As part of the Canadian Math Society Winter Meeting that was held in Vancouver, BC, between December 8-11, 2018, Darja Barr (University of Manitoba), Shawn Desaulniers (University of Alberta), Edward Doolittle (First Nations University) and Veselin Jungic (Simon Fraser University) organized a session entitled "Indigenization and Reconciliation through University Mathematics: Why, When and How?"

Abstract:

The public universities across Canada are committed to working to address the calls to action included in the the final report by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. There is a general expectation that departments of mathematics across the country will contribute to this process. In this session the participants will collectively search for the answer to the questions:

1. Why, when, and how the mathematical community can contribute to the process of the reconciliation inside and outside of our college and university math classrooms?

2. How can the Canadian mathematical community come together to reduce the drastic educational achievement gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples?

In addition, this session will be an opportunity to address some of the possible questions that the members of the community may have related to the historical, cultural, and political consequences of the colonization and the issues raised by the TRC. Here is the question that we, the co-organizers of the session, propose: “I just teach mathematics, so what is that I can do?”

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The list of speakers, the titles, and the abstracts is available here.

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"Thanks again for organizing the session. I did get a lot from it, appreciating a lot learning qbout different perspectives on the session topic. In my opinion, the variety of speakers and presentation formats worked very well and made it a session that was much more lively and generating disucssion than what I am used to in this kind of events."

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"I was moved by your presentation in how many First Nation peoples you've had touched to improve their lives. You have a big heart in helping the First Nation peoples in shaping their education and showing them their way of life is important. It was a great honor to meet you in person. May you be blessed with abundance."