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The third edition of the Indigenous Welcoming Ceremony, held on October 27, honoured seven Indigenous academic staff from a wide range of disciplines, including history, political science, linguistics, anthropology and medicine. The two-hour-plus virtual ceremony welcomed six new academic hires, as well as a relatively recent hire who was not able to attend previous ceremonies.

The six new UU直播ians are:

Yann Allard-Tremblay, Assistant Professor, Political Science

Noelani Arista, Associate Professor, History and Classical Studies, and Director of Indigenous Studies; the Hawaii resident will begin work at UU直播 after COVID-19-related travel restrictions are lifted.

Richard Budgell, Professor of Practice, Faculty of Medicine;

Chadwick Cowie, a Faculty Lecturer, Political Science;

James Crippen, Assistant Professor, Linguistics; the B.C. resident will begin work at UU直播 in January.

Leslie Sabiston, Assistant Professor, Anthropology; the Manitoba resident will begin work at UU直播 in the fall of 2021.

The ceremony also welcomed聽Alex McComber, Assistant Professor of Family Medicine, who started in 2017.

In welcoming the seven professors, Provost Christopher Manfredi said that 鈥淭his is one of our largest [Indigenous] groups that we鈥檝e welcomed at UU直播 at any single time.鈥� In its 2017聽Final Report, the Provost鈥檚 Task Force on Indigenous Studies and Indigenous Education called upon the University to set a target of appointing at least 35 Indigenous tenure-track or tenured professors by 2032.

Kahnawake elder Charlie Otsitsakenra Patton opened the ceremony with the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address. He said that 鈥渆verything comes from roots, everything needs strong roots to survive 鈥� even us. Our language, our culture 鈥� those are the roots that will keep us strong, surviving.鈥�

鈥淚 really believe that when our people were not really respected [and were met by closed doors], UU直播 opened a large crack in that doorway and now people are going through that door. UU直播 was at the forefront of that.鈥�

鈥淲e鈥檙e fortunate to have this UU直播 village emerge,鈥� added 鈥淢ama Bear鈥� Louise Wakerakatste McDonald, Bear Clan Matron of the Mohawk Nation, who presented the Edge of the Woods Protocol, a ritual that forms the relationship with guests.

Creating new pathways

鈥淭he integration of Indigenous people into the UU直播 fabric is a really good thing,鈥� said Kakwiran贸:ron Cook, special advisor for Indigenous Initiatives in the Office of the Provost & Vice-Principal (Academic). 鈥淚t鈥檚 fulfilling some of the Provost鈥檚 call out to the faculties for proposals for specifically Indigenous hires.鈥�

He says UU直播 is 鈥渃reating additional pathways, with the flexibility to carve out more ways in鈥� to the University.

Richard Budgell, for instance, started in June in the Faculty of Medicine as a Professor of Practice, a title accorded to someone who comes to UU直播 from 鈥渁 broad background outside academe,鈥� he said 鈥� in his case, 30 years in the federal public service, half of that time in the health field.

鈥淢y last job was running a federal government health organization for First Nations and Inuit communities throughout Quebec,鈥� said Budgell, who hails from Labrador (Nunatsiavut) and has been told that he is UU直播鈥檚 first Inuk faculty member.

He and fellow honouree Prof. Alex McComber recently conducted a workshop centred on cultural safety and how family medicine can improve treatment of Indigenous peoples and concepts.

McComber, who specializes in diabetes prevention and health promotion, said that 鈥淚ndigenous voices, most certainly from a Faculty position, are critical in bringing in Indigenous knowledge and ways of life into teaching and research.鈥�

鈥淲e are bringing a different perspective in disease prevention and health promotion through an Indigenous lens that focuses on a wholistic perspective [involving body, mind and spirit] of understanding the human being and the life journey.鈥�

More Indigenous scholarship

New linguistics Assistant Professor James Crippen said that Indigenous knowledge tends to be downplayed in Western culture because it stems from an oral tradition 鈥� even though that tradition incorporates hundreds, even thousands, of years of experience.

Crippen is a native Tlingit, whose people are scattered across northern British Columbia, south-central Yukon and southeast Alaska. His specialty is syntax, particularly the documentation and revitalization of the Tlingit community language.

鈥淭here鈥檚 not enough scholarship on Indigenous languages,鈥� he said. 鈥淢y linguistic research focuses on what needs to be documented for language survival.鈥�

鈥淓uropean languages tend to have small words and sentences with a lot of words,鈥� Crippen noted. 鈥淢ost Indigenous languages in North America have fairly large words and sentences without a lot of words 鈥� some of the sentence structure has moved into the word. Part of my work is to see how the theory [of syntax] needs to change to fit the properties we see in a lot of languages in North America.鈥�

Crippen will split his time between Montreal and the Yukon Tlingit community, the focus of his research.

New justice concepts

When Yann Allard-Tremblay was an undergrad in philosophy and political science, there were no Indigenous voices in the curriculum. At UU直播, he wants to provide those voices to his poli-sci students.

鈥淚 try to illustrate the ways in which Indigenous political thoughts and practices can transform the ways in which mainstream political theory has been conducted,鈥� said Allard-Tremblay, who was a post-doc at UU直播 from 2014-16 and taught at York University鈥檚 Glendon College for three years before arriving at UU直播 in August.

A Huron-Wendat, Allard-Tremblay noted that 鈥渁t the beginning of all meetings for some First Nations, elders present the [Haudenosaunee] Words that Come Before All Else, the Thanksgiving Address, in which you acknowledge all your relatives, human and other than human, and the creator. This allows us to think about justice in different ways. The starting point is one where you acknowledge all these things that you have sustaining life. That鈥檚 totally different from all other perspectives.鈥�

The Provost Office鈥檚 Kakwiran贸:ron Cook added that 鈥渨hen we prioritize Indigenous knowledge holders who are willing to respectfully and reciprocally share with knowledge dissemination and production at UU直播, that鈥檚 all really good.鈥�

鈥淪o there鈥檚 a lot of good momentum. That鈥檚 fantastic. What we need now is to build community, and support for that community. That鈥檚 what this whole ceremony is about. We feel like we have enough of a critical mass at UU直播 to have a sphere of influence 鈥� a voice.鈥�

Michael Loft, a Mohawk from Kahnawake who retired from UU直播鈥檚 School of Social Work in 2016, said at the ceremony that when he was a UU直播 student in the early 1970s, the only other Indigenous student that he knew of was a Mi鈥檏maq.

鈥淭oday there鈥檚 over 100 students 鈥� plus profs now. That鈥檚 unreal. I鈥檇 never thought I鈥檇 see that.鈥�

By: Fran莽ois Shalom