It’s been a long time since I posted to this blog. I felt it had served its purpose of keeping Indigenous issues engrained in my personal and professional life. Plus, as I stepped into the role of Director of the Graduate Program in Neuroscience, I hoped that this blog would become redundant as we started one for the whole Neuroscience student community. However, I soon realized that my first year was going to be about me learning how to do the job, and keep the work of curriculum renewal going, rather than starting any new initiatives. But now in year 2, notwithstanding some unforeseen disaster, I feel some hope that I can find a new and better way to prioritise and support issues pertaining to Truth and Reconciliation.
In November 2024, I used some of my professional development funds to attend a meeting entitled “Indigenous Engagement: A Research Summit on Cultural Heritage in an Era of Reconciliation”. It was organized through a Tri-Academy partnership between the Royal Society of Canada, the Australian Academy of Sciences, and The Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi. It was hosted in Vancouver to coincide with the RSC’s annual meeting. I hoped to learn what best practice would look like in terms of making my own research group and the Neuroscience program more welcoming and inclusive for First Nations students.
I learned so much. As one of the only non-Indigenous academic faculty in attendance, I got some insight into how it felt to be in the minority for once. Unlike academic conferences in my field, where I am often taking part in discussions, asking questions, or giving presentations, here my job was to be silent, to listen, and to learn. It was a good reminder of how privileged I normally am in academic settings.
There was a lot to process. Stories were shared that were difficult to hear. Some were shared with anger, some with grief, and many with hope. I feel very grateful to all the attendees for the experience. While I still have a long way to go on my reconciliation journey, I feel I have a bit of a roadmap or at least some waymarkers to guide me. A few lines from my notes that really stand out.
– Dr. Jaris Swidrovich: NO ABOUT US WITHOUT US: non-Indigenous faculty cannot “Indigenize” their curriculum, courses, lectures etc. What we can do, though, is decolonize our institutions and ways of thinking. Rather than focusing exclusively on learning about Indigenous peoples, we also need to hold up the mirror and learn about ourselves and what it is about our culture that needs to change
– Residential schools ran from 1876 to the 1970s. I would have been among the first cohort of children who didn’t have to go. This trauma and its effects are so recent, so fresh.
– Be an accomplice, rather than just an ally
– Murray Sinclair “Education got us into this mess. Education will get us out of it”