COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS: Building relationships by celebrating Indigenous cultures

This article is part of a monthly series celebrating Brock’s rich history of community engagement and enduring commitment to the mutual exchange of knowledge and resources within the Niagara community and beyond. To read other stories in the series, visit The Brock News.

Cindy Biancaniello is passionate about creating what she calls “brave spaces.”

“We love community engagement, we really do,” said the Director of Brock University’s Hadiya’dagénhahs First Nations, Métis and Inuit Student Centre. “I want Hadiya’dagénhahs to have a revolving door of people coming in because they need more than just safe spaces, they need brave spaces, and we are here to support that.”

The Centre’s guiding principle is reflected in its name, a Cayuga word meaning “we are the helpers.”

Biancaniello and the team provide cultural, social and academic support as well as resources to ease the transition to university life. They also share cultural ways of knowing and being — on campus and in the community — by hosting events, providing access to a fire pit, traditional medicine, food and smudging, and providing connections to Elders.

At its second annual Pow Wow in January, for example, Hadiya’dagénhahs welcomed hundreds to Brock to celebrate Indigenous dance, music, food and art.

Biancaniello (Elder Anauta), who is Inuk and whose community is Qamani’tuaq (Baker Lake), Nunavut, also gave her popular Iaminuk presentation at the Niagara Falls History Museum this past summer. In the presentation, which she has also given to local libraries and municipalities, she discusses various aspects of Inuit culture by sharing family stories and her personal collection of photos and artifacts.

“From that moment on I knew working with her was going to be great because she’s just so engaging as a presenter,” said Christine Girardi, Assistant Curator at the Museum.

The successful event spurred the decision to continue the partnership by providing workshops for elementary school students as part of the Museum’s Cultural Education Directed at Revitalization (C.E.D.A.R.) program.

“In my conversations with curriculum consultants and teachers, the thing they are clamouring for is more Indigenous-based education,” Girardi said. “Facilitating members of the community, like Cindy and her team, to provide this very authentic programming is important to me, personally, and to the Museum as an institution.”

Hundreds of elementary students from the Niagara Catholic School Board participated in six workshops facilitated by the Hadiya’dagénhahs team in December. They learned about treaties and governance, the medicine wheel, the four sacred medicines, Métis dot art, smudging and Inuit culture. The workshops sold out almost immediately and a waitlist is already growing for future offerings.

Students from Grades 3 to 6 at St. Joseph Catholic Elementary School in Grimsby were among those that participated, and Principal Tim Atkinson had high praise for the “enriching learning experience.”

“It was a fantastic day, every workshop was engaging and informative,” said Atkinson. “The presenters themselves were extremely knowledgeable and delivered their message in an appropriate way for the age group, and our students came away from this experience with a better understanding and appreciation of Indigenous communities in Canada, and their unique and wonderful way of life.”

Biancaniello said the tactile nature of the workshops helped students connect with the subject matter.

“Our history is an oral history so when we go and visit children, it’s all about storytelling,” she said. “They are enthralled and really interested in learning, and they even take those lessons home to talk about at the dinner table with their families.”

Girardi also said these workshops contain “universal knowledge that all Canadians should have.”

“We all need to take steps toward reconciliation, and C.E.D.A.R. is a wonderful way to do this by learning about these beautiful living, breathing cultures from members of that culture,” she said. “We aren’t just learning about the past; we’re learning about the present in a very real way.”

Biancaniello says the Centre’s work also strengthens the team’s connections to their own cultures and allows them to learn more about other cultures.

“There were times where we couldn’t celebrate and talk about our culture or language because there was, and still is, a stigma attached to identifying as First Nations, Métis or Inuit,” she said. “But now we can, and people are also eager to learn. I’m sure my team must also feel the same way that I feel when I talk about my culture — really proud.”

The team has no plans of slowing down. In addition to its ongoing programming, there’s also a slate of new opportunities on the docket for the coming year.

“I do this because I absolutely love it and feel like I’m in my element every day. But it isn’t just me; I couldn’t do anything without our amazing team,”  Biancaniello said. “We are small but mighty and while we’ve already achieved so much, there’s still so much potential. We’ve only scratched the surface.”


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