This blog is no longer being updated and is maintained for archival purpose only. Visit the Indigenous Affairs Office for resources and information about current Indigenous initiatives at UFV.

Welcome to our Indigenizing the Academy website.

As summer turned into fall of 2012, 275 delegates from 33 post-secondary institutions came together at the University of the Fraser Valley’s Aboriginal Gathering Place. The purpose of the gathering: to discuss indigenization – a way of making universities welcoming for indigenous cultures, knowledge, learners, faculty, and staff.
Those who came to the gathering overflowed out of the UFV Longhouse/Gathering Place; they listened with their eyes, their ears, their spirit, and their hearts.
And in exchange, the keynote speakers, the guest speakers and visiting dignitaries spoke from the heart: shared their thoughts, and engaged in dialogue, speech and conversations that “needed to be had.”
The ceremony, the sweats, the food, and the sharing created an environment in which all speakers and listeners could reach down deep into themselves to bring renewal, understanding, and transformational growth to each other.
To find the notes from our Gathering, click on Resources. At this same tab, you can find videos from the Gathering, other Gathering resources, information on the Gift of Cedar, and more videos and resources that for you to browse.

To continue discussions started at the Gathering click on Dialogue. You can search the blog entries by category and comment on the entries. The collated discussions can also be found in Resources.
Future events can be found under Events

Recent Postings

Elders on Governance: use love to combat prejudice, to promote body, mind, emotion and spirit; to “walk the talk”

Elders stressed that best practices in indigenizing would include making language and particularly language immersion an important part of indigenization. Indigenous teaching methods – employing patience, and teaching with love, with “no slapping or yelling” — were recommended as well, rather than token efforts (“not enough to take a non-indigenous program and slap a name […]

Universities and the Gift of Cedar

At our Indigenizing the Academy Gathering,  four western red cedars were donated by Brian Minter. They are planted in the North, South, East, or West. Each Universitypresent at the Gathering will choose a tree and attach its name to a tree and its corresponding direction. The Cedars represent the beginning of the work that is being done at our […]

UFV travels to the Lloyd Barber Summit on Aboriginal Post-Secondary Education

Shirley Hardman, Senior Advisor on Indigenous Affairs at University of the Fraser Valley, was pleased to be able to travel to the Regina, Saskatchewan this past week to attend the Lloyd Barber Summit on Aboriginal Post-Secondary Education. The two day event was a great follow-up to the UFV hosted conference last August on Indigenizing the […]

Where can I feel at home, and be who I am? Students’ Personal and Institutional Reflections on Indigenizing the Academy

Students principally   spoke to the questions of addressing misconceptions of what indigenization meant: they felt that a separate gathering space was needed where they could feel at home and culturally safe, feeling they could be themselves and not be judged. Also addressed were issues of structural discrimination typical of a Eurocentric post-secondary institution: mentioned as […]

“Walk the talk” Promoting body, mind, emotion and spirit — Elders’ reflections on Hiring, Retention, Tenure, and Promotion

Elders stressed that best practices in indigenizing would include making language and particularly language immersion an important part of indigenization. Indigenous teaching methods – employing patience, and teaching with love, with “no slapping or yelling” — were recommended as well, rather than token efforts (“not enough to take a non-indigenous program and slap a name […]

“We must critically examine our practice”: Faculty reflections on hiring, retention, tenure, and promotion

A department that is overly concerned with questions of “ fit” (how well does the applicant fit in with the department?) should be challenged –using themes like colonialism —  to critically examine  their practice. Departments were urged to be self-reflective about how they treated the “token” aboriginal scholar in their department, as one aboriginal person […]