Events

In the Midst of Grief We Are Healing: An Affinity Event for Indigenous Staff, Faculty and Students in STEM

Indigenous Staff, Faculty and Students are invited to come together on October 11th from 12:30- 2:00 PM for informal conversations, community building and healing as we navigate the ongoing journey of truth, reconciliation, and redress in our communities.

In the Midst of Grief We Are Healing: An Affinity Event for Indigenous Staff, Faculty and Students in STEM

Event Details

Event title: ʕat̕ikšiƛin naas łaakt̕uuła w̕it̕asin:  In the Midst of Grief We Are Healing: An Affinity Event for Indigenous Staff, Faculty and Students in STEM 

Date: 11 October 2023 

Time: 12:30 PM – 2:00 PM 

Venue: Rooms 5104/5106 – Earth Sciences Building (ESB), 2207 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4

Format: Informal conversation and community building. Food and beverages will be provided.

Register

Description

Written by Derek Thompson – Thlaapkiituup, Director, Indigenous Engagement

Years ago, I was in an honors history class and the title was something like Epidemiology and Pacific Northwest Coast Native Peoples, and the purpose of the class was to consider the so-called Northwest Coast Native experience with contact-era new diseases and the associated population loss that affected in one way or another virtually every aspect of Native culture. The professor often turned to me for some type of reply given that I was the only Native in the class, and likely the only Pacific Northwest Coast Native in the University of Saskatchewan. I was talking about the effect of cumulative unresolved grief and trauma within the contexts of new diseases and the onslaught of oppression and assimilation that followed. 

There’s so much grief in our communities, it’s there all of the time, it’s just always there, and we are a hurt people, and we’re hurting people. There are many people in our communities that need to cry, and they don’t, and it’s often to their detriment, creating layers of intergenerational unresolved grief and trauma. The people that I come from, the Nuu-chah-nulth, believe that the profound nature of acknowledgment of those in our presence who are grieving is fundamental to our ability to thrive. Because even in the midst of grief we are healing, and as we cry, we’re healing, and when we cry together in the vulnerability of deep sorrow we are starting to heal. 

I was interrupted by a young white male student and he went on for some time referencing one book or another and regurgitating what he’d read somewhere about Indian people. He continued in an effort to rationalize Canada’s intentions to assimilate Indians and minimize the effect of colonialism, and that if the Indians had just done as they were supposed to do, well, we wouldn’t be sitting here complaining about it. He sounded very bright, intelligent and righteous. 

And I told him as much, that he’s very smart and articulate, and that I agree with everything he said. I also added that I was struck by his ignorance and hedonistic disposition, and that I found it curious that someone so smart couldn’t hear what I just said – There’s so much grief in our communities, it’s there all of the time, it’s just always there, and we are a hurt people, and we’re hurting people. 

Today’s work of telling the truth, telling our truths, and listening to the many truths of the past and present, of truth and reconciliation, and of reckoning with the truth, is equally necessary and difficult. This work requires all of us to be brave, confident and gracious, and in the absence of this sensibility we are left to repeat the wrongs of the past. This work requires all of us to be compassionate, respectful and dignified, and the combined effect of these values is that we all arrive at what it means to heal, and to heal together, with each other, and with a shared resolve to come to terms with each other as Indigenous peoples and as Canadians. 

The goal of this event is to come together to support one another in a continuing era of truth, reconciliation and redress, and as we learn and grow so does our ability to be vulnerable.

This event is a organized by a group of collaborators across the Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty of Forestry, the Faculty of Science, the Faculty of Land and Food Systems, the Faculty of Applied Science, and the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Collaborators

  • Derek Thompson – Faculty of Medicine
  • Roslyn Golder –Faculty of Medicine
  • Maï Yasué – Faculty of Medicine
  • Ashley Welsh – Faculty of Science 
  • Hisham Zerriffi – Faculty of Forestry 
  • Nadine Gerhardt – Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences
  • Dana-Lyn Mackenzie – Faculty of Applied Science 
  • Ajay Puri – Equity and Inclusion Office (EIO)  
  • Madison Tardif – Equity and Inclusion Office (EIO)  

An Affliction of Our Stories: Contemplating the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

Reflections by Derek Thompson – Thlaapkiituup, Director, Indigenous Engagement

Reflections by Derek Thompson – Thlaapkiituup, Director, Indigenous Engagement, in commemoration of the National day for Truth and Reconciliation.

Brave survivors, through telling their stories, have stripped white supremacy of its legitimacy.

Phil Fontaine, Grand Chief of the Assembly of First Nations
In response to the Government of Canada’s 2008 Statement of Apology – to former students of Indian Residential Schools

This past summer my mom, Maude, shared a meal with her sisters, my aunties, Jessie and Olive. For a long time, there was a void nearly as vast as the known universe between them despite being geographically only hours apart. I watched video footage on Facebook of them seeing each other for the first time, and it was equally heartening and heartbreaking. My mom hugged each of her sisters and they cried, they giggled, they cried again, they looked at each other with their hands lovingly wiping away each other’s tears, they held each other closer crying all over again, they kissed each other repeatedly on each cheek, and the tears softened into pure and utter joy. The video abruptly ended, and not much afterward I got a text from my mom, “Hi my Son, I’m out with my Sisters, can you please buy us lunch?” To which I wholeheartedly replied, “Absolutely!”

The time they spent together will forever remain between them. I didn’t even ask my mom how her visit was, and I’d imagine the experience itself was awkward and unfamiliar, emotional and difficult to understand, and altogether overwhelming in every way. But not so overpowering to get in the way of them taking great delight in each other’s company. I imagine three little girls, or teenagers, amused by all things trivial, foolish and cheerful, and as girls do they tell of all things treasured, hopeful and important, these women, now grandmothers, being transported back to a time before their lives were so brutally disrupted.

There are shadows that reflect only a bit of light, and there’s a darkness that lets in no light at all, distinguishable only by the passing of time and silence, memories and nightmares forever fixed to an ocean of grief, and yet buoyant in life and purpose. In this way, my mom has been a mystery to me, fastened but moving. I don’t know the reasoning that brought my mom and her sisters together, I’d like to know, but it’s not my place to know or even ask. There are some shadows that must remain barely lit, and some darkness that if you shone a light it might just reveal something beautiful, like three sisters coming together to bask in the glow of love, security and acceptance.

My mom’s childhood throughout the horror of the Indian residential school experience, and her life that followed, is much like a story that has no beginning, a middle filled with inexplicable pain and misery as well as moments of happiness and confidence, and a conclusion that has yet to be written, but like any narrative the ending is dependent on the structure and the accounting of a chronology of life events marking all of the core memories of experiences and feelings. There are chapters missing, some chapters abruptly ending, chapters with a single sentence, and some chapters written in a language indiscernible by the stain of time and silence. I wonder what this chapter means to her and how she’ll write it.

My mom and her sisters, and like all Survivors of the Indian residential school experience in Canada, were violently forced into a system that was hellbent on killing the Indian in the child, stealing all that is innocent and wholesome, and left victimized, all Survivors were abandoned with their own warped sensibilities of piecing together the brutal and unforgiving history of their childhood – this history that stole our children and who are children no more.

What is at stake in pastness for me is the future, and the process of becoming. Truth telling, reconciling with each other and coming to terms with history provides strategies for countering inequalities of power in knowledge of the past. We learn how scanty evidence can be repositioned to generate new narratives, how silences can be made to speak for themselves to confront inequalities of power in the production of sources, archives and narratives. We need to make these silences speak and, in the process, lay claim to the future, and move the process of becoming to that of being. If history is being written in the present, if our stories are being told today, it’s time to change the debate of what history was and claim it as ours, and shape it into a narrative that shines a light on what it means to be Canadian in an era of redress.

As we enter this era, now or never, and into this third chapter to commemorate truth and reconciliation, it’s important to consider what is at stake, individually and collectively. How much you contribute to this work is dependent on, well, I suppose that this is entirely subjective. Because who I am to say what it’s dependent on? What I do know, is that we are never so steeped in history as when we pretend not to be, when we invent or otherwise rationalize the wrong doings of the past, when we take comfort in the trivial and rote exercises of land acknowledgments and orange t-shirts, and when we enrich our privileges with a lack of sophistication. If our national story is hidden in the shadows of oppression and assimilation, if our national identity is based on the segregation of Indians to Indian reserves, if the story of the Indian in Canada is the story of Canada, then I think it’s time to drag out these silences of the past and quiet its deafening ignorance and hate.

Their stories of the past, my mom’s story, her mother’s story, her sisters’ stories, are unnerving for me in how untold stories haunt us and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive, and how long held secrets create the narrative that tells us that we’re not worthy of love, not worthy of acceptance, not worthy of confidence, and we’re not worthy of a life filled with all things good and whole. Chapter after chapter, silence and time pen stories of tragedy, grief and pain unresolved in the span of our lives and often working its way backwards, and never learning that the most powerful story we can ever possess is our own.

Thank You Message: We Welcome the Children Back Home

We Welcome the Children Back Home: The Burden of Sorrow and Survival of the Indian Residential School Experience in Canada

“Brave Survivors, through telling their stories, have stripped white supremacy of its legitimacy.”
Phil Fontaine, Grand Chief of the Assembly of First Nations
In response to the Government of Canada’s 2008 Statement of Apology – to former students of Indian Residential Schools

Thank you to the brave survivors

On Wednesday, September 20th 2023, we were honored to welcome an esteemed panel of Survivors of the Indian Residential School Experience in Canada. The depth of their individual truths and shared truthfulness is equal to their strength of character and wisdom. Their stories, their memories, their intense burden of sorrow and survival is a stark reminder of the need and urgency to inspire a momentum of profound action to really get at the work of transformative change in this era of truth, reconciliation and redress.

Margaret Commodore, Fran Tait, Constance Humchitt, Fran Tate, Wally Samuel, George Jack Thompson, Robert Daniels, and Charlie Thompson – we are absolutely honored and grateful for your courage, wisdom and generosity of heart and soul. All of us who witnessed your individual determination and collective dedication to this important conversation owe you all a debt of gratitude, and we pledge to commit ourselves to the work of truth-telling, reconciliation and redress.

Our deepest gratitude to Shane Pointe and Cynthia Jamieson providing cultural and wellness support.

We raise our hands to all of you with our most sincere thankfulness, and offer our compassion and love to wrap around each of you like a warm blanket in times of remembering – ƛ´eko ƛ´eko | Huy tseep q’u|Gila’kasla | Nakurmiik | Marrsî | Thank you.

In the Spirit of Respect,

Derek K Thompson – Thlaapkiituup
Director, Indigenous Engagement
UBC Faculty of Medicine

Watch the recording for the panel with the Brave Survivors
Read Derek Thompson’s Reflection in commemoration of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

UBC stands in support of 2SLGBTQIA+ communities

We Welcome The Children Back Home: The Burden of Sorrow and Survival of the Indian Residential School Experience in Canada

Thank you for joining us virtually on Wednesday, September 20th, 2023 from 12:00 pm – 3:30 pm (PST), for “We Welcome The Children Back Home: The Burden of Sorrow and Survival of the Indian Residential School Experience in Canada.” This Indigenous Speaker Series session brought together a panel of survivors of the Indian Residential School experience in Canada. This important session welcomed and honored these brave and resilient survivors as they lead us in a discussion about the urgency and motivation to right and write a new history in Canada that is based on a proper redress for Indigenous peoples and communities. We Welcome the Children Back Home is an expression to acknowledge those survivors in Indigenous families and communities who are hurt and hurting, and who are simultaneously coming to terms with the past and finding a way forward.

We Welcome The Children Back Home: The Burden of Sorrow and Survival of the Indian Residential School Experience in Canada

This virtual event is presented by the Indigenous Speakers Series. 

Read our Thank You Message to the Brave Survivors
Read Derek Thompson’s Reflection in commemoration of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
We’d like to hear from you! Share your feedback

Panelists

Constance Humchitt – Thalth Gwaith

My everyday name is Constance Pearl Humchitt-Tallio and my traditional name is Thalth Gwaith which means Copper Woman, and to many friends and family I have been known as Connie – the name I will use during this presentation.

My parents were Hereditary Chief Wigvi ba Wakas – Chief Eagle Nose, Leslie Humchitt and Umaqs – Emma Humchitt of the Heiltsuk Nation. I am the third child of two brothers and three sisters. My younger brother now holds the Hereditary Chieftainship that my great-grandfather held since the 1800s.

The beginning of my educational journey began in 1950/51 in grade one at our Indian Day School in Bella Bella, and thereafter to the Boarding Home Program since they did not have grade 8, and so we had to leave to progress into Junior High and then again onto to the [Port] Alberni Indian Residential School from 1957 to 1960.

I am currently a Native Language Teacher in my Community of Bella Bella and I teach Kindergarten students aged 4, 5 and 6 years. I have a Language Proficiency Certificate with SFU, for which I can teach under the Ministry of Education, and I am also a Curriculum Resource Coordinator with the Bella Bella Community School. I was a Grandfathered in Social Worker and employed with my Band.

My volunteer time is researching family history, family trees, and anything to do with assisting families in this way. I am a Commissioner for the Province of BC on behalf of the Heiltsuk Nation, a Representative for our Mynuyags – Women’s Council on Joint Leadership for the Band, Treasurer for our Church, and I am active in numerous other entities.

Fran Tate

My name is Frances Anne Tate (nee Robinson), and I was born on July 5th, 1943, to Mac Robinson and Mary Edgar at Dodgers Cove near Bamfield, BC. I was only a young adult when my parents passed away.

I was taken from my parents at the age of 7 years and brought to the Alberni Indian Residential School.

My traditional way of life ended the day I arrived there, and I remained there until I was 16 years. During my time there I participated in some sports such as basketball, softball and participated in choir. During winter holiday school breaks I was unable to travel to my home community because of severe weather conditions, and my father’s only means of transportation was a dugout canoe with a small outboard motor, and I was billeted out around Port Alberni to homes that would take me in for a few weeks during this time.

During summer holidays around the time I was 13 until I was 16, my parents picked us up to go berry picking in the United States, and one location I recall was Vascas Island. Picking berries was our way of making money to support our parents at that time.

My participation with the Language Department at our new community school began when Adam Werle began teaching the Language class. In 2007 I began to read and write our Ditidaht Language, and shortly after I was hired as a language teacher to teach in our school. I did this from 2008 until 2019 when COVID-19 hit our community and the school was closed. Also, our language staff taught the toddlers at our Aasuubus Daycare.

I was asked to mentor 2 daycare staff as they enrolled in the language emersion program to benefit teaching the children during their time at daycare. I also participated with building up our language platform that is on the First Voices website. The elders in the community all contributed to adding words and phrases on this valuable site.

In closing I am proud of my family I have built with my late husband David Tate. We had eight children together, and we have 34 grandchildren and 18 great grandchildren.

Frances P Tait

Frances P Tait

Fran was born in Lax Kw’alaams – Port Simpson, BC and she currently lives in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. Along with her two brothers, Melford Tait and Andrew (Woody) Tait, she was sent to the Alberni Indian Residential School (AIRS) from 1951-1966 from the ages of 5-18 years. She graduated in 1966 from the Alberni District Secondary School. After being sent to AIRS she did not go home until she was 12 years, and she spent 1958-59 in the Port Simpson Day School. At the age of 15 years she was sent to Metlakatla, Alaska to attend school from September through to December before she was sent back to Prince Rupert. She then was asked to be sent back to AIRS for grades 11 and 12 because she knew the school better than she did her home community, and she knew where she would fit in, in the scheme of things and her life. Fran completed Grade 13 at West Vancouver High School in the Department of Indian Affairs home-school program. She attended UBC in 1971- 1972 but did not complete the BA program, and she has no interest to do so now. She was employed by the Malaspina College (Malaspina University College) as an Academic Advisor from 1974 to 2006, when she retired. She is an Elder in the Vancouver Island University Masters’ of Education program. In her retirement she’s an avid Dragon Boat paddler. Fran is actively involved as a Survivor in an advisory capacity with the AIRS Research Team with the Tseshaht First Nation. She also is a supporter of the Alberni Indian Residential School Survivors Art & Education Society.

Margaret Commodore

Margaret Commodore (aka Margaret Joe) is of Stó:lō ancestry, and she was born in 1932 to Andy and Theresa (nee Prest) Commodore in Chilliwack, BC. She spent the early years of her life at Deep Bay where she attended public school in 1938, then Coqualeetza Indian residential school in 1939. By 1940, Margaret, along with her siblings, were sent to the Alberni Indian Residential School. In 1947, at just 15 years, she left Indian residential school and moved back to the Fraser Valley where she held numerous jobs including gas jockey, and as a fruit and hops picker. From 1948 to 1965, Margaret worked on and off at the Coqualeetza Indian/TB hospital.

Margaret lost her Indian Status in 1957 when she married a whiteman. From this marriage she had two daughters, Jacalyn Mae and Tracy Leigh. Being a non-Status Indian brought many challenges in her young life – for one she was not allowed to return home to live on her reserve of Soowahlie. Her strong will never ceased to fail her and she went on to Vancouver Community College where she earned her Practical Nurse Certificate. In 1965, she obtained a job in Whitehorse, Yukon, and by this time she was a single mother, and so she packed some personal belongings and along with her two young daughters they began a new adventure in Northern Canada. In 1966 she married her second husband and had another daughter, Sheila Ann. She took a few months off of work to be a stay-at-home mother but her yearning for a better life for herself and her young daughters brought her to the next journey in life – politics. Her political career began in 1971 when she was elected as Vice President of the Yukon Association of Non-Status Indians (YANSI). The injustices and discriminations she faced over the years brought out the fierce side of her. For many years she worked towards helping Non-Status Indians and Women to obtain equality in the ever-dominant white male society.

Margaret was also a Justice of the Peace for a few years before she decided to get back to politics. In 1982, she was elected as a Member of the Yukon Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Whitehorse North Centre and subsequently re-elected in the years 1985, 1989 and 1992. Margaret was the first Aboriginal Minister of Justice in Canada, but in previous years she was named to Minister of Health and Human Resources, Women’s Directorate, and the Yukon Liquor Corporation. She finished a successful and accomplished political career when she retired in 1996. However, during this span of her career it was not without a setback which triggered her memory. It began when Margaret went to a local art show by an accomplished artist, Jim Logan. The pictures depicted scenes of Indian residential school life. The painted images brought back vivid memories – memories she kept buried for decades. It was at that moment the horrific abuse she suffered in Indian residential school came back like a dam bursting. She returned to her office and cried for hours.Shortly after, Margaret heard her homelands calling her back to her birthplace and she returned to Chilliwack in 1996. However, the haunting memories of Indian residential school remained. She decided it was time to start talking and begin her healing journey. She attended the trauma program, not once but three times, at the Tsow-Tun-Le-Lum Treatment Centre in Nanaimo, and she believes that “You can’t just go there once and expect the pain to leave. You have to do it more than once…when you carry the pain as long as I did, it’s harder to get rid of it.” In 2013, she finally told her story in front of thousands of people at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission gathering in Vancouver, BC. It was the first time two of her daughters heard her heartbreaking story. During her testimony she said, “I won’t apologize for my tears. I deserve them….my healing will last for the rest of my life.”

Charlie E Thompson – Buukwilla

I am Charlie Elwood Thompson – Buukwilla and I am from the Tsuubaas First Nations, formerly of the Ditidaht First Nation. I have lineage in Nuuchahnulth and Coast Salish.

I was born July 6, 1946, in the state of Washington where my late mother was berry-picking like many First Nations people did back then. I was born in a small shack in a strawberry field.

In 1955, at the age of nine I was brought to the Alberni Indian Residential School (AIRS), along with my two younger brothers – Jack and Arthur. We all spent ten years in that institution not knowing why we were brought there. During those years I lost my language and most importantly my culture. I had no opportunity to know who I really was, and I became an assimilated Indian and left knowing that because I was told the old ways were wrong and I believed it.

A lot changed when Survivors started finally talking about what happened to them, and for a while I was too afraid to speak about my time at AIRS. The turning point for me was when a group of boys took Arthur Henry Plint, a dorm supervisor at AIRS, to criminal court and we won. He was sentenced to eleven years in prison. This action allowed me to talk and start a criminal action to the supervisor who abused me, my brother and a friend. Unfortunately, the supervisor passed away before the court date.

After a few years of doing my best to deal with what happened to me at AIRS I eventually got to a place of being okay. I enrolled in a counselling course at Malaspina College along with other Nuuchahnulth people, and although I struggled in that course I made it through with a certificate. This gave me an opportunity to work with our people who were traumatized at Indian Residential Schools. I enjoyed helping Survivors.

I have seen our community divided so bad that there seems to be an impossibility to get past it or deal with the issues that keep us apart. But, I have hope that the next generation can deal with it and move onto a better future.

George Jack Thompson

George Jackie Thompson was born in Tacoma, Washington on July 31, 1947. I lived my young life in the village of Whyac where we used to play on the beaches all day until it started getting dark. Our mother, Ida Thompson (nee Modeste), used to tell us to get home before it got dark, and we also would visit our great-grandparents Nookwa and Tuxbeek in Clo-oose, and they would feed us when we got hungry. At times we would stay in Duncan with our Grandparents, Elwood and Mabel (nee Good) Modeste, my mother’s parents.

Sadly, we went to the Alberni Indian Residential School in 1955. Our mother wanted us to go to school in Duncan, and in fact already had us registered but our father said we are going to Alberni Indian Residential School, and he said, “So they can make men out of them.” We never had the opportunity to ask him what he meant because he passed away at a young age.

In 1967 I married Nona Margaret Williams and we have 4 beautiful children – Iris, Wendy, Jack, and Colleen, and later on we adopted Barry Patrick our youngest son. In the same year I started learning about our culture and learning to dance from my grandfather George Thompson.

I went to Vocational School in Nanaimo at Malaspina College and took up a Welding Course. After completing the course, I started welding in a Logging Camp at Nimpkish earning $50.00/hr. I moved around to different Logging Camps and finally ended up in Narrows Inlet, Sechelt. In all I welded for 18 years. And crazy me got into Politics with the encouragement of my Uncle Stan, and I was the elected Chief of Ditidaht First Nation for over 20 consecutive years.

Robert Daniels

Robert Daniels, BA, MA

I am an Indian residential school survivor. Indian residential school was a horrendous experience where I suffered physical, sexual and mental abuse at Alberni Indian Residential School (AIRS). My kindergarten year was at the First United Church at Koksilah, BC and it was a good experience there. I spent twelve years at the Alberni Indian Residential School, from 1950 to 1962. My Indian residential school experiences spawned within me deep feelings of hurt and anger that I still carry today. These feelings of hurt and anger do not drive my life today, but they still exist, pushed deep down in my self-consciousness. These feelings come to me as I listen to other residential school survivor’s stories.

After twelve years at AIRS, when I returned home, people in my community did not know who I was, except for my family. This Indian residential school education and experience is significant with me having to heal after returning home and with an empty soul, without knowing any of my own culture and traditional language. After years of hard lessons in life, I found balance through my culture, Elders teachings, and with personal counselors. Our cultural heritage plays an important healing avenue as my family’s inheritances and customary property carries so much rich family history. Yet my culture and traditional language was forbidden at AIRS, and we were punished anytime we spoke our traditional language and I was not taught my own culture.

I learned through my tough life lessons and my bad experiences. I did not have any critical and creative thought processes. I was never taught or even allowed to take a position or defend it. Our Indian residential school environment was very strict and regimented. We lined up and marched into the dining room, marched into the auditorium for morning religious services – twice on Sundays. I was slapped in the face so hard by the infamous supervisor, Arthur Henry Plint, because I did not snap to attention.

My Indian residential school experiences included religious indoctrination enforced by corporal punishment and myriad forms of abuse, cultural and bodily shame, alienation from my family, and a disconnection from subsistence economies. Once we were self-sufficient and living without any government assistance, and our pantries were always full of jarred and canned salmon and fruit that brought us through the winter.

Wally Samuel

Wally was born and raised in the Nuuchahnulth village of Ahousaht. His late father was Daniel Samuel of Ahousaht and he was a commercial fisherman and trolled the west coast of Vancouver Island from Tofino to Kyuquot, where Wally liked to spend most of his summers. His late mother, Hazel Olebar, was from Kyuquot. Wally was born in a time where he observed the Ahousaht language, culture and traditions being practiced. The highlight of his childrearing was listening to stories from the Ahousaht people and Elders who were a part of the rich history and traditions of Ahousaht as it was in the 1800s.

Wally has 35 years of public service, managing, planning and implementing community programs, activities and services. He understands the Ahousaht dialect and can speak some, and he leads the Ahousaht Cultural Group in Port Alberni for the teaching and preservation of Ahousaht songs and dances. Wally knows, respects and practices First Nations culture and protocols. He has also given presentations on Indigenous tourism and First Nations partnerships across BC and Canada, as well as in Australia.

Wally is a Survivor of the Alberni Indian Residential School, and he has done presentations at schools, libraries and public events on his perspectives of the Indian residential school experience.

Support

Shane Pointe | Ti-te-in
Cultural Support

Ti-te-in | Sound of Thunder – Shane Pointe is a Musqueam Knowledge Keeper, and his motto is Nutsamaht! – We are one. Ti-te-in is a proud member of the Salish Nation, the Pointe family, and the Musqueam Indian Band. In addition to being a proud grandfather and a great-grandfather, he is a facilitator, advisor, traditional speaker, and artist. Shane has worked for five different school boards, Corrections Canada, Simon Fraser University, The University of British Columbia, and the First Nations Health Authority. He provides advice and guidance on ceremonial protocols for local, national and international cultural events.

Cynthia Jamieson

Cynthia Jamieson
Mental Health and Wellness Support

I have been providing counselling and supervision of counselling services for over 15 years for couples, adults, children and youth.  I have a Master of Social Work Degree and I am also a Certified Life Coach.  My areas of specialty include trauma, couples counselling, youth, addictions, depression/anxiety, grief, OCD, crisis counselling, work/life balance and eating disorders.  Therapeutic modalities that I incorporate into my practice are Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Dialectical Behavioural Therapy, Emotionally Focussed Therapy and Structural Family Therapy.  

I am an Indigenous person of mixed ancestry with an Indigenous father and a Caucasian mother. Originally from Six Nations of the Grand River in Ontario, I have worked with several First Nations communities in BC, including Tla’Amin, Mowachat, Cowichan, as well as urban and Metis populations.

Moderator

Derek Thompson

Derek K Thompson – Thlaapkiituup, Director, Indigenous Engagement

Description 

Written by Derek K Thompson – Thlaapkiituup, Director, Indigenous Engagement

Think of where you were on June 11th, 2008.

There have been many descriptions about the Indian residential school experience in Canada that maintain Indigenous – First Nations, Inuit, Métis – peoples lost their language, lost their identity, lost their culture, that children lost their innocence. We didn’t lose anything. Our individual and collective purpose to sustain who we are and where we come from was stolen. Beautiful and bright children were completely dispossessed of everything and anything resembling their own language, their own identity, their own culture, and their own innocence. Robbed of all that is good and wholesome, robbed of anything resembling the people they come from, robbed of the surety of confidence and innocence. This history that stole our children, and who are children no more.

Be mindful of what you’ve done since September 30th, 2022, and September 30th, 2023.

On September 21st, 2022, in a solemn effort to acknowledge the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation we brought together a panel of people who are children of Indian residential school survivors. The conversations on that day inspired a shared desire to stand together in love and support for these brave speakers whom endured the legacy of abuse, hurt, trauma, and grief. The day was filled with sorrow and uncertainty, and it was also overflowing with forgiveness, understanding and confidence.

On September 20th, 2023, we are bringing together a panel of survivors of the Indian Residential School experience in Canada. This important session will welcome and honor these brave and resilient survivors to lead us in a discussion about the urgency and motivation to right and write a new history in Canada that is based on a proper redress for Indigenous peoples and communities. We Welcome the Children Back Home is an expression to acknowledge those survivors in our families and communities who are hurt and hurting, and who are simultaneously coming to terms with the past and finding a way forward.

Think about what you will do between September 30th, 2023, and September 30th, 2024.

September 30th, 2023, will mark the 3rd annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. This important day is an opportunity for all Canadians and British Columbians to think about the continuing legacy of the Indian residential school experience in Canada as well as the broader impact of colonialism, oppression, assimilation, and racism against Indigenous – First Nations, Inuit and Métis – peoples. It’s a chance to enrich our individual and collective understanding of the past and to create a new chapter in our shared history that is founded on the principles of respect, truth, reconciliation, and redress.

June 11th, 2008, marked the formal statement of apology to former students of the Indian Residential School Experience in Canada made by the Prime Minister in the House of Commons on behalf of all Canadians. We’ve known before and since this apology that this horrific experience also includes those children that never made it home, that we’re buried at former sites of Indian Residential Schools, and that never got to experience the acknowledgment of an apology nor the comfort of being able to come to terms with their past, with their family, with their community.

Topic: We Welcome The Children Back Home: The Burden of Sorrow and Survival of the Indian Residential School Experience in Canada

Date: Wednesday, September 20th, 2023

Time: 12:00 – 3:30 pm (PST)

What Will I Learn?

You will learn about the context of truth, reconciliation and redress from survivors of the Indian Residential School Experience in Canada.

Continue Learning

“The time to make things happen is now. The time to seek out our individual and shared power is now.”

Learn more about REDI’s Indigenous Initiatives here

Discover more about REDI’s Indigenous Initiatives Speakers Series here

Find REDI’s Indigenous-Specific Resources here

Message from the Associate Director 

Message from Maï Yasué, Associate Director, Office of Respectful Environments, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion 

Message from Maï Yasué, Associate Director, Office of Respectful Environments, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion 

Dear colleagues, 

I would like to take a moment to share my educational approach as I step into my new role as the Associate Director for the Office of Respectful Environments, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (REDI).

In my new capacity, I am committed to building collaborative relationships within the Dean’s office and with various EDI leaders across the Faculty of Medicine. Our primary objective is to empower and support units in the integration of equity, diversity, and inclusion principles into existing systems. As a first step over the past couple of months I have met with numerous clinical faculty, leaders, staff and faculty in order to gain a deeper understanding of your challenges and aspirations related to equity, diversity, and inclusion. 

As we work towards strengthening the connections between the REDI team and the wider Faculty of Medicine (FoM), we are excited to embark on the following initiatives: 

  • Diversifying Our Educational Offerings:  
    We recognize that EDI journeys are unique, particularly in a diverse field like medicine. Our community encompasses individuals from different disciplines, roles, and past experiences. Therefore, we understand the need for diverse learning approaches. While some may benefit from traditional, facilitator-led “EDI 101” sessions, others may prefer action-oriented learning while collaborating on projects, and some may opt for resource-based learning and problem-solving tip sheets. Recognizing that EDI learning is an ongoing process and is relevant to individuals in various roles, our goal is to engage learners at their respective points in their journey and to provide a diverse range of media, formats, and content that can address the needs of people across a wide spectrum of roles.

  • Creating Educational Resources through Partnerships:
    Creating educational resources and sessions that are relevant, timely, and meaningful for individuals in various roles will necessitate collaborative efforts with different units across the Faculty of Medicine. We would like to extend an invitation to all of you to actively participate in co-designing and co-facilitating meaningful and relevant educational opportunities. We welcome your input on how we can enhance the relevance and scalability of our educational offerings. Additionally, we would like your input on the types of resources that can help leaders and EDI champions within units facilitate discussions and drive EDI-related changes within your work and learning environments. We aim to understand the specific challenges you encounter so that we can develop resources that are beneficial to you.

  • Creating Spaces for Dialogue and Community-Building:  
    Achieving equity, diversity, and inclusion requires collective effort. We are dedicated to creating opportunities for community-building and group problem-solving to inspire meaningful change. For example, this could be in the form of faculty retreats for your units, or supporting communities of practices. Strong relationships within and between units serve as the essential foundation for socio-cultural change. 

  • Making the Work Relevant:  
    Even if you know the general direction your unit needs to be heading, it is still sometimes difficult to figure out how to action change. Through consultation and tailored sessions, we will help you connect EDI principles to your day-to-day activities, helping you understand how your actions contribute to collective change. We aspire to build bridges between broad and strategic goals related to Equity and Inclusion and the work of your roles and units. We aim to support you in setting realistic priorities and developing an action plan. 

  • Learning From Mistakes:
    As the university continues the process of creating more equitable and inclusive environments that will attract more marginalized groups into our community, we are inevitably going to continue to make mistakes. We will help units move away from the paralysis caused by the fear of making mistakes to instead framing mistakes as an opportunity for growth. We hope to help units make the most out of mistakes and use them as an opportunity to build resilience and long term success. Our approach emphasizes empowerment, motivation and inspiration instead of shame and penalties. 

  • Embracing the Power of “Hot Moments”:
    To help our team provide timely resources, we have identified a few hot moments for change. These hot moments can help to serve as catalysts for change, raising awareness, urgency, and diverse insights for working toward proactive solutions. Addressing equity and Inclusion in these hot moments can have deep and widespread impacts within your unit. In the coming months we hope to collaborate with the dean’s office and units and offer assistance in a few key areas. For example, these may include:
    • Recruitment and hiring processes for faculty and staff 
    • Equitable and inclusive process for admissions and adjudication of learners 
    • Transparent and equitable processes for performance reviews of faculty and staff 
    • Onboarding of faculty and staff 
    • Post-conflict  

We eagerly anticipate working collaboratively to implement these strategies to affect more meaningful, impactful, and sustainable changes within the Faculty of Medicine and throughout the province. I am enthusiastic about the journey ahead and the potential for positive change. I invite you to engage in conversations to share your perspectives, concerns, and ideas on how we can collectively advance justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion at UBC. 

I extend my gratitude for your unwavering commitment to this crucial work. Together, we can make a lasting impact. 

Sincerely,  

Maï Yasué, 

Associate Director, Office of Respectful Environments, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion

EDI Champions and Allies Series: A conversation with Elizabeth Rideout

Meet a UBC faculty who is creating an impact.

EDI Champions and Allies Series: A conversation with Elizabeth Rideout

In this edition of the EDI champions and Allies, meet Dr. Rideout, co-chair of the EDI Committee, Department of Cellular and Physiological Sciences.

Dr. Rideout grew up in Burlington, Ontario and completed a BSc (Hons) in Forensic Science and Biology at the University of Toronto in Mississauga. As an undergraduate, she worked in a fruit fly lab doing research on larval behavior, then moved to the University of Glasgow in Scotland to complete her Masters and PhD. Upon the completion of her postdoc in the University of Calgary, she moved to the University of British Columbia to join the faculty at the Department of Cellular and Physiological Sciences.

How did you get involved in EDI work?

In the early stages of her research, Dr. Rideout used fruit flies to study how sex differences in neural circuits give rise to male-female differences in behavior. 

Later, she went to the University of Calgary and studied fruit fly metabolism. In this work, she noticed that the field rarely separated male and female animals. “As I looked more into prior research, I saw that people had done work on sex differences in neural circuits and behaviors, but much less was known about male-female differences in metabolism. Now, my whole lab is focused on studying sex differences in metabolism and metabolic disease.” 

Dr. Rideout notes there is a gap in knowledge in terms of our understanding of how metabolism works differently in males and females, and it was this lack of knowledge that led her to EDI work.

As I started reading, “I realized there has been a historical exclusion of women in medical research, and that male animals are used more often than females in biomedical research” 

Dr. Rideout notes that these issues are deeper than lack of inclusion of women. Many groups have been excluded from clinical trials, resulting in the underrepresentation of specific demographics in both the field of medicine and biomedical research. 

“Realizing that some people have been historically underrepresented […], I started to think about the barriers that prevent full participation of people in medical, clinical, and biomedical research, and also in terms of who is able to participate fully in academia at a larger scale.”

Dr. Rideout noted that she started her work in EDI with scientific research. As she learned about the pervasiveness of exclusion of women and other groups in clinical research, this work became more of an ongoing learning journey. “Over time as I did more learning, and I am still learning, it became very clear that there were lots of groups which were not considered, who were overlooked and left out.” Dr. Rideout notes that there are also significant systemic barriers that prevent the full participation of people that conduct research.

However, it is important to highlight that progress has been made. For instance, while women were historically excluded in medical/clinical trials, current clinical trials must now include women. To continue this progress, researchers should analyze their data using biological sex or gender as variables, which will significantly improve precision in health outcomes. 

For instance, in a clinical trial, if participants are not separated according to biological sex or gender in the analysis, a strong beneficial effect of treatment in one group could actually hide a negative effect in another group. This could put one group at a higher risk of disease progression or adverse treatment effects. Beyond sex and gender, there are factors such as cultural identity that can also influence health outcomes that have not been given full consideration in clinical studies. 

Dr. Rideout notes that key goals of Precision Medicine are to recognize individual differences in disease risk and progression, and to develop evidence-based prevention and treatment strategies that will lead to optimal health outcomes for all individuals. 

A significant barrier to achieving this goal is our current lack of information. Since women and many other groups have been historically excluded, basic knowledge is needed about fundamental physiological processes in these populations. We do not have yet enough information to enable precision medicine, but Dr. Rideout notes that there is a growing recognition that we need more data on why different population groups are at a different risk of developing certain diseases. 

 “There is a significant need and there has to be a significant dedication of funds, time, and effort to increase knowledge on different population groups that have been historically excluded and underrepresented in the clinical and biological sciences.”

Dr. Rideout also adds that it is crucial to build relationships with the different communities that have not been included. “When people are excluded I think there must be lot of work done to build relationships in order for people to feel safe to participate and for them to contribute their time, knowledge, and expertise to build this foundation of knowledge.” 

For EDI work, Dr. Rideout notes that that people can start their learning from whatever stage they are at and undertake it as an ongoing journey. “I think that once you start your learning journey, you will realize that no matter where you are starting from, we can all learn fairly quickly. In this way, everyone can contribute to creating an inclusive and safe environment […] ultimately EDI work has to be the work of all the members in our community.” 

Dr. Rideout recognizes, as she says, “the enormous amount of privilege” she has lived with. For this reason, these barriers were not immediately apparent earlier in her life. However, her research and ongoing learning led her to invest significant efforts in EDI work. “You come to realize that this is important work, it is the work of all of us, and we can all contribute […] What I try to do is to listen, to learn and to advocate. I think these are things everyone can do. Listening to [others’] experiences and make it safe for people to share – if you are in a position to do so, then advocate for others to change the system.”

What initiatives is your committee working on?

In our department we have completed the the ISAT (Inclusion Self-Assessment Tool) and developed a set of recommendations for best practices in teaching, research, hiring and staffing, and department awards. We have also been running workshops led by the Faculty of Medicine REDI Office, introducing to people ideas on how to create safe and inclusive learning environments. The goal is to familiarize people with Anti-Racism work, upstander engagement approaches, and to improve knowledge of systemic barriers.

Our next steps are to find effective ways for us to engage with the communities we serve. The objective is to understand what their needs are, whether these needs are being met or not, in what ways they want to communicate with researchers, and how they want to exchange knowledge. 

Additionally, a survey is being distributed for undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, post docs, and staff to learn what types of activities would help them engage in EDI work and how they would like to be involved. The plan must reflect what people want. We are developing a survey to ask people for example if we are meeting their needs and what types of activities they would like to see and how they would like to share feedback with us. Based on that, if people say [for example], “I only feel comfortable with an anonymous survey,” [then] we will not ask them to come in person to discuss their experiences.” 

What is your vision?

“Having a culture that creates safety for all individuals and all dimensions of their identity by removing systemic and interpersonal barriers.” 

REDI’s Reading list for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is observed annually on September 30th to honour Residential School Survivors and their families, and to remember those who did not make it. The date was chosen because it is the time of year in which children were taken from their homes. We invite you to listen with open ears to the stories of survivors and their families. Browse through REDI’s recommended readings in preparation for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. 

A Narrow Vision: Duncan Campbell Scott and the Administration of Indian Affairs in Canada
by E. Brian Title

Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese

Indian Horse
by Richard Wagamese

Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History
by Michel-Ralph Trouillot

Truth Telling: Seven Conversations About Indigenous Life in Canada
by Michelle Good

Dying to Please You: Indigenous Suicide in Contemporary Canada
by Roland D. Chrisjohn and Shaunessy M. McKay, with Andrea O. Smith

Out of the Depths:  The Experiences of Mi’kmaw Children at the Indian Residential School at Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia
by Isabelle Knockwood

The Circle Game: Shadows and Substance in the Indian Residential School Experience in Canada (Revised Edition)
by Roland Chrisjohn and Sherri Young, with Michael Maraun

Valley of the Bird Tail

Valley of the Bird Tail: An Indian Reserve, a White Town, and the Road to Reconciliation
by Andrew Stobo Sniderman, Douglas Sanderson

Five Little Indians

Five Little Indians
by Michelle Good

Resistance and Renewal: Surviving the Indian Residential School
by Celia Haig-Brown

The Land We Are

The Land We Are
by Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill, & Sophie McCall Land

Words Have a Past: The English Language, Colonialism, and the Newspapers of Indian Boarding Schools
by Jane Griffith

Appointment of  Dr. Saleem Razack as Senior Faculty Advisor in REDI

Appointment of  Dr. Saleem Razack as Senior Faculty Advisor in REDI

The REDI Office is pleased to welcome Dr. Saleem Razack, Professor, Division of Critical Care, Department of Pediatrics as the Senior Faculty Advisor, Respectful Environments, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion. Dr. Razack has been appointed for a three-year term effective July 17, 2023. 

Dr. Razack spent 25 years as a pediatric intensivist and medical education/education researcher at McGill before joining the UBC Faculty of Medicine in January 2023.  He was the first Director of McGill’s Office of Social Accountability and Community engagement. Dr. Razack’s research interests include how we teach about race and difference and exploring ways to increase opportunities to incorporate anti-racist practices in education for health professionals. Dr. Razack’s work underscores the importance of understanding equity in the context of the role our institutions play in generating injustice. 

Dr. Razack’s passion and commitment to change discriminatory practices and systems in health education and health care aligns with the work of the REDI office to support the Faculty’s Strategic Plan goal to transform our culture through our learning and work environments.  We are excited that he will continue to work to improve medical education, promote health equity and combat racism and all forms of discrimination as a senior faculty advisor to the REDI office. 

Emancipation Day (August 1st)