Pîkiskwêtân, which means “let’s talk” in Cree, is a free series of anti-racist training and professional development webinars for Concordia University staff, faculty, students and alumni. Over 200 people attend each of these Indigenous Learning workshops at Concordia held throughout the academic year.
Manon Tremblay, a member the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation in Saskatchewan, is the Senior Director for Indigenous Directions at the university. She said the series aims to increase awareness and understanding on matters that are important to Indigenous peoples in Canada.
She believes racism is still ongoing in Canada, and not only towards Indigenous people. “Any person of colour would tell you that racism is quite prevalent in this country,” said Tremblay.
Thus, the Indigenous Directions staff created a set of webinars for the Concordia community on Indigenous perspectives, racist attitudes and how the Indigenous are presented in the media. Indigenous cultural practices and worldviews, obstacles to decolonization and reconciliation are also explored.
“It is important for people to know what our lives are like,” Tremblay said. “It is a part of the education process.”
Among the topics, she highlighted the importance of the “Indigenous Perspective on the Ethical Conduct of Research” webinar, in which participants are invited to reflect on respectful ways to conduct academic research.
“It is important for researchers to understand specifics when they come into the communities,” she explained.
Tremblay presented the workshop November 15 to bring awareness to current and future researchers of the impact of research on Indigenous communities, collectives and organizations.
She said discussion topics included access to communities, data management, Indigenous perspectives on and experiences with research, intellectual property rights, and Indigenous research ethics and protocols.
Another webinar, “A Day in the Life of Indigenous People,” discusses daily lives of Indigenous students, staff and teachers – and the relationships they have with Canadians and governments.
“It is about the racism that we have: the lack of medical services, drinking water in some of the communities,” Tremblay stated. “It is important for people to know what our lives are like.”
She also mentioned the workshops on Indigenous languages, their status and “what led to the fact that these languages are in danger.”
“Last semester I offered a workshop on the interaction to the Cree language,” Tremblay said. “We just sat around the table and started learning how to speak Cree. It was big mix of participants, professors, staff and the students; there were some Indigenous students, including a couple of Cree students.”
Started during the Covid pandemic, Indigenous Learning series grew popular with relevant topics and the ease of its online approach, she explained.
“We make a choice on which topics we believe people want to hear about,” Tremblay said. “It is eye opening, something that they didn’t know about; for them it is part of their awareness of Indigenous issues.”
Her next webinar, “Hiring and Retaining Indigenous Employees,” is designed to help managers effectively hire, retain and mentor Indigenous employees. Attendees explore unconscious biases in the hiring and evaluation of Indigenous employees.
Donna Goodleaf, a Mohawk from Kahnawake, is Concordia’s first Decolonizing Curriculum and Pedagogy director. As one of the facilitators, she believes the Pîkiskwêtân Learning Series plays a significant role in understanding the Indigenous community at the university.
“The learning series serves as a platform to make Indigenous voices visible and heard on issues we perceive to be critical and important for all learners at the university,” Goodleaf said.
The workshop “Territorial Land Acknowledgement: Going Beyond the Rhetoric of Performative Acts” that Goodleaf leads explains the importance of recognizing the land that Concordia occupies. Participants learn how to deliver a territorial acknowledgement that is respectful and meaningful.
Goodleaf says it is important “to engage in critical self-awareness and be action-oriented to take it upon themselves to self-educate on matters that are important to the Indigenous community at the university.”