By Megan Lambert (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: October 29, 2014
From her humble beginnings in Chilliwack to hosting the royal family as BC’s Chatelaine, Gwendolyn Point has had a remarkable path through the province as a student and educator. Now, she’s returned to her roots as chancellor for UFV — the university where she started her career in education.
A chancellor is a figurehead who also acts as a member of the university’s Board of Governors and Senate. Succeeding Brian Minter, Point will confer student degrees and admit them at convocation.
“It’s really special,” she says. “After students have spent three, four, even five years to get a degree, [it’s] important to have some ceremony to acknowledge their work.”
Point grew up in the Chilliwack area, which gave her a foundational link she still feels today. “You have a responsibility,” she says. “When you are connected to the land, you’re connected to the people.”
Point spent most of her childhood indoors at her home in the Chehalis community, as the West Coast climate gave her earaches due to a hole in her eardrum. When her peers were outside playing, Point remembers staying inside reading to keep herself occupied. “If you can imagine, in our homes, we didn’t have a lot of books,” she says, but because her mother was the janitor of her elementary school, she would read while her mother worked.
Point says the difference in how education is perceived between Western society and First Nations culture adds to the challenges aboriginal students face while pursuing public education. “[School] meant abuse, it meant fear, it meant being hungry,” she says.
She explains that the fear of residential schools inhibited many parents from encouraging the idea of school, let alone university, in the first place. Residential schools were institutions for aboriginal children, where they were taken away from their families so Western culture could be imposed upon them at an early age. In recent years, stories of abuse, neglect, and racism are surfacing from students who attended — some of whom are Point’s relatives.
“It didn’t just happen 150 years ago, my mother went to residential school, […] my sister went to residential school — it’s very recent, right?” she said.
Although her passion for learning made her an eager student, Point failed to complete her Dogwood diploma in high school.
[pullquote]“You have a responsibility – when you are connected to the land, you’re connected to the people.”[/pullquote]
“I was young and I had my one son, and I didn’t get to graduate,” she says, noting that school for First Nations students was exceptionally difficult. According to Point, the dropout rate for aboriginal secondary students was over 90 per cent when she was attending school.
She came to UFV to finish her Dogwood diploma and pursue social work, but she soon found inspiration from mentors Betty Urquhart and Heather Commodore, who encouraged her to further her education. Point tested for her GED high school equivalency and eventually moved to Vancouver with her family to continue at UBC.
After her parents’ death while she was still young, Point’s grandparents and extended family took care of her and her siblings. Point describes her relationship with her grandmother as one that was very close. Even though her grandparents didn’t practise traditional ceremonies while she was growing up, Point said her grandmother passed on knowledge about ancient Stó:lo practices, like traditional shoemaking or boating, through storytelling.
Before attending UBC’s Native Indian Teacher Education Program (NITEP), Point struggled with leaving the support of her family and community. She remembers a particular conversation with her grandmother where she expressed her fear of possible discrimination or racism that could result from her leaving her fellow Stó:lo classmates and going to a larger campus.
“[She said] no. You go. Don’t you be afraid.” Point says, remembering her grandmother’s advice. “She said you’ll do good — just don’t forget who you are. And when you’re finished, you come home and you use what you learned to help your people.”
After her experience at UBC, Point began teaching at an elementary school in Chehalis. “I was teaching the dancing and the singing and our own stories,” she says. “My children were attending school [in Chilliwack], and they didn’t have any of that.”
After seeing the lack of Aboriginal culture within larger schools, Point began working as a native support teacher in Chilliwack. As well as teaching, Point also managed First Nations programs with the Stó:l? Nation Education Department at the local, regional, and provincial level.
As well as her bachelor’s degree from UBC, Point also has an honourary doctorate from the University of Victoria, a master’s degree from the University of Portland, and a post-baccalaureate diploma from SFU.
“I’m still a student,” she says, mentioning that she’s finishing her PhD in Education at SFU. “I know first-hand the struggles and the challenges and sacrifices.”
Commenting on her success, Point says, “For me, it’s about working with people, and honouring other people’s strengths.
“That’s how the university operates,” she continues, explaining that students contributing their individual research and passion serves the broader community.
“Everybody’s got to do their part.”
Point currently teaches social work courses at UFV — her subjects include aboriginal history before European contact, residential schools, and the Stó:lo worldview. However, in order to take on the chancellor position, Point will have to resign from teaching.
“I will miss the students,” she says, adding that she feels she has learned as much from her students as she has in her experience teaching.
As for her installment as chancellor, Point says, “It’s exciting — and it’s a nice way for me to wind down my teaching career at this point.”
