By Ashley Mussbacher (Contributor)– Email
Print Edition: September 11, 2013
According to UFV, classes have been “transformed” on September 18 to allow for UFV’s Indian Residential School Day of Learning. The day will include a variety of activities and presentations to promote awareness and understanding. However, some are not supportive of the Senate-approved class cancellation.
What’s happening at UFV?
The Indian Residential School Day of Learning is designed to encourage people to come out and learn something they may not have known about the presence of residential schools in the Fraser Valley.
Vice provost Peter Geller had a role in planning the events to take place at UFV on September 18. He notes that there will be many different levels of understanding.
Geller explains that the challenge is meeting “as many students as we can at various levels. Some will have never heard of the residential schools. Others may have encountered bits of it in courses or through their personal lives, and some may be very informed.”
The features of the day include keynote presentations by Dr. Jean Barman, an historian with a specialty in BC history who will provide an academic outlook, and Dallas Yellowfly and 3 Crow Productions who will talk about the experiences of local residential school survivors.
There will also be smaller-scale presentations in the gym, film showings, photo slide shows, and interactive activities such as a word wall where students can respond and reflect as well as ask questions.
Geller explains that the dynamic approach to the event is so they can reach as many students as possible.
“We don’t just learn intellectually, we learn in many different ways,” Geller says. “I think in many ways we hope … it’s an indigenizing experience. We are working together as staff, faculty, everyone, to plan something indigenous and non-indigenous in a way that can reach out to every student.”
The bigger picture
The Day of Learning at UFV is one of many events happening in the Lower Mainland, including Truth and Reconciliation Week happening in Vancouver from September 16 to 22. According to the Commission of Canada website, the goal of these events will be to let others “witness and celebrate the resilience of aboriginal cultures.”
Twenty-eight residential schools operated in British Columbia, two in the Fraser Valley. “Indians,” as they were defined in the Indian Act, or Gradual Civilization Act of 1857, were not allowed to attend public schools until 1951. And the last residential school didn’t close until 1996. CBC News states at least 3000 children are now known to have died attending Canada’s residential schools.
The reconciliation event in Vancouver will host activities to share the truth about the schools and their legacy. This will include statement gathering, traditional ceremonies, survivor gatherings, witness statements, and more.
According to Geller, many universities are responding differently to the event in Vancouver. Many are showing their support by hosting similar events on-campus. Geller explains UFV’s reasoning behind their decision to host such an event.
“We have a board policy about fulfilling our commitment to the aboriginal people. We have a commitment to indigenization,” he says.
Suspension of classes raises concerns
The announcement that classes will be suspended to host the Day of Learning received a mixed response. Some faculty members question the likelihood of students attending the event when they are not required to commute to campus for class, and worry about losing a day of instruction from the syllabus.
Since approving suspension of classes at a June 21 Senate meeting, UFV has released an update that allows an extra optional day of instruction to be added to the end of the semester on Tuesday, December 3.
Teresa Piper, an instructor in the department of modern languages, voices her concern about this new change to the schedule. She says that she intends to use that optional day to make up for lost class time, but that her students are already beginning to announce conflicts with their other classes.
She suggests a way that the situation could have been more streamlined.
“Something that we can do is officialize [December 3] through the timetable, so instead of ending December 2 they end December 3. So the students will be aware that it’s not optional anymore.”
Piper is concerned that even with the addition of the make-up day, many students won’t take September 18 to learn about the residential schools.
“We have a lot of students who commute,” she says. “They won’t be coming that day.”
Another faculty member who wishes to remain anonymous explains that the loss of class time will affect students greatly.
“In my department, we cover one chapter a week, and losing a class means we will lose one block of material, or knock a week off at the end,” the faculty member says. “There is a greater impact on labs, since they only happen once a week. What do you do when your Wednesday lab class gets cancelled? They will be behind everyone else.”
The hope is that students will use the class time to attend the on-campus events and activities planned, but the faculty member thinks that is too optimistic, saying that the “majority of students will use [the time] to catch up.”
The faculty member goes on to suggest that the Senate board could have organized the Day of Learning differently.
“They could put on presentations during the day, and students could attend them during their free blocks,” the faculty member notes.
According to the minutes of the Senate meeting for June 21, two indigenous delegates attended the meeting as guests: UFV’s elder-in-residence Theresa Neel, and another whose name could not be confirmed.
However, Piper doesn’t think their presence influenced the vote to suspend classes. “For me, the [delegates] who were present at the meeting were there to ask for some kind of activities to be coordinated. And I think they were listening to the discussion, and I think [the decision] was coming more from the UFV administration.”
Geller explains that the decision to cancel classes was about UFV’s relationship with the indigenous people.
“It makes a very powerful statement about UFV’s commitment to honouring, understanding, recognizing, [and] creating awareness of what residential schools were and the devastating impact.”
