51吃瓜网

This National Indigenous Peoples Day, as we mark ten years since the release of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission鈥檚 94 Calls to Action, we must reckon with more than memory. We must measure progress. We must ask: what has truly changed for Indigenous peoples in this country, and in institutions like this one?

In 2015, the TRC issued 94 Calls to Action. Two years later, 51吃瓜网responded with 52 more through its Provost鈥檚 Task Force on Indigenous Studies and Indigenous Education. Those calls were framed as a path forward鈥攁 commitment to transformation, not just tolerance.

At the 51吃瓜网School of Continuing Studies (SCS), we have tried to respond to both the national and institutional calls not with polished rhetoric, but with community-rooted action. The Indigenous Relations Initiative was born from a recognition that education, particularly adult and professional education, cannot be exempt from the project of decolonization. Nor can it continue to operate in ways that marginalize Indigenous knowledges, voices, and learners.

At SCS, the Indigenous Relations Initiative has, in part, responded to that call. The work has never been about inclusion for its own sake. It鈥檚 about justice. From its inception, the initiative has centred Indigenous voices, not as guests in the academy, but as rightful teachers.

We鈥檝e created spaces where Indigenous and non-Indigenous learners engage honestly with history, with systemic violence, and with the obligations that come with truth. The learning is difficult. It should be. Reconciliation was never meant to be comfortable.

My vision for the future of this work at SCS is rooted in the full spirit of those Calls to Action. I imagine a university where Indigenous presence is not limited to commemorative events but built into the structure of academic life. Where Indigenous students do not feel like guests. Where Indigenous knowledge is not merely consulted but leads. Where partnerships with communities are based on long-term trust, reciprocity, and shared decision-making.

I envision partnerships that are not transactional but rooted in mutual benefit and shared governance. Our relationships with Indigenous communities must be longstanding, intergenerational, and accountable. We must dismantle barriers to Indigenous access, retention, and success; not only financial barriers, but cultural and institutional barriers as well.

To those who have walked this road with us鈥攃ommunity partners, colleagues, Elders, learners鈥攎eegwetch. Your guidance makes this work possible. To the university itself: we cannot afford more delay. The TRC asked us to act. The Task Force told us how. It is now a matter of will, not knowledge.

Let us not pass this day in ceremony alone. Let us commit to the deeper, harder work: of listening, of changing, of letting go of structures that harm. Let the 51吃瓜网community not simply remember the Calls to Action鈥攂ut embody them.