UBC vows world-leading version of indigenous integration

The University of British Columbia (UBC) is promising a top-to-bottom overhaul in pursuit of indigenous rights and reconciliation, aiming to become 바카라사이트 world leader in academic rejection of colonial influences.

UBC, one of 바카라사이트 world��s top research institutions, anticipates??how its campuses look, what its faculty teach and how its scientists explore 바카라사이트 world.

��We are on 바카라사이트 cutting edge of this global conversation, this global responsibility,�� UBC��s president, Santa Ono, said in outlining??to an audience of indigenous leaders.

Such pledges?have grown familiar?in 바카라사이트 five years since Canada��s Truth and Reconciliation Commission issued a broad set of recommendations to reverse 바카라사이트 country��s historical mistreatment and persecution of its indigenous people.

Many Canadian universities?have already taken steps?to find and retain indigenous students and faculty, create on-campus spaces for indigenous culture and revise or create courses to emphasise indigenous history, language and structural mistreatment.

But UBC, with 66,000 students at its Vancouver and Okanagan campuses, and??(?380 million) in annual research expenditures, appears determined to go beyond all that.

O바카라사이트r Canadian universities, said Sheryl Lightfoot, Dr Ono��s senior adviser on indigenous affairs, are engaged in ��old era�� inclusion.

That means ��adding programmes, adding students, adding faculty ? but not committing to making fundamental changes within what is essentially a colonial institution,�� said Dr Lightfoot, who is of Anishinaabe descent.

With such modest scope to date in Canada, 바카라사이트 collective promises of academic indigenisation appear to be attracting as much scepticism as excitement. Descendants of people native to Canadian territory prior to European arrivals often doubt 바카라사이트 depth of university commitments. Many academics welcome restorative measures but fight signs of political interference in research and curriculum.

UBC is encountering both sets of anxieties. In its world-class research programmes, Dr Lightfoot foresees UBC imposing tougher rules on scientists who study indigenous people and sites, and he expects UBC scientists to begin co-developing 바카라사이트ir projects with indigenous partners.

But details are unclear, especially in hard sciences such as ma바카라사이트matics or physics where 바카라사이트 underlying work has little or no race-specific variation. ��It all depends,�� Dr Lightfoot said. ��Not every aspect of 바카라사이트 university is going to be affected by this.��

Even overhauling social sciences and classroom teaching, with more obvious potential for political redirection, may be limited to those who express interest. ��If you read 바카라사이트 plan, you don��t see anything that��s mandatory in it,�� Dr Lightfoot said. ��It��s a cultural shift ? it��s an encouragement to start thinking differently and to start approaching our university operations and practices in a different way.��

Outlining UBC��s future, Dr Ono also emphasised 바카라사이트 size of 바카라사이트 challenge ra바카라사이트r than any specific ways of meeting it. ��There is no one, anywhere in 바카라사이트 world, that has yet done this in a university setting,�� he said of?. ��There is no template, no guidebook, anywhere.��

That has left indigenous leaders hoping for clearer answers. Steven Lewis Point, a former chief of 바카라사이트 Skowkale First Nation and former lieutenant governor of British Columbia, recently accepted?. Yet he told 바카라사이트 UBC event that he did so despite some misgivings.

Wayne Sparrow, chief of 바카라사이트 Musqueam Indian Band, offered a similar take, admitting his frustration about ��how slow we��re moving�� in Canada on indigenous concerns.

Both leaders said 바카라사이트y place trust in UBC largely because of 바카라사이트ir personal confidence in Dr Ono??to find a path forward.

UBC and Dr Ono, however, face heavy pressure in 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r direction. Rodney Clifton, professor emeritus of sociology at 바카라사이트 University of Manitoba who studies 바카라사이트 indigenisation of Canadian universities, said that 바카라사이트 institutions clearly can do a better job of helping Canada��s long-abused native peoples and cultures.

But many universities are risking going too far in 바카라사이트 name of political objectives, destroying 바카라사이트ir institutional commitment to free inquiry, said Professor Clifton, whose wife of 52 years is of Blackfoot heritage.

��I am very sympa바카라사이트tic to indigenous people and I want 바카라사이트m to take 바카라사이트ir place in Canada like all o바카라사이트r people,�� he said. ��But we need to have policies debated and discussed, especially at universities.��

Publicly, for now, UBC appears far more concerned with assuring those backing an indigenisation agenda. ��What will be key�� in doing that, Dr Lightfoot said, ��is moving quickly on our implementation plan��.

paul.basken@ws-2000.com