Educational program for aboriginal girls seeks home
U of A backed away from pilot project for those who don’t fit into standard system
International scholars are voicing support for a local program that was changing the lives of high-risk aboriginal girls before the pilot project lost the space and funding needed to continue.
“If it wasn’t for Moving the Mountain, I don’t think I would be able to read right now,” said Tameka Tourangeau, 16, who became involved with the program after dropping out of school at 13, completely illiterate. “I think I would be doing drugs.”
Moving the Mountain started as a research project with the iHuman Youth Society before being housed in the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Education in 2015 as a pilot project.
In keeping with a call to action put forward by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada to improve the education of aboriginal students, the intent of Moving the Mountain was to develop a self-directed educational environment for vulnerable indigenous girls between 13 and 24 who don’t fit in with the standard education system. Their model could then be used as a basis for similar projects across North America.
“The whole idea of this was to learn how they could tell us how we can do a better job for populations, and they were going to be the pioneers, the people who come up with a system,” said Wallis Kendal, who founded the program, in an interview Friday at a downtown law office.
That came to an end in December after the university distanced itself from the program and closed the doors to their space on Dec. 23.
Alison Turner, a spokesperson for the university, said “the organizers of Moving the Mountain, and the university, mutually agreed that the university was not the best fit for the program to achieve its goals and that it would be better served in a different environment.”
Kendal has a very different interpretation, drawing parallels between the inflexibility of university administration and the rigid educational structures that pushed these girls out of the classroom in the first place.
“The University of Alberta more than likely gave up one of the best projects they could have ever had at the U of A with real people,” Kendal said.
Tourangeau said after the space was closed, two projects she had been working on — a report studying the effect of gasoline-powered cars on the environment and a sacred bundle inspired by learning about missing and murdered indigenous women and girls — were thrown away. She lost her sense of accomplishment with them.
“I felt like I couldn’t do anything,” said Tourangeau.
Makaylia Dachuk, 18, said she dropped out of school at 16 after struggling with alcoholism and the aftermath of a sexual assault.
Moving the Mountain gave her one-on-one support to improve her math, career and literacy skills and being surrounded by a community of like-minded women helped empower her.
“I wouldn’t be where I am if it wasn’t for these girls,” Dachuk said.
If it wasn’t for Moving the Mountain, I don’t think I would be able to read right now. I think I would be doing drugs.
Alycia Matchatis, 18, would go to Moving the Mountain after her classes to get extra help on her university studies and to share meals with other students. Now that the program has been shuttered, Matchatis says she is already starting to fall behind.
Dennis Norman, faculty chair of the Native American Program at Harvard University and chief psychologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital, wrote a letter in January supporting the program, which Harvard students have been involved in since 2013.
Megan Red Skirt-Shaw, a student in the Harvard Graduate School of Education, came to Edmonton in March to study the program. As a member of the Ogala Sioux tribe, she found it unconscionable that aboriginal students would be denied an educational program that has shown such benefit.
“There is power, there is energy in this room that is really good, why aren’t we serving these incredible students?” she asked.
In order for the project to continue for another year, Wallis Kendall said they need to find a new space with a kitchen and up to $300,000 in funding to pay teaching staff and cover programming expenses.