Indigenous academics convene at UBC for international conference

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      Recommendations are set to be released next week following an international conference of indigenous academics at the University of British Columbia.

      Scholars from Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand gathered from May 6 to 10 as part of a Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies roundtable, focused on "indigenizing" the academy.

      In a presentation on Friday, Margaret Mutu, the head of the Department of Maori Studies at the University of Auckland, described the efforts throughout that institution's history to expand Maori student enrolment, staff, and courses. While faculty have succeeded in establishing three Maori-focused teaching departments at the university, the professor described the barriers that staff have faced over the years, including what she called "institutional racism".

      She anticipates a "long and difficult battle" ahead as Maori faculty continue to push for a Bachelor of Maori Studies program—requests for which have been repeatedly denied. 

      “It doesn’t matter—the battle has to be fought,” Mutu told a room of conference attendees. “It’s clear to me that we will continue to have to battle to make real progress until the time comes when the institutional racism in the university is addressed.”

      Shelly Johnson, an assistant professor at the UBC School of Social Work and the principal investigator for the conference, said the idea for the international conference came about because there are “so few indigenous academics” in the four countries. 

      “And our voices sometimes in post-secondary institutions can be quite small,” she said in an interview.

      She noted that at UBC, there are about 20 aboriginal faculty members, out of close to 1,500 in total.

      “Aboriginal people account for four percent of all people living in British Columbia, and I think until at the University of British Columbia we have parity with that–four percent of all faculty, four percent of all staff, four percent of all people in leadership roles at the University of British Columbia–I don’t think we can really say that we’ve addressed indigenous issues in the way that it needs to be done,” she said.

      Johnson described Mutu's presentation as “a bit of a surprise” to her. 

      “For many of us, in countries outside New Zealand, New Zealand is held up as a model,” Johnson said. “And so today to hear that they struggle with the same issues that we struggle with, and they have made some incredible gains, but those gains can be lost quite quickly, was a revelation I think for many people in the room.”

      According to Mutu, Maori people currently make up 6.8 percent of student enrolment and 5.7 percent of staff at the university, compared to 15 percent of the general population in New Zealand. She noted that six professors are currently part of the body that governs the university, out of a total of 303.

      “Any comments or contributions any of us may make on Maori issues in that body are most often ignored,” she stated.

      Despite what she called "significant drawbacks" at the university for Maori, Mutu said the university has been able to deliver information and resources "that could not be accessed anywhere else".

      “And this is because even though we encounter white resistance, we have always had support from a number of our white bodies,” she stated. “They helped us establish each of our teaching and research units, and the work being done in them is helping to make some positive differences out in our communities—it might be slow, but it’s happening.”

      Johnson said that while what may work in New Zealand won’t necessarily be the solution at UBC, she believes some lessons can be drawn from the University of Auckland experience.

      “One of the biggest things that I learned from Dr. Mutu’s presentation was about the importance of having indigenous peoples in those key decision-making positions, and what can happen when we’re not there,” she said.

      The professor added she would like to see more focus on indigenous languages across UBC, similar to the emphasis on the Maori language in Mutu's department.

      “Here in Canada, our languages were under attack through the residential school system for a century,” she said. “It affected seven or eight generations of our people. And our languages aren’t going to be recovered overnight, because it’s taken that long to destroy them.”

      According to Johnson, further roundtables on "indigenizing the academy" are expected to take place. She noted that UBC president Stephen Toope has also offered to convene a group of new indigenous scholars to meet with him in September.

      “I think what this [conference] has identified for us is that we have a long way to go," said Johnson. "[But] we have a good foundation, and we have good relationships with our indigenous colleagues in different countries, and it’s a very good start."

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