Take Action
Faculty, staff and supervisors are encouraged to seek ways to offer support for those who are navigating trauma. Consider flexibility on deadlines, assignments or attendance, and familiarize yourself with the supports available to Indigenous community members.
Resources and calls to action (SFU-specific)
- San’yas: Indigenous Cultural Safety (ICS) Training is a unique, facilitated online training program designed to increase knowledge, enhance self-awareness, and strengthen the skills of those who work both directly and indirectly with Indigenous Peoples. All continuing SFU employees are eligible to take this course with a supervisor’s approval. Continuing SFUFA members are also eligible for this training. Registration details and additional information can be found on the Human Resources website.
- In 2017, SFU's Aboriginal Reconciliation Council (SFU-ARC) released the Walk This Path With Us report, a document that outlines 34 calls to action that will create, support, and sustain a changed and better environment for Indigenous students, staff and faculty at SFU. Community members are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the report and with the latest updates on reconciliation at SFU.
- If you have not yet read the final report prepared by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, you are highly encouraged to do so. Walk This Path With Us was informed by this report, and particularly by the 94 calls to action outlined within it.
- The SFU Library's Indigenous Curriculum Resource Centre (ICRC) collects books, articles, websites, and audio-visual materials on Indigenizing curriculum and Indigenous pedagogy, in addition to post-secondary curriculum resources. Instructors are encouraged to visit the ICRC's website to learn how they can support the work of Indigenizing and decolonizing curriculum at SFU.
- Tour the Bill Reid Centre for Northwest Coast Studies to explore the visual culture of Northwest Coast First Nations.
- SFU's three campuses are located on the traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), q̓íc̓əy̓ (Katzie), kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem), Qayqayt, Kwantlen, Semiahmoo and Tsawwassen peoples. You can visit Native-Land.ca and the Bill Reid Centre to learn more about the Peoples who have existed on these lands since time immemorial. More information on territorial acknowledgements can be found on the ICRC website.
Resources and calls to action (general)
- The Tḱemlúps te Secwepemc (Kamloops Indian Band) has a list of suggested actions you can take to support them.
- The SFU Library has compiled a wide variety of resources that support knowledge sharing, teaching, and research about the history of residential schools, their impact on communities, and their legacy today.
- Consider starting with Where Are the Children, an online exhibition that aims to acknowledge the experiences, impacts and consequences of Canada’s Residential School System on Indigenous Peoples and promote public awareness, understanding and education of the history and legacy of residential schools.
- The University of Alberta offers Indigenous Canada, a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) from the Faculty of Native Studies, that explores Indigenous histories and contemporary issues in Canada. The course can be taken for free online.Consider supporting a local, Indigenous-owned business. Shop First Nations has compiled a list of businesses that are open during COVID-19, sortable by province or category.
- The Indian Residential School Survivors Society is currently providing vital support services for Indigenous communities. You can support their work by making a donation here.
When sharing information with your personal networks please be thoughtful about the resources you share and amplify Indigenous voices and resources. Indigenous stories should always be told by Indigenous people.