Photo by Michael Wigle
The commute is about 7,000 metres above the snow-capped coastal mountains and far reaching valleys. B.C.’s coastal range is a living landscape, reminiscent of centuries of sculpting by geologic death and rebirth.
After only an hour in the air, having departed from Vancouver, the aircraft begins its descent, choosing a seemingly random of innumerable valleys as its guiding landing strip.
Bella Coola, resting on the Bella Coola River, is about 100 kilometres inland from the coast, 400 from Williams Lake, and at least a 12-hour drive from Abbotsford. The remote town known for its local art and raw beauty is home to less than 1,000 people, and the valley it resides in less than 2,000.
“You fly in on a tiny little plane. You’re pretty much flying in between mountains as you arrive,” said Michelle Reidlinger.
Reidlinger is one of four UFV faculty and instructors who have each spent a week of intense teaching in Bella Coola.
“Beautiful views, the mountains. You can’t really describe the landscape until you’re there but it’s pretty much in a mountain shadow, mountains all around,” she said.
Nestled in that valley, at the Nuxalk Education Centre in Bella Coola are multiple demountable buildings where UFV, in partnership with the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology (NVIT) offers a unique cohort to students pursuing a bachelor of general studies.
The students there have already completed the chemical addictions worker advanced diploma, a three-year program offered by NVIT. In this fourth and final year-long cohort, they work towards completing courses for their degree.
The chemical addictions worker program — which is fairly unique in Canada — trains and assists students who work as or intend to work as alcohol and drug counsellors and / or in addictions counselling. This course in particular has largely aboriginal-specific course content and a holistic approach.
NVIT is B.C.’s aboriginal, public post-secondary school offering unique classes to First Nation students in wellness, governance, and land and economic development.
Although NVIT’s campuses are in Merritt and Burnaby, they have previously gone into Bella Coola three different times to teach the chemical addictions workers program to a group of students there.
The chemical addictions diploma starts out with a one-year certificate and it ladders to a two-year diploma and then a third-year is an advanced diploma. But NVIT was interested in offering more to their students.
“They were very interested in seeing if the students who had gone through three years of education could have some sort of degree completing,” said Peter Geller, UFV vice-provost / associate vice-president academic.
One of Geller’s areas of responsibility is supporting UFV’s indigenizing efforts which recently have been with the cohort providing partnership.
The diploma program at NVIT was largely established because there were a lot of people working in communities or with indigenous organisations who provided drug and alcohol addictions counselling, but who didn’t necessarily have an academic background.
After so many students had completed the diploma, many wanted to return to continue their educations. Graduates who were working in the field wanted to be able to move into a management role or various positions that require the education background.
“And they said to the dean at NVIT, ‘So what’s next? What do we do after this?’” said Shirley Hardman, UFV’s senior advisor on indigenous affairs. Hardman visited Bella Coola and has been instrumental in setting up the program partnership. She too is responsible for overseeing the university’s indigenizing efforts.
As the senior advisor on indigenous affairs, Hardman is often approached first to connect peoples or groups to the appropriate faculty at UFV. When NVIT was part of the Indigenizing the Academy conference at UFV in 2012 — when 275 delegates from 33 post-secondary institutions came together at the University of the Fraser Valley Aboriginal Gathering Place — Hardman helped to bring the right people together.
UFV and NVIT have been working together in varying capacities since then, both institutions learning from each other. From this, and to be better equipped, the faculty involved with the cohort have been involved in various professional development opportunities, geared towards indigenization.
The students in Bella Coola are delivered a special model of schooling to meet their needs. Because many are in ongoing employment, the program operates as one week-long session a month, every month. Classes during that week take up the entire day — 8 a.m to 6 p.m.
“They complete their assignments and hand them in, then three weeks later somebody else comes in and they deliver another course,” said Hardman.
This was the model that NVIT initially created to deliver their chemical addictions worker advanced diploma in Bella Coola. It worked well for the diploma, so UFV did the same.
“The teacher stays in Bella Coola for six days and meets with the students for all of those six days,” said Hardman. “The students are then left with some assignments that they have to hand in after the teacher leaves.”
These breaks between sessions naturally creates a disruption between courses. To prevent this, all the instructors meet and talk about the resources that they’ll use. They also work to indigenize their curriculum, working with and from traditional knowledge.
“So whatever they’ve read in the past, we’ll incorporate into the course,” said Reidlinger.
A theme covered by all the courses taught by UFV instructors is health and wellness, a focus that fits in with the very applied program of addictions counselling. One that is a major focus of the advanced diploma.
“In essence the course that I was teaching is academic workplace writing,” said Reidlinger. “The types of things to do with chemical addictions counselling, client recordings, and also doing research.”
“They’re amazingly articulate and experienced in their own fields so our job is to just bring that out and think about how they might research that or how they might repurpose what you’re doing for different audiences,” said Reidlinger
There’s research that shows that aboriginal students who are successful in post-secondary education tend to take their education much further.
“If they finish a bachelor’s degree, they usually get a PhD. There’s a much higher percentage,” said Hardman.
Most schools have a high level of attrition against aboriginal students. The graduation rate from high school for aboriginal students is below 50 per cent, which is actually an increase from past years. However, those that graduate high school and do well in post-secondary have a much higher chance of finishing a PhD than non-aboriginal students.
This program was designed for the success of its students, to meet the needs in Bella Coola where the students were at.
“We’re really proud of the completion rate, it’s been 100 per cent,” said Hardman. “We don’t generally see that.”
The current cohort is half complete, and the next instructor from UFV, Ethel Gardner, is in Bella Coola this week. But after this semester, the students will have completed their 30 UFV credits.
During the initial formation of the arrangement, the advanced diploma program curriculum was analyzed to determine how it would relate to and how it could transfer to a degree from UFV.
Based on the block transfer agreement between UFV and NVIT — the formal arrangement that says a graduate of this particular program will get so many credits towards this other program — a graduate of the advanced diploma is accredited 90 course credits. The following 30 to receive a bachelor of general studies from UFV are given on completion of the cohort.
A major reason that UFV wanted to partner with NVIT to begin with is the commitment to indigenization.
“I think we were interested in this opportunity in working with NVIT and learning from them,” said Geller. “We’ve thought that this was a really important way to serve a need.”
And in delivering this need, the instructors and faculty have had to deal with a number of challenges inherent to teaching in a moderately remote locale.
“The internet is spotty, there may be no network to make a phone call home if you want to talk to your kids or your spouse,” said Hardman. “It’s extra circumstances for the teachers going in there too.”
“I’m used to having technology that works, it’s just part of being up there that you’ve just got to accept that sometimes it’s a struggle to make the technology work,” said Reidlinger.
While Reidlinger was there, there was a snowstorm which didn’t prevent classes from happening but made for another challenge to overcome.
“But the rewards, they’re so incredible, like meeting the committed people and to be apart of the community,” said Hardman.
The departure from Bella Coola is similar to the arrival. One of the quirks with both is that sometimes the pilot can’t do either.
“They say there’s one mountain where, if it’s fogged in, you’re not going to get out of Bella Coola, and it was fogged in,” said Reidlinger.
For several of the flights already, some were diverted to Anahim Lake, and one was cancelled completely. If the flight does change its course to Anahim, it’s followed by a two-hour bus ride west, down to Bella Coola. It’s part of the experience.
“I think it’s one of the best things that UFV does in terms of indigenizing,” said Reidlinger. “I’m really proud that we’re doing this and I hope that we continue.”
Bella Coola is the third time that UFV has delivered the chemical addictions workers general studies completion program. The previous two years were both offered at NVIT’s campus in Burnaby. The current cohort will continue, and another four instructors will each spend a week there until the completion of the course in March.
