{"id":68379,"date":"2020-01-14T13:22:11","date_gmt":"2020-01-14T18:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=68379"},"modified":"2020-10-02T13:22:40","modified_gmt":"2020-10-02T17:22:40","slug":"indigenizing-education-at-brock-and-beyond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2020\/01\/indigenizing-education-at-brock-and-beyond\/","title":{"rendered":"Indigenizing education at Brock and beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Indigenous Education teacher Kelsey Dick (BA \u201909, BEd \u201909, MEd \u201912), choosing Brock was one of the easiest choices she\u2019s ever made.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was love at first sight,\u201d said Dick. \u201cI knew as soon as I walked through the doors that I would be accepting my offer to the Concurrent Education program in Child and Youth Studies.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dick, who works at Soaring Eagles, a program offered through the Niagara Catholic District School Board, credits Brock with playing a pivotal role in her teaching journey.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But the impact didn\u2019t end with her convocation ceremony.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2016, Dick connected with a former associate professor she had at a First Nation, M\u00e9tis and Inuit Indigenous Education lecture held at the University.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Peter Vietgen, who is still an associate professor at Brock, worked with Dick and her students on a project that involved using visual arts to explore the Calls to Action in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission\u2019s Report.<\/span><\/p>\n

The project included an exhibition curated by Dick\u2019s students, driven by their voices and experiences.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI really enjoy sharing traditional ways of learning with students and promoting cultural pride with sensitivity,\u201d said Dick. \u201cI am on a journey with my students where we are co-learning together. Connecting with my own Indigenous culture as a citizen of the M\u00e9tis Nation has helped me grow both personally and professionally.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the 2019\/20 academic year, Brock\u2019s Aboriginal Student Services report 435 students at the University self-identifying as being Indigenous, compared with 357 in 2016\/17.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dick said she\u2019s proud of Brock\u2019s leadership in advancing Truth and Reconciliation, including the hiring of Amos Key Jr., the University\u2019s first-ever Vice-Provost, Indigenous Engagement.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Brock has committed to supporting Indigenous education, as well as strengthening relationships of trust with Indigenous communities and partners across all sectors and activities of the University.<\/span><\/p>\n

One such initiative was an eye-opening experiential exercise that took place in October, where Public Health and Biomedical Sciences students examined centuries of systematic abuse faced by Indigenous peoples.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sandra Wong, Aboriginal Academic Support Program Co-ordinator\/Instructor, said the exercise delivered a powerful narrative that provides insight into many of the contemporary issues experienced by Indigenous people.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to promote whatever type of learning needs to be done for our people,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not competitive and we want to work together. We want our Aboriginal kids (First Nations, M\u00e9tis and Inuit) and non-Aboriginal kids to learn the history.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the 2019\/20 academic year, Brock\u2019s Aboriginal Student Services report 435 students at the University self-identifying as being Indigenous, compared with 357 in 2016\/17.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dick adds that the University has cultivated Indigenous learning on campus through various services, including Aboriginal Student Services.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/b>Brock\u2019s Aboriginal Student Services truly provides a welcoming and supportive environment for Indigenous students on campus,\u201d said Dick. \u201cWe have brought our secondary Indigenous students to participate in workshops and transition activities, which were uplifting and really engaged them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Indigenous Education teacher Kelsey Dick (BA \u201909, BEd \u201909, MEd \u201912), choosing Brock was one of the easiest choices she\u2019s ever made.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":68380,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[119,40,3319,188,55,6833,1,4,4523,4665],"tags":[132,3333,32,98,9544,2774,3528,3785,2296],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68379"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68379"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68381,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68379\/revisions\/68381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}