Engagement Advice and Guidance Meetings with Indigenous Communities

• April 17: Indigenous Strategy Proposal, Presentation to Senior Leaders Forum - Saskatoon Inn, Saskatoon
  
  
• November 1: Engagement, Advice and Guidance Meeting with Elders and Traditional Knowledge Keepers - Holiday Inn Express, Saskatoon
  
  
• November 29: Engagement, Advice and Guidance Meeting with Indigenous Community and Organizations - Wanuskewin Heritage Park, Saskatoon

Engagement Advice and Guidance Meetings with Indigenous Communities Continues

• January 30
  • Morning: Engagement, Advice and Guidance Meeting with Indigenous Undergraduate Students – Green Room, Administration Building, USask
  • Afternoon: Engagement, Advice and Guidance Meeting with Indigenous Graduate Students – Green Room, Administration Building, USask
    
    
• January 31
  • Morning: Engagement, Advice and Guidance Meeting with Indigenous staff– Green Room, Administration Building, USask
  • Afternoon: Engagement, Advice and Guidance Meeting with Indigenous faculty– Green Room, Administration Building, USask
    
    
• March 7: Engagement, Advice and Guidance Meeting with Elders and Traditional Knowledge Keepers – Holiday Inn Express, Saskatoon
  
  
• April 2: Engagement, Advice and Guidance Meeting with Indigenous undergraduate students – College of Education Building, USask
  
  
• April 4: Engagement, Advice and Guidance Meeting with Indigenous undergraduate students – Health Sciences Building, USask
  
  
• April 5: Engagement, Advice and Guidance Meeting with Indigenous undergraduate students – Arts and Science Building, USask
  
  
• May 30: Engagement, Advice and Guidance Meeting with Elders and Traditional Knowledge Keepers – Parktown Hotel, Saskatoon
  
  
• October: Indigenous Strategy Draft Development

Presentations of Draft Indigenous Strategy and Validation Sessions with Indigenous Peoples

• March 31: Presentation of draft Indigenous Strategy and Validation Sessions with Elders and Traditional Knowledge Keepers cancelled due to COVID 19
  
  
• April 7: Presentation of draft Indigenous Strategy and Validation Sessions with Indigenous Undergraduate and Graduate students – Zoom Meeting Room
  
  
• April 8: Planning and Priorities Committee
  • Presentation of draft Indigenous Strategy and Validation Sessions with Indigenous staff – Zoom Meeting Room
  • Presentation of draft Indigenous Strategy and Validation Sessions with Indigenous faculty – Zoom Meeting Room
    
    
• April 9:
  • Presentation of draft Indigenous Strategy and Validation Sessions with Indigenous faculty – Zoom Meeting Room
  • Presentation of draft Indigenous Strategy and Validation Sessions with Indigenous staff– Zoom Meeting Room
  • Presentation of draft Indigenous Strategy and Validation Sessions with Indigenous Undergraduate and Graduate students – Zoom Meeting Room
  • Presentation of draft Indigenous Strategy and Validation Sessions with Indigenous Undergraduate and Graduate students – Zoom Meeting Room
    
    
• May 6: Meeting with Elders, Traditional Knowledge Keepers, Language Keepers – Naming, Advice/ Guidance on ceremonial aspects of strategy launch
  
  
• May 7: Indigenous Strategy presentation to University of Saskatchewan – Presidents Executive Committee
  
  
• May 12: Indigenous Strategy presentation to University of Saskatchewan Deans Council
  
  
• May 12: Indigenous Strategy presentation to University of Saskatchewan – Finance and Resources AVP/Directors
  
  
• May 13: Indigenous Strategy presentation to Presidents Executive Council – Council Chairs
  
  
• May 21: Indigenous Strategy presentation to University of Saskatchewan University Council
  
  
• May 25: Indigenous Strategy presentation to University of Saskatchewan Provosts Advisory Committee
  
  
• May 26: Indigenous Strategy presentation to University of Saskatchewan Teaching, Learning, and Academic Resources Committee of Council
  
  
• June 18: Indigenous Strategy presentation to University of Saskatchewan University Council
  
  
• June 19: Indigenous Strategy presentation to University of Saskatchewan Alumni Advisory Board
  
  
• July 7: Indigenous Strategy presentation to University of Saskatchewan Board of Governors
  
  
• October 18: University of Saskatchewan Senate (motion to accept gift)

We gift this strategy to the University of Saskatchewan. Indigenous peoples from the city of misâsk- watômina (Saskatoon), the province of kisiskâciwan (Saskatchewan) and beyond; Indigenous students, staff, faculty, and leaders with a direct connection to the University; and kēhtē-ayak (Elders), oskâpêwak (Elder’s Helpers), Knowledge- and Language-Keepers who recognize the University’s role in building communities across this province have given voice to this strategy as an expression of self-determination, an invitation to reset relationships and gift a framework for the University of Saskatchewan’s reconciliation journey.

As a gift, this strategy is a symbol of reciprocity and requires acknowledgment of our responsibilities. For Indigenous peoples, this strategy embodies a spirit of belonging, empowerment and hope that change is possible.

For non-Indigenous peoples who have received and accepted this gift, this strategy should enlighten and guide. It creates the ethical space to imagine new models of scholarship, research, teaching and engagement that will uplift Indigenous ways of knowing and being for everyone, embolden a new kind of University of Saskatchewan student, and enrich the University’s role in building resilient communities across the province, Canada and the globe.

Written by and with Indigenous people, this strategy’s voice represents Indigenous languages, philosophies and spirituality. Four questions central to Indigenous ways of understanding our connections to place, time and community—and our role in honouring our ancestors and shaping our shared destiny—underpin the conceptual framework of this document:

• Who are we?
• Where do we come from?
• Where are we going?
• What are our responsibilities?

Our Elders and Traditional Knowledge Keepers gifted us with metaphors that captured the essence of this Indigenous strategy. We consulted with them first on the strategy and then learned teachings that embody the strategy. Teachings that can be lovingly and mindfully encased in a nayâhcikan – a parchment for safe keeping. These teachings are evident in our actions – actions that communicate one’s ethic of care for ‘all my relations’.

The name of the University of Saskatchewan Indigenous Strategy is ohpahotân | oohpaahotaan. This name symbolizes growth, journey and relational teachings that guide and strengthen our lives and work. ohpahotân | oohpaahotaan was drawn from ohpahowipîsim (flying up moon). During this moon, after a time of being nurtured in a nest and experiencing the world from the ground, a new generation of birds take flight. There is so much symbolism to the flying up moon for our First Nations, Métis and Inuit students – and for all people.

This moon can be representative of a rite of passage. In taking flight, there is the experience of pushing past a boundary into a whole new world – a whole new perspective. In taking flight for the first time, the once baby winged ones, see creation in a new way, and once this step is taken, they can never unsee this new space. Everything has just gotten more expansive, richer in colour and scope. There are new freedoms and opportunities to become more self-determined. Through ohpahotân| oohpaahotaan, the Indigenous Strategy, the University of Saskatchewan can continue to break boundaries and push past barriers that inhibit real and long-lasting respectful relationships, ones that inspire authentic collaborations that lead to system wide transformational change. ohpahotân| oohpaahotaan requires courage because its essence is dynamic discomfort that is required for revolutionary growth.

The metaphor of the double-helix emerged as a dynamic, resilient, continuous and non-linear process. Each strand is unbroken, and its path is not singular. Together, the strands can stretch or compress like a coil; they can rotate in clockwise motion around each other towards the future or be reset to include the past, never leaving anything behind—memories, histories, stories, knowledges, ancestors. And with these seemingly opposing forces, despite the constant and fluid evolution, the double helix remains whole, actively striving for equilibrium and the realization of its truth. The double helix is the visible and invisible expression of creativity— emerging and being sustained by the tangled and dynamic forces of flux, the relationship of chaos and order. A double helix helps us to imagine the connections across space and generations whose integrity is central to the wholeness of Indigenous self-determination. This metaphor helps to bring character, personality, life and spirit to the Indigenous Strategy. Within our Indigenous Strategy, much like the poplar tree and its genetic code, are the cherished life forces of Indigenous breath (voices, stories, histories, ways of knowing, being and doing) meant to transform the USask ‘in good ways’ for future generations. In its transformation, we honour the past and see the truth in the present.

The bison and sweetgrass offer other teachings. For example, they teach the importance of sacrifice, sanctified kindness, reciprocal respect and using our education for ourselves as well as the collective good of others.

A bison subtly yet powerfully frames the poplar canopy. As the image suggests, the bison holds a place of prominence for Indigenous peoples of these territories. The bison generously sustained the Indigenous peoples of the Plains for thousands of years. Their presence was abundant in North America (estimated to be approximately 50 million bison just 200 years ago), until they were nearly obliterated by newcomers. Blair Stonechild (Cree-Saulteaux) explains, “Today, elders say that education, rather than the bison needs to be relied upon for survival” (2006, pp. 1-2). This is a powerful statement for the role that education has today. Like the bison, education represents hope, security and sustainability for Indigenous youth today—it is a new means of survival—not as assimilation but in balancing knowledges and encouraging the resurgence of Indigenous peoples’ aspirations and self-determination.

The bison for the Indigenous Strategy represents fortitude, endurance, and the determination to survive and thrive in the midst of struggle, challenge, and forces that were designed to silence, overcome and annihilate. The bison survived brutal systematic onslaught; Indigenous peoples have survived genocide. Strength of spirit, audacious resiliency and resolve to be present and alive are parallels between these two relatives.

Bison fiercely protect their young, and they move in herds to ensure safety. This metaphor also symbolizes the collective responsibility that our whole campus community has to encouraging and guiding our students, and those that wish to enrich their knowledge and enhance their lives, at our University; it symbolizes the responsibility we have to create safe spaces and places that are conducive to thriving.

Gracefully and gradually, the top of the bison flows into a sweetgrass braid representing interconnectedness and inextricable relationships.

Within our homes, organizations and societies, it is important to recognize the importance of braiding/weaving together resources, actions, initiatives, programming and policies that support wholistic health, and promote values, belief systems that enhance and strengthen individual and collective identities. Robin Wall Kimmerer (Potawatomi) reminds us to be very present and mindful in the act of braiding. Before braiding sweetgrass she suggests: “Hold the bundle up to your nose. Find the fragrance... and you will understand...Breathe it in and you start to remember things you didn’t know you’d forgotten” (2013, p. ix). A braid is made tighter when two people work together, one holding firmly on one end while the other tugs and weaves the strands, both feeling the pressure of the creative energy. Inclusivity of a diversity of knowledges, cultures, and teachings from Indigenous peoples in our organization and transformations give rise to the needed tension in making our braid. We are required to do our part - to take an end of our strands, hold on tight, and provide the needed pressure and tension as we weave a tight sweetgrass braid.

If we have been successful, this strategy will awaken understanding, build relationships and inspire collaborative and respectful action driven by the spirit and intent of Treaty agreements—historic, current and future. We Are All Treaty People. If we have been successful, this strategy will coexist with the University Plan 2025 and allow us to walk parallel journeys toward a common future. If we have been successful, this gift will be received in the spirit intended by the Indigenous peoples who created and gifted it.

Kisiskāciwan (Saskatchewan) comprises territory on four Treaty areas, and Saskatoon is on one of those, Treaty Six, whose First Nations Peoples entered into Treaty and laid the foundations for the provinces’ self-governance. Canada’s Constitution Act of 1982 recognizes and affirms our existing Aboriginal and Treaty rights, which comprise our Indigenous constitutions. The Constitution of Canada recognizes Indians (First Nations), Inuit, and Métis as the Indigenous Peoples of Canada.

As the original peoples of this land, represented as Turtle Island to some of us, we represent diverse knowledges, including a diversity of cultures, languages, traditions, and histories of our Indigenous ancestors, coming from many parts of the continent, and live as vibrant, distinctive, and sover- eign Nations and peoples through- out Canada. Our knowledges are distinctive to the unique ecosystems and territories in which we live, and we are thus deeply embedded in the fabric of the land and territories, its histories, and its development.

Our Nations across Canada continue to grow, with over 1.6 million people living in all of the provinces and territories across Canada. While the Constitution Act recognizes three distinctive groups, Indians (First Nations), Inuit, and Métis, it overlooks our inherent diversity; with over 700 Métis, First Nations and Inuit Nations across Canada, possessing a rich linguistic history that includes over 60 distinct Indig- enous languages within 12 linguistic families.

Indigenous peoples have lived on the land now known as Saskatchewan—in the tip of a vast maskotew (prairie ecosystem) that blends into ayapâskweyâw (a northern bush ecosystem)—since time immemorial. Indigenous peoples comprise more than 16% of Saskatchewan’s population (>175,000 people)1, having grown 22% since 2006 and rep- resenting over 70 Nations. We have a deep connection to the University of Saskatchewan. Indigenous peoples made important contributions early in the University’s history. As examples, Edward Ahenakew (Cree, from the Ahtahkakoop First Nation) was USask’s first Indigenous graduate in 1910; James McKay, the first Indigenous (Métis) judge appointed to the Saskatchewan court in 1914, served on the University’s first Board of Governors; Annie Maude “Nan” McKay, the first Métis student and Indigenous woman to graduate from USask in 1915, was one of USask’s earliest Indigenous hires and was instrumental in forming the alumni association; and, more recently, Dr. Karla Jessen Williamson (kalaaleq) became the first Inuk to be tenured at any Canadian University.

Over the past century, the University’s connections with Indigenous peoples, cultures, histories and traditions have vastly expanded and strengthened, helping to advance understanding of the history of Indigenous peoples and issues affecting all Canadians. Today, Indigenous peoples’ strong connections with the University of Saskatchewan and integral contributions to the University’s innovative Indigenous programming, research, scholarship, community engagement and governance are uplifting the experience of reconciliation and helping to deepen the University’s Indigenization, reconciliation and decolonization efforts.

Our relations with our families, our communities, our Nations, our cultures and our territories are fundamental to Indigenous ways of knowing and integral to Indigenous self-determination. Our connections transcend time and space; we have relations with and are responsible for the seven generations that came before us and the seven generations yet to come. Indigenous peoples appreciate that everyone and every- thing in the world has a purpose and is worthy of our respect and compassion. We have a responsibility to be stewards of all that is Mother Earth—to learn from the land and its ecosystems, to understand the nature of things, and to nurture and sustain the place that has given us our life and our livelihood.

Anti - racism is a study and theory about systems of power and how it is enacted, naturalized and invisible to those with power across classifications of race, class, gender expression and sexual identities, and abilities that diminish and subject groups to oppression. The awareness of power and contributing ideologies that hold power is what anti-racism helps to uncover for both the empowered elite groups and the disempowered or oppressed groups. It is needed for everyone to unlock, unpack and deconstruct those ideas, ideologies, and limitations on society.

Decolonization practices contest divisive and demeaning actions, policies, programming, and frameworks. Indigenization is the healing, balancing force; it calls us to action, inspires opportunities for mutual cultural understanding, and helps us to find comfort in the discomfort decolonization can entail.

Ethical spaces arise when competing worldviews or ‘disparate systems’ come together for ‘engagement’ purposes. The connecting space, the overlapping space between the groups is the binding ethical space. Cree Scholar Willie Ermine, notes that the convergence of these groups “can become a refuge of possibility in cross-cultural relations ... The new partnership model of the ethical space, in a cooperative spirit between Indigenous peoples and Western institutions, will create new currents of thoughts that flow in different directions and overrun the old ways of thinking” (Indigenous Law Journal, 2007, 6:202-203).

Indigenization challenges us to amplify the forces of decolonization. Indigenization strengthens the fabric of the University. It involves the respectful, meaningful, ethical weaving of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit knowledges, lived experiences, worldviews, and stories into teaching, learning, and research. Indigenization is a gift that benefits every member of our community.

Microaggression a comment or action that subtly and often unconsciously or unintentionally expresses a prejudiced attitude toward a member of a marginalized group (such as a racial minority) (e.g., You don’t look Indigenous.)

Reconciliation is a goal that may take generations to realize. It “is about forging and maintaining respectful relationships. There are no shortcuts” (Senator Murray Sinclair, Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission). As a community, we have a shared responsibility to honour and join in the journey of reconciliation; to repair, redress and heal relationships; and nurture an ethical space in which we can explore how we relate to each other through the lenses of history, culture, and lived experience.

Settler colonialism is a term that is used to describe the history and ongoing processes/structures where- by one group of people (settlers) are brought in to replace an existing Indigenous population, usually as part of imperial projects. Settler colonialism can be distinguished from other forms of colonialism by the following characteristics:

1. Settlers intend to permanently occupy, and assert their sovereignty, over Indigenous lands.
2. This invasion is structural rather than a single event, designed to ensure the elimination of Indigenous populations and control of their lands through the imposition of a new governmental/legal system.
3. The goal of settler colonialism is to eliminate colonial difference by eliminating Indigenous peoples, thereby establishing settler right to Indigenous lands. Though often assumed to be a historical process, settler colonialism as a project is always partial, unfinished, and in-progress. Examples include Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.

“Wholistic” is a term that is used throughout this document and has been intentionally spelled with a “w” to represent the spiritual wholeness that defines Indigenous ways of being and gives life to this strategy.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/microaggression unwrittenhistories.com/imagining-a-better-future-an-introduction-to-teaching-and-learning-about-settler-colonialism-in-canada

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