June is National Indigenous History Month, and I’d like to take a moment to reflect on MacEwan’s role in promoting and supporting reconciliation, and articulate why the efforts of our faculty and staff are so important.

MacEwan’s strategic vision, Teaching Greatness, is grounded on honouring our place in O’day-min. What does that mean? It goes beyond recognizing the physical space which our campus currently occupies. It calls us to meaningfully acknowledge those who inhabited this place before us and honour the knowledge, teachings, traditions and communities which form the foundation upon which MacEwan now stands.

Education is at the centre of reconciliation. It’s been almost a decade since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission issued its Calls to Action in 2015, which included an important call to eliminate educational and employment gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.

These gaps have long roots in our country’s history. In my own lifetime, the Indian Act prevented Indigenous people from getting a university degree without giving up their legal and cultural status. This stopped many from pursuing post-secondary education and the benefits it provides.

This barrier was only removed a couple generations ago, in 1961.

We’ve all seen first-hand how education opens opportunities and transforms lives. Growing the number of Indigenous students and faculty at MacEwan is an important action towards economic reconciliation.

Through Teaching Greatness, we are committed to growing our Indigenous student population, ultimately ensuring they make up at least eight per cent of our Canadian students, and to have our percentage of Indigenous faculty match the percentage of Indigenous students by 2030.

I also want to recognize our role as a downtown university. Edmonton has the second-largest and fastest-growing Indigenous population in Canada. As a growing city, it will take all of our collective talents to thrive. When our faculty and staff ensure Indigenous voices and ideas are included, we are strengthening Edmonton’s vibrancy, diversity and innovation. 

For MacEwan, and other universities across Canada, the first steps faculty and staff took to close the educational gap were focused on making sure Indigenous students feel welcome and included in our spaces. You’ll see many threads of Indigeneity across campus - some of my favorites include the Mother Bear Prays for Earth Healing statue and the silent study space in kihêw waciston Indigenous Centre, which moved into its expanded space in 2019. This will continue to grow.

For a lot of Indigenous students, finding kihêw waciston makes all the difference. I like that it’s open to Indigenous and non-Indigenous students and embraces the fact that not all Indigenous students are the same. The team at kihêw waciston help students bring their own experiences, their own gifts and their own talents to their academic studies.

It’s also so important to gather and celebrate Indigenous culture. In April I got to enjoy a fun evening at MacEwan’s inaugural Indigenous Graduation Gala. A few weeks ago kihêw waciston hosted a four-day land-based gathering, and in June they’ve planned several events to mark National Indigenous History Month.

One event in particular stands out for me. In March kihêw waciston invited Indigenous youth to MacEwan for the Indigenous Youth Rising Conference. The goal was to help youth imagine a future that includes post-secondary education, and while I was there a 15-year-old boy came to me and said, “You really have a beautiful campus here. I might come here.” It was inspiring to see our message had reached him, and I hope to see him a few years from now walking the halls on his way to class.

All of these actions we have taken to promote inclusion are significant and we need to continue doing them.

Why is this important? I can only speak for myself as a Red River Métis person who had limited knowledge of my own Métis history when I was a university student. Today, I see how important having a sense of belonging can be. I’m able to own everything about myself, which gives me the opportunity to purposefully use all of my strengths and experiences.

In my role as MacEwan’s president, I see so much more potential to strive for true and meaningful reconciliation. Part of that future is understanding and making an important distinction between inclusion, which has been a large part of our focus, and reconciliation.

Reconciliation goes beyond inclusion by embracing different ways of knowing into our course content, and having the challenging conversations that create change, change that leads to economic reconciliation.

To support this work, MacEwan is growing our support for reconciliation by increasing Indigenous course content and adding additional Indigenous faculty to our university.

In April, Terri Cardinal became MacEwan’s first associate vice-president, Indigenous Initiatives and Engagement. In her role she works with MacEwan’s Provost and Vice-President Academic, Dr. Craig Monk, to thread Indigenous perspectives throughout Academic Affairs. This helps faculty across the university become more familiar with Indigenous culture, history and teachings and more comfortable incorporating them into their courses.

We also introduced an innovative way to hire Indigenous faculty that recognizes the service they provide to Indigenous communities with their academic work. These faculty members divide their time between their academic duties of teaching and providing Indigenous knowledge to content, and helping kihêw waciston with their initiatives. This helps Indigenous faculty progress through tenure and promotion in a way that recognizes the importance of the work they do serving their communities.

MacEwan’s actions toward inclusion and reconciliation are an important part of the greater efforts of the community –  and change is happening. Just look at our two recently announced 2024 Distinguished Alumni Award recipients – Josh Languedoc (Bachelor of Arts, Honours ’10) and Mallory Yawnghwe (Bachelor of Commerce ’18).

Josh says that studying at MacEwan helped him find his voice. He’s taken that experience and now helps other Indigenous people of all ages find their voice through his work as a playwright, producer, teacher and storyteller.

Mallory, who I mentioned in my last column, found a way to marry her Indigenous perspectives of abundance and community with what she learned about supply chain management, with great success.

Stories like these demonstrate what universities can do to help all students tap into their skills, history and experiences to achieve their potential.

As we continue to build on our efforts to support reconciliation, I am optimistic. I hope you are too.