/p>\n

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This story originally appeared in February 8, 2023 issue.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Indigenization must take place cross-campus, not just in theory. My personal experience of territorial acknowledgements has varied significantly since my initial classes at Camosun. I\u2019m in my second year here, and I\u2019ve experienced a noticeable decline in acknowledgements at the beginning of each class.<\/p>\n

In my first semester during my first year, all of my teachers said a territorial acknowledgement at the beginning of each class. The next semester, my professors said acknowledgements on the first day, then less and less until, by the end of the year, it wasn\u2019t said at all. This year I\u2019ve had a few teachers acknowledge the land we\u2019re on, yet only on the first day, and as more of a by-the-way thing. After the first week, territorial acknowledgements were all but forgotten in my classes.<\/p>\n

Camosun says on its site that \u201cAcross the college, the territorial acknowledgement has become part of our practice to honour, respect, and acknowledge relationships with First Nations and Indigenous peoples of this place.\u201d This statement claims that the college uses territorial acknowledgements, yet there\u2019s nothing in the statement about making sure they\u2019re implemented.<\/p>\n

If Camosun wanted to follow through with this claim it could start by having a mandatory territorial acknowledgement before every class. The college is vague enough in its initiative to implement \u201cIndigenization\u201d that there are next to no formal actions taking place to make this plan come to fruition.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not saying that the college is deliberately being vague to avoid taking direct action. I\u2019m just saying that if we made sure every single class started with a heartfelt territorial acknowledgement, that would be an extremely respectful catalyst in the fight for Indigenization in an educational and academic setting such as Camosun.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If the steps we\u2019re going to take are clearly laid out, it\u2019s easier to follow those steps on a path toward reconciliation. In general, it\u2019s easier to implement actions if you know what exact initiatives are being put in place. Additionally, if students know what specific steps are being taken towards Indigenization, they will have the authority to recognize and take action when the plan isn\u2019t being implemented.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Real change requires truth in where we\u2019re currently at and concrete steps to implement individual change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Camosun College must take more concrete steps toward Indigenization if real change is going to happen. On its website, Camosun has its posted acknowledgement, which is a good reminder to respect the peoples who are allowing us to seek knowledge on their land. Having this territorial acknowledgement on its site is an important initial step […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23571,"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":[14,282],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-views","category-february-8-2023"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23572","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=23572"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23573,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23572\/revisions\/23573"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}