How Indigenous on-the-land education fits into and shapes a future polytechnical university being planned for Yellowknife is a critical discussion point for Northern post-secondary education planners.  

Close to 30 people attended the first installment of the GNWTSA国际影视传媒檚 Speaker Series on Post-Secondary Education on March 8, which involved a panel of Roger Epp, director at University of Alberta North, Glen Coulthard, associate professor at the University of British Columbia and chair of the Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning board of directors, Dechinta alumni Justina Black and Kyla Lesage and Kimberly Fairman, a public health masters student with the University of Alberta and executive director with the Institute of Circumpolar Health Research.  

The GNWT Department of Education, Culture and Employment has set up a series of seven community talks over March involving groups or individuals already part of post-secondary education in the NWT. The goal is to develop discussion and ideas toward a new polytechnical university in Yellowknife. The talks complement a public survey that the department is trying to get out to NWT residents to hear what is important to them in planning for a new post-secondary institution.

The audience heard that bridging western-style universities which promote preparedness of graduates as free liberal thinkers and workers for the job market with institutions aiming to revitalize Indigenous identity, culture, language and on-the-land practices, should be a key consideration for planning a polytechnical university.

SA国际影视传媒淯niversities historically have been transmission belts from rural, Northern childhoods into urban professional careers,SA国际影视传媒� said Epp, who emphasized that the unique local culture of the North ought to heavily influence what a future university looks like. SA国际影视传媒淭he transmission belt goes one way, but it doesnSA国际影视传媒檛 always come back the other way.

SA国际影视传媒淥ut of my experience has come a deepened conviction that a university needs to own its place and it needs to be at home in its place. In other words, it needs a different ethos.SA国际影视传媒�

Epp stressed that, in part, this means a Northern university cannot simply emulate other institutions to merely be respected and should hire faculty who are strictly dedicated to working in and for the North.

SA国际影视传媒淎 polytechnic university in the NWT will betray every hope if it pretends it could be anywhere, just pumping out credential students for the job market,SA国际影视传媒� he said. 

Dechinta alumni
Black and Lesage, two Indigenous women and Dechinta alumni on the panel, said from their experiences, southern universities in Canada have limitations when it comes to allowing Indigenous peoples to express their identities. They agree that the North needs to retain a system of education that speaks to the needs of Northerners and Indigenous people. 

SA国际影视传媒淚n order to receive a university degree for Northern students, we are forced to make the decision to leave our community, our culture and our family,SA国际影视传媒� said Lesage, who found attending the University of British Columbia for three years challenging.
SA国际影视传媒淚 found myself trapped and confined to a university-style lecture hall where I was unable to find my voice as an Indigenous person. This is when I decided to reach out and apply to the Dechinta program. SA国际影视传媒�

A post-secondary education should be more than an education, Lesage said, as on-the-land teaching eventually helped her with the process of SA国际影视传媒渄ecolonizing her education.SA国际影视传媒�

Dechinta, she said,  serves as a SA国际影视传媒渕ovementSA国际影视传媒� as it promotes Indigenous resistance through traditional practices like fishing, hunting, harvesting, collecting and making medicine and being exposed to Indigenous scholarly writing.

SA国际影视传媒淥nly through land-based teaching will we find our way back to what was taken from us,SA国际影视传媒� she said.  SA国际影视传媒淎nd allowing us to uphold our elders and our ancestors that got us to where we are today.SA国际影视传媒�

Black, who also attended Dechinta after high school and before attending the University of Alberta Native Studies program, found moving south to be challenging because of the SA国际影视传媒渨estern-European style education.SA国际影视传媒�

SA国际影视传媒淗aving a land-based university would be ideal for myself and many other Indigenous and non-Indigenous students who would like to stay to further their education and who would not like to be exposed to the western-style education that is in the south,SA国际影视传媒� she said. SA国际影视传媒淭he people of Denendeh should not have to feel pressured to move south to further their education. By allowing our people to be educated in our territory, it ensures they stay in our territory. It also continues the cycle of educating our people in the Dene way.SA国际影视传媒�

Bringing the two systems together
Tom Weegar, associate deputy minister of post-secondary education renewal asked panelists about the challenges of SA国际影视传媒渋ndigenizingSA国际影视传媒� post-secondary education and if they thought there are SA国际影视传媒渨ays or models of how we bring the two together to benefit all students in the NWT.SA国际影视传媒�

Coulthard  said western-style systems of education and colonialism need to be disconnected in any future consideration of Northern post-secondary education and that the two systems of knowledge should co-exist, likely in a federated model.  

SA国际影视传媒�I actually donSA国际影视传媒檛 think of them as not in conversation together,SA国际影视传媒� he said.
SA国际影视传媒淭hey are necessarily in conversation together, but one has come to dominate how, from the outside, we impose these frameworks of understanding on local, land-based communities in ways that is continuing that colonial relationship and arrogance. So I actually think we very much are necessarily in relationship with each other. That is what we have been trying to impart on institutions in partnership with.SA国际影视传媒�

Fairman agreed that working toward a federated model of the schools with the university has its benefits, but noted a future university should not focus exclusively on job creating and feeding industry. 

SA国际影视传媒淚 think there is a lot of focus on catering to economic development or industry and that bothers me a lot,SA国际影视传媒� she said. SA国际影视传媒淚 want my children to study in areas that they are interested in and where they feel they can make a real contribution. I donSA国际影视传媒檛 want them thinking SA国际影视传媒業 need a job in order to participate meaningfully. And that in order to get that job, I need this education.SA国际影视传媒� It is so limiting.SA国际影视传媒�