Colleges and universities alike have rallied to support Aboriginal students. This is a fact. In 2016, the federation of Québec CEGEPs created a committee to promote educational success among Aboriginal college students (CRÉAC). According to the federation, today more than half of the 48 CEGEPs can say that they welcome and provide services for Aboriginal students. (Fédération des cégeps 2017) In addition to Kiuna Institution
As early as the 1970s, McGill University and the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi played a key role in the Indigenization of education and the delivery of teacher education programs for Indigenous peoples. Other universities have since taken steps to ensure better integration of Indigenous realities into their study programs and research fields while striving to improve the Indigenous graduation rate.
Photo credit: http://canadian99s.com/
Photo credit: Kativik School Board
The Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT) is a good example. Owing to its geographical location, UQAT has built a special relationship with Aboriginal communities and listened attentively to their training and education needs. The university’s First Peoples Service boasts a devoted team that supports and meets the specific needs of Aboriginal students, whether at the academic, personal or cultural level. In 2016, UQAT created the School of Indigenous Studies, which offers undergraduate and graduate programs as well as research fields, developed in close cooperation with the Indigenous community
Twenty-five years ago, Montréal’s Concordia University opened its Aboriginal Student Resource Centre to support and help First Nations
Thus, a person might say that they’re from the Naskapi First Nation of Kawawachikamach, or the Atikamekw First Nation of Manawan, or the Mohawk First Nation of Akwesasne, etc., identifying both the nation to which they belong and their place of origin or residence.
In short, be it at the Université du Québec à Montréal, the Université de Montréal, the Université Laval, the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Concordia or elsewhere, welcoming and integrating Indigenous students as well as developing Indigenous-oriented study programs and research is a priority for today’s universities.
Suzy Basile, Anthropologist, Phd in Environmental Sciences
Suzy Basile holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in anthropology. Anthropologists did not always have a good reputation among First Nations communities. Most of the time, they were seen as researchers just passing through, “people who asked a lot of questions,” only interested in collecting as much data as they could for their research projects and then suddenly disappearing without giving anything back to the communities. In other words, as Suzy Basile put it, many researchers, and not just in anthropology, seemed to be more interested in “padding their resumé” than in allowing communities to benefit from their research. Very early on in her career as an anthropologist, Basile decided to change things, convinced that certain practices were no longer acceptable. Her work led the Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador to adopt a protocol in 2005 for research carried out among First Nation communities. The protocol has since been updated. (AFNQL 2014) In the years that followed, she helped organize three seminars on research ethics with First Nations. (Asselin and Basile 2012)
In 2016, Basile earned a PhD in Environmental Sciences from the Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT), becoming not only the first Aboriginal student to receive a PhD from UQAT, but also the first member of the Atikamekw First Nation to get a doctoral degree. Her dissertation was on “The role and place of Atikamekw women in the governance of land and natural resources.” Suzy Basile is currently a professor at UQAT’s School of Indigenous Studies.