Smokey Thomas applauds Algoma U. students in Canada 150 message

In a message posted this week, Smokey Thomas, president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, singled out Algoma University Students Union and its d ecision not to participate in celebrating Canada 150 on the grounds of the former Shingwauk Residential School.

"I have to applaud the students’ stance. Young leaders should hold all of us to account for the world we’ve created – especially those of us who were already grown up before they were born," wrote the union leader.

In the message — the full text of which is available here — Thomas points to the country's troubling past, and talks about OPSEU's involvement in reconciliation.

Meanwhile, a group of Algoma University professors has also weighed in on Canada 150 and Shingwauk Residential School, drafting the following letter in response to recent media coverage of the AUSU stance:

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In response to the Sootoday article on Canada 150 Celebrations and Algoma University

As faculty members at Algoma University we applaud and stand with Anishnaabe and non-Indigenous students and community members who have taken a public position on Canada 150, raising visibility of the fact that the history of colonialism continues to play out with extremely negative effects on many Indigenous peoples today. These positions assert what we value at Algoma University – a meaningful place to learn and critique, and to support commitment to the transformation of indigenous-settler relations here in the Sault and across the country. We applaud the efforts of the university to ensure these spaces for dialogue and critical learning are present given Algoma University’s special mission and its history as a former residential school site. To reject on-campus “celebrations of 150” is an invitation to dialogue about the actual history and lived experience of the first peoples of these lands.

The postings of the past few days in the Sootoday and the Toronto Star are demonstrative of the need for this dialogue here, locally, in parallel with the many other such dialogues underway across the country. We were disconcerted that the initial media coverage failed to capture the meaning of what has been underway at Algoma and that it shut down the potential for meaningful conversation. We were concerned that the importance of these student efforts at promoting understanding and empathy at this particular moment of the 150th anniversary of confederation would be undermined, and we recognize the risks taken by students themselves who have put forth these positions publicly. We want to see these spaces and positions understood as essential contributions to the cross-cultural learning to which Algoma University is committed.

As faculty at Algoma University who have participated in meetings and discussions over the past week or so, and at many other times during the last decade, about the institution’s commitment to Anishnaabe (First Nation, Metis, Inuit) and non-indigenous cross-cultural learning, as well as to meaningful reconciliation efforts, we have been moved by the possibility of strengthening Indigenous/First Nation and settler relationships and about what Algoma could achieve at this particular moment. Why anyone would want to undermine this work, or the space being opened up at an institution with a special mission to cultivate cross-cultural learning between Anishinaabe (First Nations, Métis, and Inuit) peoples and other communities in Northern Ontario, is beyond us. The clear position presented by Anishnaabe Algoma student Quinn Meawasige, the statement by the Shingwauk Anishnaabe Students Association (SASA), and the message of solidarity to Indigenous students and communities by Algoma University’s student union (AUSU), are pivotal to the shaping of the institution and indicative of active and engaged students. These have lead the way for discussions this week involving students, community members, faculty, staff and administration. It is an unfolding discussion at all levels of the institution based on many years of ongoing dialogue, work, and effort. Some of these postings were interpreted as anti-Canadian by some of your readers. But how can commitments to reconciliation and to the celebration of diversity — commitments already publicly declared by the University and the country — be considered anti-Canadian? We would rather think that the context to this discussion is not fully understood by those unfamiliar with this site and history.

Thoughtful and knowledgeable Anishnaabe and non-Anishnaabe students, allies, graduates, and community members have spoken with conviction this week about what is at stake for all of us — for the university, for those who have survived residential school, for the broader community and for our relationships generally. These conversations are unfolding across Canada. Many here at Algoma have spoken about how we need to mark Canada 150, that we need to critique and create, to write, paint, share food and dance together, and work on making the next 150 better for all and not just some at the expense of others. Many of us saw the importance of celebrating what is now called National Indigenous People’s Day, over at Whitefish Island, because that is the history of this place. Why would anyone want to negatively portray the fact that at this institution there are those who care that Anishnaabe communities are heard regarding their actual experiences and perspectives as the original people of these territories?

That First Nation peoples continue to be deeply affected by the legacy of colonialism should be a major issue for Canadians. Canada 150 will indeed be celebrated this year, in many places and throughout the vast territories where the descendants of the first peoples still live. There are many achievements by Indigenous and non-Indigenous people to celebrate. It will also be a reminder that there is a legacy of dispossession, a legacy that continues because people would rather think that this is not a lived reality in this country. Canada 150 marks the resilience of people who have survived, of friendships between nations that have lasted, and of those who continue to lead in the defense of lands, fragile ecologies and alternative forms of development. It marks the fact that there are those who care about our mutual experience and the possibility of a better future together. It marks the fact that there is a lot of work still to be done: to address unresolved land issues where roughly 0.2 per cent of land is held in trust for reserves while 99.8 per cent is managed, or bought and sold by non-Indigenous Canadians; chronic poverty and boiled water advisories are in place for nearly 100 First Nation communities (yes, in Canada); endemic and painful realities of child and youth suicide, missing and murdered indigenous women, and over representation and mistreatment of indigenous young men in jails, all of which represent ongoing, unfolding crises. The underfunding of services that were promised as part of treaties for the shared use of lands is chronic, and these lands are still being used by settlers because Indigenous peoples continue to share these lands with us.

Canada 150 also marks the history of early settlers who would not have survived if it weren’t for Indigenous peoples who cared for them. It marks trading relationships, friendships and exchanges of knowledge and culture, where people married across cultures and produced families and loved together. It marks the fact that there are Indigenous artists, musicians, poets and scholars that have spectacular, painful, and intricate stories to be told and that the relationships between settlers and indigenous peoples can and needs to be celebrated, which is possible when reciprocity is present.

That many non-Indigenous people, including here in the Sault and throughout Ontario and elsewhere, don’t realize they are also “treaty people” is part of a history that needs to be better taught. We are educators, and we seek to deepen our understandings of complex social and political realities that affect our lives and those of our students and communities, and especially of the stories that are not being told. We look to open routes to dialogue and exploration of meaning, not close them down because some people would rather not hear about difficult truths. The site of Algoma University, a former residential school, requires a particular responsibility to that history. It implies a particular commitment to grappling with difficult and violent historical truths as well as the continuing legacy of the trauma inflicted within living memory, and still to this day. For those unaware, the original vision of Chief Shingwauk — who appealed to settler governments to collaborate in a cross-cultural educational effort to share the best of Eurodescendent and Anishnaabe knowledge — was terribly undermined and violently misapplied through the subsequent imposition of the residential school. Once the school was closed, survivors and allies saw the need to retake and redirect the educational project, which was to become Algoma University and Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig in order to realign with Chief Shingwauk’s original vision of real cross cultural learning.

The hopefulness of the past week or so has centred on the fact that everyone does indeed want to mark this 150 event, to unsettle some assumptions about Canada, yes, but to really celebrate the resilience, creativity, and possibility of renewal through dialogue and mutual — and actual — cross-cultural learning. Because that is what the founders of this institution intended to do and to create in this institution, and why many faculty members were drawn here to teach. The University’s senate and board both committed not long ago, to take up the Truth and Reconciliation’s 94 Calls to Action, which make mention of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) 1996 report as well as the United Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP), and the need for better education in all areas related to the experience and knowledge of Indigenous peoples throughout the country. The TRC was a nation-wide process that unfolded over a number of years. This is Canada’s process. This is the Canada that we are highlighting.

We have the deepest gratitude and admiration for the students and community members willing to speak up for the Algoma University they believe could be, and for the city, region, Canada, and ultimately world they want to live in and still think is possible, despite so many messages they hear to the contrary. Perhaps there will be a space for a round dance or similar expression of friendship on July 1 up at Algoma U and you can come and decide for yourselves if perhaps there is more to this story that needs to be heard.

Sincerely,

Dr. Sheila Gruner, Chair, Department Community Economic and Social Development

Dr. Alice Ridout, Department of English and Film

Professor Andrea Pinheiro, Department of Fine Art and Music

Professor Noni Boyle, Department of Fine Art and Music

Professor Sean Meades, CESD PT Faculty and Acting Director, NORDIK Institute

Dr. Robert Rutherdale, Department of History

Professor Tom O’Flanagan, Department of Fine Art and Music

Dr. Linda Burnett, Chair, Faculty of Humanities and Associate Professor, Department of English

Dr. Deborah Woodman, Chair, Department of Sociology

Professor Sofia Silberberg, Department of Math and Computer Science and Business and Economics

Dr. Nadine Robinson, Department of Business and Economics