Canadian universities require indigenous studies: 'It feels good to learn our history'
Canadian universities require indigenous studies: 'It feels good to learn our history'
University of Winnipeg undergraduates can choose from 60 courses, ranging from indigenous treaties to women’s history, to fulfill new course requirement
Cailynn Klingbeil in Calgary
Thursday 25 August 2016 12.36 EDT
Three years ago, Rorie Mcleod Arnould was shocked when he heard that on his university campus, two indigenous students witnessed their peers laughing at an elder as she gave a blessing at a convocation ceremony.
Mcleod Arnould, then a politics student and the vice-president of the University of Winnipeg Students’ Association, was even more startled when he spoke with members of the school’s Aboriginal Students’ Council and heard many more experiences of racism on campus.
“It was an awakening moment,” says Mcleod Arnould, 26.
The incident spurred him and other students to action to make their campus inclusive of indigenous students and have a “consequential effect on their education”. “Our minds went to what would be the most ambitious project we could undertake?”
The answer to that question goes into effect this fall, when every new undergraduate student at the University of Winnipeg must meet an indigenous course requirement to graduate. Lakehead University, in Thunder Bay, Ontario, is also introducing an indigenous content requirement this fall for new undergraduate students, making the two universities the first in Canada to mandate a baseline knowledge about indigenous people and culture for all students, regardless of faculty.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/25/canada-universities-indigenous-studies-university-of-winnipeg
= new reply since forum marked as read
