TRUTH FIRST VOICES at ASSC [the Aboriginal Student Support Centre]. RH: Ceremony is a big one. If I didn’t have ceremony in my life, I wouldn’t be here. RK: All four of you are parents. Can you talk about being a parent and a student? GB: The reason I’m in postsecondary is I became a father. To set a precedent for my boys gives me the biggest smile because they’re going to see Dad do it. And my sister recently enrolled in the university because she saw me do it. RH: We have two children, five and seven, and I think they’re what saved my life and brought me here. They’re my motivation. … I’m in environmental conservation and sciences [because] I want to create a positive impact on the future of our planet and Turtle Island [North America] so our children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren will benefit from the gifts we’ve been given. TJ: I saw intergenerational trauma and knew I wanted to be a different parent. Our parents mean well, but when you’re parented by an institution [residential
“PEOPLE DON’T REALIZE THAT WE’RE PARENTS AND REGULAR PEOPLE. … WE WANT TO LIVE OUR LIVES AND BE OUR BEST SELVES.” Tiffany Orenda Johnson, student
56 ualberta.ca/newtrail
school], it has a huge effect. … My father was in one of the last residential schools to close in Alberta. He spent almost eight years in residential schools and during that time he became an orphan, so he went straight into foster care. … Having my son made me not want to repeat the hatred taught in residential schools. I’m effecting change for him and his children. RK: What would you say to students or alumni who don’t know how to move forward? SD: Allow us the space to be proud, to attend ceremony, to allow ceremony on campus and to speak our language without the barriers of discrimination. TJ: People don’t realize that we’re parents and regular people. Other than the devastating effects of colonization, we’re just humans. We want to live our lives and be our best selves. RH: Build connections with Indigenous people and take time to educate themselves. The Faculty of Native Studies just released its massive open online course, Indigenous Canada. It’s a great way to get to know Canada’s history and Indigenous ways of life. GB: In the age of information, ignorance is a choice. I’d like to challenge readers — alumni, administration, students — to do their research. I’d like to challenge Indigenous students to use their voice … the fact that you’re walking on campus means you’ve already succeeded. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Reading Toward Reconciliation As moderator of A Conversation About Reconciliation, hosted by the Edmonton Public Library (see page 60), Shelagh Rogers shared a selection of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and children’s books that explore residential schools, reconciliation and Indigenous identity. The full list of 45 books can be found at epl.ca under EPL Picks. Compiled by Heather O’Sullivan, Gabriola Island Local Trustee, Islands Trust, in consultation with Shelagh Rogers
non-fiction 2013
The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America by Thomas King Thomas King offers a critical and personal meditation about what it means to be “Indian” in North America.
non-fiction 2015
The Right to Be Cold: One Woman’s Story of Protecting Her Culture, the Arctic and the Whole Planet by Sheila Watt-Cloutier, ’09 LLD(Honorary) Sheila Watt-Cloutier explores the parallels between safeguarding the Arctic and the survival of Inuit culture in the face of environmental degradation.
young adult 2015
The Outside Circle: A Graphic Novel by Patti LaBoucane-Benson, ’90 BPE, ’01 MSc, ’09 PhD, and Kelly Mellings, ’00 BFA Patti LaBoucane-Benson draws on 20 years of work and research on healing and reconciliation with gangaffiliated and incarcerated Aboriginal men to tell the story of two brothers surrounded by poverty, gang violence and drug abuse who try to break free of the trauma in their lives.
children 2016
I Am Not a Number by Jenny Kay Dupuis and Kathy Kacer The story of co-author Dupuis’s grandmother, Irene
Couchie Dupuis, who was taken to residential school in 1928, is told through the eyes of eight-year-old Irene.
poetry 2016
Burning in This Midnight Dream by Louise Bernice Halfe In this collection, Louise Bernice Halfe responds to the emotions, memories, dreams and nightmares that arose in her as the Truth and Reconciliation process unfolded.
fiction 2001
Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson Eden Robinson combines joy and tragedy in a story of grief and survival and of a family on the edge of heartbreak, set in the Haisla settlement of Kitamaat on the British Columbia coast.
poetry 2015
The Pemmican Eaters by Marilyn Dumont, ’90 BA Marilyn Dumont recreates a sense of the Riel Resistance period and Batoche through the eyes of those who experienced the battles. Winner of the Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry.
fiction 1998
Kiss of the Fur Queen by Tomson Highway Tomson Highway infuses stark realism with the magic of Cree culture and blends tragedy with comedy in the story of the Okimasis brothers’ fight to survive.
PHOTO BY JOHN ULAN; PAINTING BY LEAH DORION, A TRIBUTE TO ABORIGINAL WOMEN, 2016