KPU hosts panel with 3 Indigenous residents
Napatsi Folger, Selina Boan, and Richard Pierre joined members of the university community for the discussion
Panelists and moderator participating in "Indigenous Residents Panel Discussion" pictured left to right: Selina Boan, Napatsi Folger, Elder Richard Pierre, and Melinda Bige. (Suneet Gill)
Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Indigenous artist, writers, and knowledge keeper in residence shared their stories and teachings with the university community on March 8 during a panel at the Surrey campus library.
Moderated by Melinda Bige, associate dean in the Faculty of Arts, the event featured artist and writer Napatsi Folger, who is half Inuit and American, Cree and white writer Selina Boan, and Katzie and Tsawout knowledge keeper, Elder Richard Pierre.
Folger says that because universities and education systems are inherently colonial, it is important to be open to Indigenous Peoples’ ideas through panels like this one.
“It’s not the people necessarily that are problematic or the students, but it’s the structures of the institution that need changing. That’s only going to happen when people are in conversation with each other,” Folger says.
“That’s why it’s really important to have these kinds of panels for staff and students to be able to engage with the kinds of changes that need to happen for positive engagement with the local Indigenous community.”
After arranging chairs to one big circle, audience members listened to the three residents’ introductions before sharing their own name, background, position, and whose lands they are based on.
The panelists began by talking about who they are and the importance of knowing that, which led Folger to touch on her background. She says she worked in government policy in Nunavut for a long time, but her work now focuses on the colonial experiences of modern Inuit and Indigenous Peoples, including individuals of mixed ethnicities.
“My mother is full Inuk and has had a very different life than me. She’s very dark. Just spending time with her, there’s a marked difference in how people treat me and how people treat her, both because of our colour difference, but also our education difference,” Folger says. “That kind of topic is really important to me because I think a lot of people, including Indigenous people of a certain age, don’t understand it necessarily.”
She also says she’s seen and experienced “colonization of the mind.”
“I’m 40, and a lot of the people my age and older have been entrenched in this environment of whiteness for most of our lives.”
The residents also explored the messages they convey in their practice and hold dear.
Pierre reflected on compassion and building connections with students by sharing stories and beliefs during his role as an Indigenous support worker in Surrey. Boan discussed her work as a poet and teacher, while Folger talked about her comic art and the Indigenous writing world.
The residents then shared their advice for non-Indigenous people living on the territories.
Pierre brought up allyship, reconciliation, and the importance of bringing culture and language back to Indigenous children. Folger discussed listening to Indigenous Peoples while understanding their worldview is different and practicing care when approaching them to learn.
Boan touched on providing space for Indigenous Peoples and considering what you can offer in addition to what you can learn. The event concluded with questions from the audience.
Interdisciplinary instructor and learning strategist Lee Beavington, whose work this semester includes being a part of a decolonization project at KPU’s Academic and Career Preparation, attended the panel after learning about it through social media.
“I feel like decolonization, as an educator, is the most important work we should be doing right now, because if you look at the First Peoples principles of learning, it talks about holistic, experiential, and reflective types of learning that are very powerful and are sound-teaching practices,” Beavington says.
“As an educator, that’s very important. But also, when we look at these systems created by western colonial systems, we need to transform those systems and dismantle them and think of education and the world in a different way. We need another worldview. It’s not going to come from the colonial view.”
Folger says she hopes attendees leave the panel with a more open-minded attitude about approaching Indigenous Peoples to have conversations like this one. She also hopes they engage with local Indigenous communities to see what the issues are.
“I’d really like to see people engaging on their own afterwards and seeing, maybe gleaning, information that might not have been on their radar before this.”
