Saskatchewan Polytechnic’s Indigenous Success Strategy aims to meet the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Call to Action #92: Ensure Indigenous peoples have access to jobs, training and education opportunities; and they benefit from economic development.supplied
As part of Saskatchewan Polytechnic’s commitment to the renewal of relationships – miyo wahkohtowin – with its Indigenous communities, it has made Indigenous education a priority. This means ensuring that Indigenous students feel welcome, inspired and empowered, and most of all that Sask Polytech is a place where they belong. To meet this commitment, Sask Polytech integrates Indigenous ways of being, knowing, teaching and learning into its entire framework.
Specifically, Sask Polytech’s Indigenous Success Strategy aims to meet the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Call to Action #92: Ensure Indigenous peoples have access to jobs, training and education opportunities; and they benefit from economic development. To achieve this goal, Sask Polytech continues to focus on inclusivity to increase recruitment, retention and success of Indigenous students across its programs.
“We are strongly committed to good relations with Indigenous communities,” says Dr. Larry Rosia, president and CEO of Sask Polytech. “We value diversity and inclusion. It’s important to recognize our Indigenous communities and students, and that we do whatever we can in the spirit of truth and reconciliation to ensure that they have access to develop the skills they need and want.”
Several programs and projects are underway with local Indigenous communities to further good relations and equip students with skills and knowledge. This includes the kanatannipiy (clean water) program, which helps Indigenous people gain essential skills and access employment opportunities in water treatment and distribution facilities. Clean drinking water remains a challenge for Indigenous communities across Saskatchewan. By offering this training, Indigenous people can gain employment and help address this need by operating water and waste systems to provide clean drinking water.
Similarly, an important applied research project investigates the use of virtual reality as mental health supports for Indigenous youth in La Loche. Access to mental health services is by no means equitable. Sask Polytech has been working directly with Dene High School students to find a collaborative solution to making mental health supports more accessible to Indigenous youth.
Sask Polytech is also working closely with Cowessess First Nation on a joint initiative called the Remote Sensing of Residential School Cemeteries applied research project. This project will help to determine the location and number of graves at the former Marieval Indian Residential School site in the Regina area. The discovery of mass graves at former residential schools across Canada continues to sound the alarm for just how critical the journey of truth and reconciliation is.
There is much work to be done. Sask Polytech will continue to contribute to truth and reconciliation, and demonstrate how educational institutions can play this vital role by being an inclusive safe space for learning and by collaborating with Indigenous communities and students.
Advertising feature produced by Randall Anthony Communications with Colleges and Institutes Canada. The Globe’s editorial department was not involved.