Indigenous Studies, FASS News, Faculty

FASS recognizes Canada's first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

September 27, 2021

Facebook

Twitter

SMS

Copy

Simon Fraser University's Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) respectfully acknowledges the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), q̓íc̓əy̓ (Katzie), kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem), Qayqayt, Kwantlen, Semiahmoo and Tsawwassen peoples on whose unceded traditional territories our three campuses reside.

The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) at SFU is committed to the principles of Canada's National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. September 30 is a day to recognize and commemorate the tragic history and ongoing legacy of residential schools, and to honour their survivors, their families and communities.

This page outlines how FASS faculty, staff and students are working to answer the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's 94 Calls to Action. In addition to our institutional Reconcili-action Plan, drafted by SFU's first Director of Indigenous Relations, Jessie Williams, you'll find a selection of FASS News profiles, highlighting how people throughout FASS have been advancing the work of reconciliation.

You'll also find FASS-supported resources open to the academic community and the public at-large. Read about the Bill Reid Centre's digital collection; learn Haida phrases or listen to stories or children's songs via the First Nations Language Centre; watch Dr. Deanna Reder's presentation for FASS' 2020 Developing Minds conference, where she offers strategies for "Reading the Indigenous Archive."

Interim FASS Reconcili-action Plan

We are grateful to Jessie Williams, SFU's first Director of Indigenous Relations, who worked with former Dean Jane Pulkingham, FASS faculty and staff to craft an interim Reconcili-action Plan.

FASS has the largest participation of Indigenous students enrolled in programs SFU-wide — approximately 57% of SFU's Indigenous undergraduate students are based in FASS programs. FASS also has broad experience gained from delivering three strong Indigenous focused programs — the Indigenous Language Program, Indigenous Studies, and the Indigenous University Preparation Program. The Faculty has the responsibility and the honour of leveraging this knowledge in order to grow and evolve our understanding and implementation of Indigenous teachings into our academic endeavours.

Note: The permanent position of Director, Indigenous Relations, is currently open for applications.

FASS-Reconcili-action.pdf
Interim FASS Reconcili-action Plan

doing the work

Above: Watch the speeches and graduation ceremony of the 2021 graduates from the Yukon Native Language Centre and the Council of Yukon First Nations. We are grateful to the fluent speakers who generously shared their languages and culture, and celebrate the learners who graduated through SFU's Indigenous Languages Program.

We recognize that bringing the work of reconciliation, Indigenization, and decolonization into our work at the university is a long-term project. It is ongoing and labour-intensive. We are grateful for the hard work of our faculty and students who are collaborating with Indigenous communities, innovating curriculum, engaging with Indigenous students, and seeing them through both personal and academic milestones. Here are just a few of the highlights of this work as covered in FASS or SFU News:

Finding Indigenous Children: The Brandon Indian Residential School Project.
Collaborating with Brandon Residential School Cemeteries Project, Dr. Eldon Yellowhorn and PhD student Katherine Nichols are working to identify the names of children who died at the school while it was in operation from 1895 to 1972.
Introducing: Dr. Sarah Henzi
For the first time ever, SFU students can take Indigenous Studies, en français.
The Indigenous Languages Program (INLP) have graduated several first-cohorts of language speakers and honoured fluent language speakers during Spring 2020, Fall 2020, and June 2021 convocations:
- First cohort of Hul’q’umi’num’ speakers graduate with Indigenous Languages diploma
- New generation of Yukon First Nations language speakers honoured alongside elders (YNLC video above)

Researchers revive endangered Blackfoot language using digital technology
Led by Dr. Eldon Yellowhorn, The Blackfoot language revitalization project is a free resource teaching Blackfoot vocabulary and pronunciation.

Dr. James Crippen (Dzéiwsh) of the Tlingit Nation also joined INLP in 2020, as the program's first post-doctoral fellow.
Exploring the dehumanization, victimization, criminalization, and over-incarceration of Indigenous women in Canada
Dr. Danielle Murdoch and Indigenous PhD student Michaela McGuire have co-published their collaborative research on how societal indifference and racism towards Indigenous women have persisted in Canada, and their overrepresentation in the federal correctional system.
Undergraduate students Kimberley John and Alison Wick deepen their learning in Indigenous Studies.
Working as research assistants for Dr. Deanna Reder’s archival project, The People and the Text: Indigenous Writing in Northern North America to 1992, John and Wick developed a commitment to deepening their learning and understanding of Indigenous histories, literatures, and current contexts.

Increasing indigenous representation

Indigenous faculty now represent about four per cent of total FASS continuing faculty complement. In the last two years, we have welcomed:
- Dr. Jeannie Morgan, Assistant Professor, Indigenous Studies
- Dr. Joyce Schneider / Kicya7, Assistant Professor, Indigenous Pedagogies, Indigenous Studies
- Dr. June Scudeler, Assistant Professor, Indigenous Studies
- Dr. Kyle Willmott, Assistant Professor, Sociology and Anthropology

Above: Dr. Deanna Reder, Indigenous Studies, speaks at a President's Faculty Lecture on The Obligations of Stories.

FASS Resources for learning more

Join Psychology for a talk by Dr. Margaret Kovach on October 1 — Indigenous Research and Indigenous Methodologies: Convergences and Divergences
Dr. Marianne Ignace and the First Nations Language Centre have made language recordings available for free. You may learn a few Haida words and phrases, or listen to stories or children's songs.
The Bill Reid Centre, part of the Department of Indigenous Studies, documents through photographs, drawings and various other media, the depth and richness of Northwest Coast culture. You may browse online exhibits, a Virtual Village project and a vast digital image collection.
For teachers: Dr. Deanna Reder offers strategies for "Reading the Indigenous Archive" in a presentation for the Developing Minds conference

Community Resources for learning more

Ceremonies have been organized at all three campuses in the week of September 27–30. Please visit SFU's page for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation for details and for additional resources and events.
In Vancouver: X^weýene:msta:m ?ək^wəsq^wel, seýeḿ (translation: call to witness / listen to respected one) is a performance to honour Orange Shirt Day on Thursday, September 30, 2021, 12 noon, presented by the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Online: Drum for the Children, a virtual event on September 30 at 2:15 pm PST, organized by Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc.
The National Centre for Truth and Reconcilliation at the University of Manitoba. As a place of learning and dialogue, NCTR houses archives, reports, and resources. As the website describes, it is a place where "the truths of the residential school experience will be honoured and kept safe for future generations." Visitors to the website can access statements from Survivors, their families, staff and those affected by the residential school system as well as an interactive map of residential schools within Canada, or read through the TRC's published research.
University of Alberta's Indigenous Canada , a free Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) by the Faculty of Native Studies.
Native-Land.ca is a website and mobile app by the Indigenous-run not-for-profit Native Land Digital. Learn more about the Indigenous land you're on, specifically about the nation, language, or treaties that exist where you are.

Funds to Support Indigenous Students and programs

If you would like to donate to support Indigenous students and programs, FASS has three endowments.

Mary Steinhauser Memorial Bursary for Aboriginal Students. Mary Steinhauser was a sociology/psychology alumni who was working in the BC Penitentiary when she was killed after a 41-hour hostage incident in 1975. Margaret Franz, her sister, set up this bursary and maintains a website about the students who have received these funds.
Indigenous University Preparation Program (IUPP) Special Purpose Fund. The Indigenous University Preparation Program helps Indigenous learners prepare and transition to university studies in a small first-year cohort program.
Indigenous Languages Program (INLP) There are two funds that support Indigenous students studying Indigenous languages at SFU: The Dr. Aimee August Annual Undergraduate Scholarship, and the Dr. Ruby Peter Graduate Award in Indigenous Language Proficiency. Do contribute to these funds, please get in touch with FASS Advancement.

* Dr. Aimee August was a Secwépemc elder who compiled the first Secwépemc language-learning kit for the local community. She received an honourary degree from SFU in 1992. Dr. Ruby Peter received an Honorary Degree from SFU for her work in helping train the next generation of Hul’q’umi’num’ language teachers and researchers. This fund supports work that is done in the Indigenous Languages Program.

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences