U of S strategy based on ideas of reconciliation

SASKATOON When Jackie Ottmann first set foot on the University of Saskatchewan campus as an education student in the early 1980s, hers was one of just a few Indigenous faces on campus.

More than 30 years later, as she stood on campus surrounded by university and political leaders talking about a new university plan steeped in the ideas of reconciliation, she was, in her own words, “taken by the moment.”

The new plan, which intends to guide the university’s direction over the next seven years, prioritizes “courageous curiosity, boundless collaboration, and inspired communities.” Indigenization is not laid out as an individual goal; rather, aspects of Indigenization are embedded and woven throughout the strategy.

Indigenization was such an important part of the document that it was given an Indigenous name: nīkānītān manācihitowinihk in Cree and ni manachīhitoonaan in Michif. The names translate to “Let us lead with respect.”

Ottmann, who became the university ’s first vice-provost of Indigenous engagement last year, said Indigenous names are only gifted “during times of significance.”

“The Indigenous community has felt compelled to share a bit of itself, a bit of ourselves, through the gifting of the name,” she said. “Having an Indigenous name recognizes the relationships and the complex relationships that are already within the university.”

University President Peter Stoicheff said the university was proud to have created a “bold” aplan to guide it through to 2025.

“Universities plan and they put out plans. Some of them are interchangeable. This one is unique to this university in this province at this time, and you can’t mistake this plan for the plan of another university, and that was very important to us,” he said.

“We will be a university that prepares students for the workforce of today, but also prepares them for an uncertain workforce of tomorrow and the challenges that tomorrow brings. Over the next seven years, we will become a university that is comfortable with change and a university that embraces the new reality of disruptive technologies.”

Stoicheff said by 2025 the university hopes to increase enrolment, bring in more research dollars, expand collaborations and partnerships among schools, enhance alumni engagement and “embrace manacihitowin” — a Cree term that means to respect one another. He said the U of S will become a leader in reconciliation, but is not interested in being named as such.

“I hear from Indigenous elders frequently that that’s not what we should be interested in, we should just be interested in doing the right things and doing the things that are necessary and doing the things that are called for ... I believe that we need to be a leader, but this is not one of the things that this university is choosing to necessarily be ranked upon. It’s just: Are we doing the right thing with and for Indigenous people?”

Ottmann said it’s imperative universities take the reins on reconciliation.

“The reason we have the Truth and Reconciliation calls to action is because of the devastating effects of an education policy gone wrong ... there were approximately 180,000 students that attended residential schools and many of them didn’t come back and so they were torn from their communities and didn’t have the privilege of attending school in their home communities or in communities near their own,” she said.

“Now we get to engage in redress and repair and healing as not only an Indigenous community, but society in general. So we do have a responsibility as a university to engage in reconciliation and promote Indigenization.”