Breaking down barriers to indigenous education
Left to right: Rick Monture, Noella Steinhauer, Hayden King and Rick Hill were all participants in Decolonizing the Academy: Creating Spaces for Indigenous Knowledge, a recent panel discussion held in Council Chambers.
How can McMaster be more responsive to indigenous learners?
That was the focus of a recent panel discussion, Decolonizing the Academy: Creating Spaces for Indigenous Knowledge.
A panel of three indigenous scholars spoke to an audience of roughly 100 students, faculty and staff from across McMaster about a range of topics, including: the barriers indigenous students face in pursuing higher education and how to make universities more welcoming to both indigenous students and scholars.
The event was part of the McMaster Seminar on Higher Education: Practice, Policy and Public Life, sponsored the Office of the President, and was hosted by Rick Monture, director of McMaster’s Indigenous Studies Program.
McMaster president Patrick Deane recently highlighted the need to meaningfully address the question of indigenous education in his document FWI: Reflections on the Landscape and said discussions like this are vital to sparking continued dialogue around this issue.
“How can we improve access to post-secondary education for indigenous learners? How can we ensure the integration of indigenous perspectives into the broader activities of the University? We need to focus attention on these critical questions, and begin to build on the work that has already begun to strengthen and support indigenous learners and indigenous scholarship,” said Deane.
Panelists included: Noella Steinhauer, vice president of Education at Indspire and a Plains Cree from the Saddle Lake First Nation in northeastern Alberta; Hayden King, director of the Centre for Indigenous Governance and Associate Professor of politics at Ryerson University (King is also a member of the Bear Clan from Beausoliel First Nation on Gchim’nissing); Rick Hill, chairperson of the Six Nations Legacy Consortium and senior project coordinator at Six Nations Polytechnic.
Join the Indigenous Studies Program for an upcoming panel discussion, Indigenous Health Research: Indigenous Knowledge & Applied Perspectives. The event will be held on Feb. 5 from 12-1:30 p.m. For more information contact: Bernice Downey downebe@mcmaster.ca or Chelsea Gabel gabelc@mcmaster.ca.
