Indigenous Updates: March 2025

(Time to Read: 4 mins.)

ʔa səy̓em̓ ʔiʔ tə nə siyey̓ə ʔiʔ tə nə siyal̕əxʷeʔ
Respect­ed ones, friends and elders
ʔəm̓i ce:p kʷətxʷiləm tə n̓a təməxʷ
Wel­come to the land of the
xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam),
sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish)
and səlil­wə­taɬ (Tsleil-Wau­tuth) peo­ples.

“Can we talk of inte­gra­tion until there is inte­gra­tion of hearts and minds? Unless you have this, you only have phys­i­cal pres­ence, and the walls between us are as high as the moun­tain range.”

Chief Dan George of səlil­wə­taɬ (Tsleil-Wau­tuth)

---

Highlights of Indigenous Educational Opportunities hosted by CTLR at Vancouver Community College

VCC’s First Paddling Together: Indigenizing Your Course series lead by Tanya O’Neill VCC’s Manager of Indigenous Education Initiatives — A Resounding Success!

From Jan­u­ary to March 2025, an incred­i­ble group of pas­sion­ate indi­vid­u­als came togeth­er at VCC’s Broad­way Cam­pus for a trans­for­ma­tive jour­ney of rec­on­cil­i­a­tion, decol­o­niza­tion and Indi­g­e­niza­tion. This series wasn’t just about learn­ing; it was about build­ing mean­ing­ful rela­tion­ships, fos­ter­ing deep respect, and embrac­ing Indige­nous Ped­a­gogy and Ways of Know­ing in our work.

As this first series wraps up, the jour­ney doesn’t stop! This vibrant group of change­mak­ers will con­tin­ue to meet through­out the year to sup­port each oth­er in inte­grat­ing these teach­ings into their cours­es and rela­tion­ships, mak­ing a last­ing impact on VCC and beyond.

What We’ve Learned

In a world that moves fast, we’ve been gen­tly remind­ed of the impor­tance of slow­ing down, nur­tur­ing rela­tion­ships, and approach­ing our work with patience and inten­tion. We are not human-doings; we are human-beings – and through this col­lec­tive process, we’ve recon­nect­ed with self and oth­ers.

Ready for Your Next Chapter?

The excite­ment doesn’t end here! Keep your eyes and ears open for the announce­ment of the next series. Don’t miss out on this oppor­tu­ni­ty to be part of a trans­for­ma­tive expe­ri­ence! Stay tuned, stay con­nect­ed, and get ready to con­tin­ue the jour­ney of growth, learn­ing, and com­mu­ni­ty.

Up and coming Indigenous Educational Opportunities hosted by CTLR and Indigenous Services at Vancouver Community College

Who: Car­olyn Roberts — Author, Speak­er, Edu­ca­tor, Fac­ul­ty at UBC
What: Lunch and Learn — Exam­in­ing Cul­tur­al­ly Respon­sive Learn­ing Envi­ron­ments
When: Tues­days from April 8 – May 6, 2025, from 12:00pm – 1:00pm
Where: Zoom link to fol­low.

Car­olyn Roberts is a renowned edu­ca­tor, speak­er and sto­ry­teller with a wealth of expe­ri­ence and exper­tise in Indige­nous edu­ca­tion and decol­o­niza­tion. She is a St’at’imc and Sto:lo woman belong­ing to the The­varge fam­i­ly from N’quatqua Nation and the Kel­ly Fam­i­ly from the Tzeacht­en Nation, and a mem­ber of the Squamish Nation.

Through­out her illus­tri­ous career as an edu­ca­tor and admin­is­tra­tor for over 20 years, she has con­sis­tent­ly demon­strat­ed a pas­sion for sup­port­ing Indige­nous resur­gence through edu­ca­tion.

Cur­rent­ly Car­olyn holds the posi­tion as an Indige­nous aca­d­e­m­ic and Fac­ul­ty Lec­tur­er in the Teacher Edu­ca­tion Depart­ment of the Uni­ver­si­ty of British Colum­bia. Her ded­i­ca­tion to build­ing teach­ers’ under­stand­ings in Indige­nous his­to­ry, edu­ca­tion, and ances­tral ways of know­ing has not only gar­nered her recog­ni­tion with­in edu­ca­tion com­mu­ni­ty, but it has also had a pos­i­tive impact on the decol­o­niz­ing of the edu­ca­tion sys­tem.

Examining Culturally Responsive Learning Environments

This is an invi­ta­tion to step into the work of decol­o­niz­ing teacher prac­tice. In this series of five work­shops, you will have oppor­tu­ni­ties to learn and unlearn the his­to­ry of this land.

Car­olyn will take you on a walk through the build­ing of Cana­da with the colo­nial struc­tures that have harmed and con­tin­ue to harm the Indige­nous peo­ples of this land. With­in these con­ver­sa­tions you will have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to deep­en your under­stand­ings of the impact of col­o­niza­tion on the edu­ca­tion sys­tem and learn about ways you can con­tribute to chang­ing the sys­tem for the next gen­er­a­tions. As we gain deep­er under­stand­ings, we will also work through how we can learn about, talk about, and teach about race and racism in our class­rooms.

Car­olyn will sup­port you in edu­ca­tion­al prac­tices that can give you ways to engage with dif­fi­cult con­ver­sa­tions and allow you time to work through some steps to have these con­ver­sa­tions. We will end our time togeth­er learn­ing about what Indige­nous prac­tices look like in action in the class­room. We will walk through many ways you can put these prac­tices in to work with­in your own teach­ing prac­tice. There will be plen­ty of time to work through ideas, talk through ways to engage, and places to go for sup­port in this learn­ing jour­ney.

• Day 1: A walk through the his­to­ry of col­o­niza­tion
• Day 2: Cre­at­ing cul­ture of safe­ty in classrooms/ Anti-Indige­nous-Racism
• Day 3: Cul­tur­al Appro­pri­a­tion
• Day 4: Indige­nous teach­ing prac­tice, includ­ing decol­o­niz­ing prac­tices in prac­tice
• Day 5: Cul­tur­al­ly respon­sive ped­a­gogy in the class­room

---

We acknowl­edge that Van­cou­ver Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege (VCC) is locat­ed on the tra­di­tion­al and unced­ed ter­ri­to­ries of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlil­wə­taɬ (Tsleil-Wau­tuth) peo­ples who have been stew­ards of this land from time immemo­r­i­al.