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When Stephanie Waterman was working toward her doctorate at Syracuse University, a faculty member pulled her aside and showed her a textbook that said there were only four members of the Onondaga Nation left.

“We’re either invisible to the curriculum, ignored when we speak up, or hyper visible; having to speak for all Native people, all the time, on everything that has to do with Indigenous people,” Waterman said.

Waterman, a member of the Onondaga Nation who is now a faculty member at the University of Toronto, teaches a course at UofT on the Indigenous student experience. At a presentation in SU’s Schine Student Center on Tuesday evening, she focused on the ways that postsecondary institutions such as SU could improve their resources for Indigenous students.

Indigenous support centers on college campuses are important, in part because of the lack of representation Indigenous students have in the classroom, Waterman said. While Indigenous support centers are one of the most valuable resources on campus, these centers are limited by the absence of their history in educational curricula, she said.

The centers are important because they offer Indigenous youth more programs to utilize, Waterman said, and create the counter space to build a sense of community.

The UofT professor cited Michelle Pidgeon, a professor and researcher at Simon Fraser University, who developed a “wholistic” — emphasizing the whole — approach to servicing and programming at postsecondary institutions.

Pidgeon’s framework highlighted four key areas: respect of Indigenous knowledge, the responsibility to be inclusive, keeping programs relevant to student needs, and reciprocity, or ensuring Indigenous and non-Indigenous people are learning together.

“Students can maintain their cultural integrity while still obtaining their degree through support like language, classes and clubs, and hosting programming,” Waterman said.

The UofT professor uses maps extensively in her research to help make the concept of ancestral land clear. All postsecondary institutions are on Indigenous land, she said, which is something institutions are finally realizing.

“A land acknowledgment is, at the very least, a recognition of where (Indigenous people) are. Hopefully, it might spark awareness,” Waterman said. “I see it as an acknowledgment that we have a deep relationship with our space. It’s good when people act on it and not just read it off to check the box for them.”

Maps are critical to decolonize and reclaim Indigenous land, Waterman said. Native Land Digital, a Canadian nonprofit, produced a map that shows Indigenous territory over time, which allows viewers to see how it has shrunk and displaced residents.

While campuses like SU have Indigenous student centers, they may not be operating to their potential because of their locations, the UofT professor said.

For example, SU’s Native Student Program, which is on Euclid Avenue, is about a 10-minute walk from the center of campus. Waterman said this is an obstacle to students who need support on a day-to-day basis, and makes the centers less effective.

The centers need staff who have knowledge in all areas of an Indigenous student’s experience to operate properly, and they are currently understaffed and underfunded, especially when the burden of education falls entirely on them during Indigenous Heritage Month, she said.

“The units are expected to teach the entire campus about what it is to be Indigenous, especially this month,” Waterman said. “They have to be all for all.”

The way forward lies in grassroots student activism, she said, which played a role when SU initially started providing more support for Indigenous students in the 1970s.

“All of these services fill a gap, traditional or systemic,” Waterman said. “Curriculums and spaces need to be welcoming for everyone.”

Published on November 9, 2021 at 11:54 pm

Contact Richard: rcperrin@syr.edu | @richardperrins2