Mawita’yk Mawkina’masultimk Steering Committee, pictured at top, l-r, Joanne Tompkins, Faculty of Education, Lisa Lunney Borden, Faculty of Education, Terena Francis, Coordinator, Indigenous Student Affairs, Angie Kolen, Teaching and Learning Center Coordinator, Michelle Sylliboy, Faculty of Education, Department of Art and Modern Languages, Jane McMillan, Department of Anthropology, Kerry Prosper, StFX Elder in Residence
Faculty and teaching staff at StFX had an exciting opportunity to immerse themselves in learning more about the processes of colonization and decolonization this past week, May 10-14th, with the launch of StFX’s first Spring Teaching Retreat.
Dr. Angie Kolen, Teaching and Learning Center Coordinator, says the conference entitled, Mawita’yk Mawkina’masultimk: Come together; learn together, proved to be a wonderfully educative space.
“Participation by StFX faculty and teaching staff was high, with 200 participants at the larger keynote events. People external to the university were able to join in for the larger keynote sessions and there were faculty and staff from Acadia University, Dalhousie University, University of New Brunswick, Université de Moncton, UPEI, Brandon University, and others,” she says.
“Around 100 participants were present at each of the other sessions throughout the week, with participants often remaining in the Zoom space after the sessions finished to continue discussing various relevant issues. Various StFX Mi’kmaw alumni and many Mi’kmaw community members were also in attendance throughout the retreat. Elder Albert Marshall, from Eskasoni, honoured the retreat by attending sessions every day, sharing his wisdom, humor and passion for Mi’kmaw language and culture.”
The conference was originally planned to be primarily in-person with keynote presenters participating virtually. Exciting experiential activities were planned. However, changes in protocols by Public Health forced the conference to be online using Zoom.
Each day of the retreat was devoted to a key topic related to the reconciliation journey towards indigenization that universities are called to take up as they respond to the Calls to Action outlined in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Final Report (2015).
Dr. Kolen says the topic for Monday, May 10 was Rooting ourselves in Mi’kma’ki. StFX President and Vice-Chancellor Dr. Andy Hakin welcomed delegates to the retreat. Elder Kerry Prosper opened the conference with a discussion entitled Living Treaties and spoke of the continuing struggle in this province to have Mi’kmaw rights recognized and honoured. This was followed by the keynote address by Dr. Marie Battiste, Mi’kmaw educator and Professor Emeritas (University of Saskatchewan) who, Dr. Kolen says, stressed that current efforts to increase awareness and competence in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) on campuses across the country have failed to recognize positive results in post-secondary education for Indigenous people. In her remarks, Dr. Battiste said EDI efforts fail to acknowledge that Indigenous people have treaty rights. Therefore, decolonization needs to complement EDI efforts to achieve to levels of success in postsecondary education that Indigenous communities seek.
The afternoon session, Treaty Education in Nova Scotia was led by Jacqueline Prosper (Treaty Lead, Mi’kmaw Kina’matnewey) and Celeste Sulliman (Treaty Education Lead, Nova Scotia Department of L’nu Affairs) and organizers say it provided a comprehensive overview of the promising efforts in treaty education in all P-12 schools, the provincial civil service, and the general public.
Colonization and decolonization were the key topics of the sessions on Tuesday, May 11. L’nu Sagamow (Grand Chief) Norman Sylliboy and Kji Keptin (Grand Captain) Antlé Denny opened the day with an historical and contemporary overview of traditional Mi’kmaw governance. Both leaders stressed the inherent right of “Mi’kmaw to have the opportunity to be seen as a Nation.” Both Mi’kmaw leaders also indicated a desire to build deeper relationships with StFX so that the university would better serve Mi’kmaw students and Mi’kmaw communities.
Dr. Kevin Wamsley, StFX AVP & Provost, thanked the Grand Chief and Grand Captain for sharing their wisdom and knowledge with the delegates. Next were breakout sessions in which participants chose one of the following: a) efforts by the StFX library to create library guides to provide greater visibility and ease in locating Indigenous materials; b) an introduction to the Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada Giant Floor Map, a highly interactive and experiential teaching tool which can be used in Treaty Education; and c) an interactive session on ways to more fully engage with Land Acknowledgements such that they are respectful, genuine and action oriented.
Mi’kmaw artist, poet and StFX faculty member Michelle Sylliboy drew upon her current doctoral research and led an afternoon session entitled, Indigenizing Geography Through Komqwejwi’kasikl (Hieroglyphics).
Wednesday’s theme was trauma and healing. Mi’kmaw Elder, educator, and Knowledge Keeper Jane Meader and her daughter Paulina Meader, a critical care LPN and Knowledge Keeper drew upon their ancestral knowledge and ceremonial practices to lead: Health and Healing from a Mi’kmaw perspective: Ceremonies, core beliefs and protocols. In the afternoon Dr. Alanaise Goodwill, a citizen of the Sandy Bay Ojibway First Nation in Manitoba and a licensed psychologist and faculty member at Simon Fraser University, shared her research and teaching expertise with participants in her session entitled, Trauma Informed Pedagogy: Methods to create safety and supporting learning that honours Indigenous ways of being.
The last two days of the retreat were devoted to actioning decolonization and Indigenization in our teaching and research. Thursday’s session began with a very powerful presentation by current and former Mi’kmaw students of StFX. Terena Francis, Coordinator of Indigenous Student Affairs, facilitated a session, Voices of our Students, in which Jeneva Dennis, Ruby Poulette, Tamara Cremo and Krista Hanscomb spoke openly and honestly to conference participants about the spaces, places and practices at StFX that served to exclude and diminish them and those that were inclusive and affirmed who they were as Mi’kmaw learners. Organizers says this session provided potent learning for all faculty and teaching staff.
The student session was followed by a panel of Mi’kmaw community leaders in the fields of science, business, the humanities and integrated health. Shelley Denny, Chris Googoo, Krista Thompson, Michelle Sylliboy, Jane Meader and John R. Sylliboy each spoke about ways in which they incorporate Mi’kmaw knowledge, culture, and language into their places of work, teaching and research. Following a brief panel discussion, participants moved into smaller break out rooms to have conversations with these community leaders.
In the spirit of moving into action, the afternoon sessions highlighted current faculty and teaching staff from StFX who are already taking steps towards Indigenization in their teaching and research spoke to the retreat participants. Drs. Jennifer Mitton, Russell Wyeth, Maureen Moynagh, Katie Aubrecht, Shelley Price and Peter Kikkert shared overviews of their respective decolonizing journeys in a panel presentation and then moved into smaller break out rooms, where deeper discussions occurred.
Friday’s session concluded with a keynote presentation by Dr. Sa’ke’j Henderson, National Research Fellow, College of Law, University of Saskatchewan. Sa’ke’j brought the learnings of the week together by returning to treaty rights. His presentation was entitled Treaty Canada is the Future: Reinvigorating Treaty Federalism in Atlantic Canada, providing both historical and contemporary understandings of the treaties and treaty relationship. Jane and Paulina Meader formally closed the retreat on Friday afternoon with a closing circle, and a commitment from the participants to return next year to continue Mawita’yk Mawkina’masultimk: Come together; learn together.
Dr. Kolen says the conference concluded with Calls to Action and a commitment to ensure that the ideas generated during this week will be turned into actionable items during the 2021-2022 academic year. The conference Steering Committee thanks the Peacock Family Foundation for their generous grant that allowed this retreat to take place.
Mawita’yk Mawkina’masultimk Steering Committee members include Dr. Joanne Tompkins, Faculty of Education, Dr. Lisa Lunney Borden, Faculty of Education, Terena Francis, Coordinator, Indigenous Student Affairs, Dr. Angie Kolen, Teaching and Learning Center Coordinator, Dr. Michelle Sylliboy, Faculty of Education, Department of Art and Modern Languages, Dr. Jane McMillan, Department of Anthropology, and Kerry Prosper, StFX Elder in Residence.
