Welcome Readers,
My name is Laryssa Legan, originally I am from Edmonton Alberta and then relocated to Kelowna in 2013. I did just finish my third year of arts at the University of British Columbia in Kelowna, and unfortunately I just finished my first ever Indigenous study class. I think that the fact that it took this long for me to be exposed to these classes is wrong, I think the school needs to have more of these classes, and I think that they need to promote them. I also had a thought that it actually should be a requirement to graduate. I find that in Kelowna that the Indigenous population and culture is so important, the culture is everywhere in Kelowna and widely celebrated! http://www.syilx.org This is the website for the Okanagan Nation Alliance. When I lived in Edmonton the First Nations culture was not seen at all. So I now see how important to have the mix of the culture is.
My expectations for this course is to shine more light on the mix of the cultures in Canada and how important they are. I think that it will be equally important to watch the course syllabus to keep up with all the assignments. And what the blog posts are about. https://blogs.ubc.ca/courseblogsis_ubc_engl_470a_99c_2014wc_44216-sis_ubc_engl_470a_99c_2014wc_44216_2517104_1/course-objectives/
Works Cited
http://www.syilx.org
Hi Laryssa!
I too moved to Kelowna to go to school and found that there was much more knowledge of Indigenous culture than in my hometown. It’s interesting that you brought up Indigenous studies as a mandatory class to take before graduating. I think that it would be beneficial for the students of UBC to gain knowledge on the land that they occupy and the histories that have taken place. I was wondering if you thought that these mandatory courses should take place in lower or upper level courses – lower is a great introduction, but when students are in upper years they tend to take these issues more seriously.
Hello Samantha,
This is interesting idea, while I think that an introduction to Indigenous culture would be a good thing for first and second year, I do think it is beneficial for a class like this to be taken later on in a students degree. I believe that students in their third and fourth year will be able to digest the gravity of the material and take it more seriously.
May 13, 2016
Hello Laryssa,
Welcome to our course of studies together – it sounds like you are full of enthusiasm for our next four months working together; excellent. Enjoy.
Thanks, I am really excited to be working together in the next four months, I think it will be very enlightening.
Hi Laryssa,
I did some work last summer drafting a provincial arts and culture policy framework with the Vancouver-based Alliance for Arts + Culture. The research done for the document was extensive. The most significant portion of research involved community roundtables all around the province in order to ensure that the final policy framework would represent all of the voices possible from around BC. (You can see and read about the document here: http://www.allianceforarts.com/bc-creative-convergence).
You are not alone in your call for a greater representation of Indigenous culture. In the BC culture community as a whole, there is almost complete agreement that for meaningful steps towards reconciliation to be taken, the art of our First Nations communities has to be promoted and, most importantly, understood. Indigenous leaders themselves told us frequently how integral art was to the telling of stories that lay at the core of their communities.
Other research done showed us that the promotion of such voices and storytellers in communities that initially lack a greater level of diversity serves to improve social cohesion, reduce crime, bolster economy, and do many other great things that politicians love to tout. The mix of cultures and the connections between them are important because they make communities more resilient, more accepting, more deliberative, and more intelligent. From the sound of it, you saw that first-hand!
Now, actually pursuing those goals is a different thing, although it is what we tried to do with the policy framework. They are ideal goals – things intangible that are difficult to generate political capital from. You’re right that much change can come from education, as education itself is a story about the world we live in and the people who inhabit it. In conjunction with other initiatives, a lot of positive change can happen, but it requires efforts on all fronts. Coordinating those efforts and generating the popular will to pursue them is the hard part.
Cheers,
Nick
Yes, I think it would taken along time and a lot of work to actually get this into schools. I do think that the advisors should be pushing the classes for right now. I do not think there is enough people talking about these classes and how they can meet the requirements for any sort of degree.
Although educating people in Canadian history from the vantage points of multiple different groups of Canadians holds immense value, I think we need to be cautious of the hazards that may come from creating mandatory requirements. “Mandatory courses generally cause more harm than good” because students eventually treat them with disdain, ignorance, resentment, or some other negative reaction (http://ubyssey.ca/news/mandatory-indigenous-courses/). Increasing understanding and education on some of these fronts is necessary, but we have to be extremely cautious about how we are pushing and framing that education.
Hi Laryssa,
I’ve been reading many of our classmates introductory blogs and it seems to be a common trend for discussion that people are shocked and outraged over the lack of education in Indigenous studies. While I do not disagree with your suggestion that education in this subject should be provided more widely and be more easily accessible, I would expand to say that education in this topic should be provided at a younger age. As an English speaker, I began to learn French in Elementary school. This was the first introduction that I can remember to the bilingual and multicultural nature of Canada. If the introduction of Canada’s second official language and the tensions English Canada has with French Canada can be introduced so early on, so to can Indigenous studies. As not everyone attends post secondary education, I think it is important for this topic to be introduced as soon as possible. It is the only way to ensure that everyone has the same information and is able to contribute to the conversation and to change.
I look forward to interacting with you further.
Gillian
I do agree that it should be introduced earlier but I do not know if younger people will take it seriously and quite get the gravity of problems. I do think it is important however because not everyone goes to university. I think it would be impossible to educate every single person. So you have to do what you can and hope that is enough, a little depressing….