‘It was a team effort’: KPU library team wins JEDI Award
The nine-person team was recognized for their efforts toward Indigenization, anti-racism, and equity at the university
KPU honoured the library team with a JEDI Award, which is presented annually by the Office of Equity and Inclusive Communities. (Submitted)
A Kwantlen Polytechnic University library team has won the 2026 Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Award for their work in implementing Indigenization at the university.
The group is also known as the χʷəχʷéy̓əm team, which means oral storytelling in hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓, the language of five of the First Nations whose KPU’s campuses are located on. The team includes nine members: Rachel Chong, Todd Mundle, Cleire Lauron, Edna Kalfon, Brigette Liang, Joanne Skabar, Kelsey Chaban, Leona Wei Li, Judy Taylor, and Nicole Von Kledtke.
The team collaborated on several initiatives to support Indigenization at KPU, including a dedicated Indigenous-focused library space at all four campus libraries. Called the χʷəχʷéy̓əm Indigenous Collection, the space highlights Indigenous voices and uses objects and art to share and preserve knowledge.
Rachel Chong, KPU’s Indigenous initiatives librarian, says the space came about from listening to campus needs, adding that the university community was looking to incorporate Indigenous voices in their teaching and research.
“Spaces like χʷəχʷéy̓əm really challenge us to reconsider the structures that we feel have always been and will always be, think about how there are possibilities to change them, and incorporate other ways of knowing and being,” Chong says.
The library team was also recognized for using a localized version of Kahnawake Mohawk Brian Deer’s classification system, rather than the typical Library of Congress method, for all the material in the collection. Deer’s system reflects Indigenous knowledge systems and organizes information in a community and land-based way.
Other initiatives the team was recognized for include supporting Indigenous-owned vendors and authors.
University Librarian Todd Mundle, who will be retiring from KPU this summer, says that eight to nine years ago, the library team would have never considered utilizing the vendors they have now because they weren’t mainstream.
“It’s an expansion every time. You learn something and you see something from a different perspective — it’s quite exciting,” Mundle says.
Chong says it was lovely to receive the JEDI Award.
“It was a team effort,” she says. “It was really beautiful to see the library recognized like that publicly on behalf of the university.”
Mundle says the team’s initiatives have opened up new perspectives to their work.
“It’s given us an idea of how we have approached our abilities to be able to help students and faculty on what it is they need,” he says. “There are all sorts of different areas of information that can be used and utilized. When you open up that door, it opens up all sorts of other possibilities and opportunities.”
Looking ahead, Chong says the team wants to expand the different ways people can engage with information and the collection.
“When you experience those spaces for yourself, you really feel the shift in energy and also the shift in possibilities about what the future could hold.”
