Liv Taylor 0:04
Welcome to the Live Well podcast hosted by the Healthy Campus Team of wellness services. My name is Liv Taylor and my pronouns are she/her and I'm a fourth year general science student here at MRU. I am also a senior lead Peer Health Educator with the Healthy Campus Team. The Live Well podcast is a series focused on the voices and experiences of our students, staff and faculty here at MRU. We intend this series to be conversation based, informal and all about the experiences and insights of our Mount Royal community. I'm joined today by Dion Simon and Dalbert Major to discuss indigenisation and health at Mount Royal. Thank you guys so much for joining me today. Before we start, I'd like to do a land acknowledgement that we are recording this podcast today at Mount Royal University, which is located on and adjacent to lands that encompass the hereditary territories of the Blackfoot, the Stoney Nakota, and the Tsuut'ina nations. We acknowledge that we are hosted in this ancient place by these people and by the Métis Nation, we breathe the air and drink the water that is theirs. We value the land and the beings that are part of their ancestral world. We pledge to do our work in a way that is respectful of their traditions. So with that being said Delbert and Dion if you wouldn't mind introducing yourselves, your pronouns and your majors or your affiliations to get us started. And Dion, we can start with you.
Dion Simon 1:19
Yes, thank you for having me. My name is Dion Simon and I'm originally from Ermineskin from Maskwacis treaty six territory, and a member of the nation Plains Cree Nation. And I've been a guest on the lands of Niitsitapi for the last two decades, and I run the Medicine Trail Coordinator Program out of the Iniskim Center for the last 12 years.
Liv Taylor 1:43
Thank you so much, and Delbert if you wouldn't mind introducing yourself as well.
Dalbert Major 1:46
Thank you for having me on the podcast. My name is Dalbert Major. I'm part Métis on my dad's side. Dalbert, Dalbert Major we both have the same name he's a professor here, originally from Fort Qu'Appelle Valley, Taj near that area, and I'm on my mom's side, I'm part El Salvadorian. So I'm a mix of two cultures, which is kinda pretty sweet.
Liv Taylor 2:10
Awesome. Thank you, and what program are you in Dalbert?
Dalbert Major 2:13
I'm in Physical Literacy. I'm in my third year. And I'm looking to become a coach, personal trainer to train young indigenous youth in the sport of hockey specifically.
Liv Taylor 2:25
Awesome. Thank you both so much, again, for being here today. So our focus during this podcast is really to help educate our listeners about the indigenous student experience at Mount Royal University, and hopefully to raise awareness for areas of improvement at Mount Royal. So to start, I think it is important for us to provide our listeners with some foundational knowledge to preface our upcoming discussion. So I'd like to ask you, Dion, can you tell us about the indigenous experience or about some core concepts which govern indigenous ways of life and practices?
Dion Simon 2:57
Well, I've been here for 12 years. Here in Iniskim I've witnessed and I've noticed that a lot of Indigenous students are first or second generation graduates here at Mount Royal University. A lot of the students that we do have here on campus, are invited to attend through family members through, through relatives through, through friends that they know. They hear of their experience at Mount Royal. And so a lot of our students today do become students of the university, taking on various courses. And we have at the moment, about 76% of Indigenous students being Outside Mount Royal, being outside the province and about 26%. Within, within Mount Royal within the territory, my apologies. But the experience that I've seen here on Mount Rainier campus is the opportunities for Indigenous students to be recognized. A lot of the students feel that they can take part in, in cultural social events be a part of their traditions. And as well, in the last several years have seen a reflection of themselves. You're on campus, whether it's a ceremony, whether it's a cultural event, whether it's songs or stories being shared on campus, so a lot of the students feel comfortable here at Mount Royal University.
Liv Taylor 4:25
Awesome. Thank you so much. I think that that context is important for our upcoming discussion throughout the podcast. And alongside that I also wanted to share some NCHA statistics that we have for Indigenous students at MRU. So 50% of MRU Indigenous students received psychological or mental health services within the last 12 months compared to the general MRU population at 31.7%. 11.3% of MRU. Indigenous students said that discrimination negatively impacted their academics compared to the general MRU population at 4 1/2%. So with these statistics in mind, Dalbert, can you tell us about the experience you've had as an indigenous student that MRU and maybe some ways that MRU does or doesn't support your health or mental health?
Dalbert Major 5:10
Well, being here for a couple years now, at the University of MRU, most of my experience have been positive, as you know, we, I have the Iniskim Center, accessible to me and for all the rest of the indigenous students. And I find that that's something I never had in my previous years of schooling throughout elementary and high school. And Iniskim has kind of been my safe haven for like, since day one, you know, I got to meet so many people. That's how I met Dion. That's how I met Rita. And they helped me out a lot through schooling with funding, you know, with like, life problems with not and so I learned a lot from, from Dion too, like, you know, get more involved with community. This year, Dion actually created men's group, which I found, like, really helpful Iniskim also kind of made me be able to, like, create a lot of social connections, and it's like a second home, it's like a family there. So there's a lot of things that, that I love about, you know, Iniskim Center that MRU has provided, although there's a lot of Indigenous students, I would like to see maybe more room given more of an expansion to Iniskim because it can get crowded, so more of like, you know, social and studying space and maybe more space to smudge and whatnot. And with the psychological needs, as you mentioned, of engineers, indigenous students receiving, like, as myself indigenous, as myself, I did have to kind of, like use that, like, a lot due to like, you know, a lot of stress, you know, the university, because a lot of us, you know, struggle with a lot of finances as well, especially for school, because, you know, school is really expensive, right? Not only for me, but also, you know, looking at young Indigenous mothers who have like a, maybe three kids, you know, that's a lot of like, a lot of money that need to take care of, and, you know, having to do school, full time work and whatnot, is a tough thing to do. And out, I'll probably also like, see, like more housing for indigenous families, although it's a good thing to have housing, I do feel like the need for housing is greater than what we have, there has to be more housing to like, fit more people in specially in the MRU area. In terms of discrimination I already talked about the good, but the negative part about it is for me, being Métis, I kind of was like screaming against cold, you know, racial slurs to the point where I lost my self esteem, self confidence. And so, because of that, I wouldn't really say anything about myself being Métis, exactly, I'd usually just like, you know, then identify myself as only Latino because I felt like being Latino, seem to get less, like I don't discriminate against group compared to being Métis and I felt like I was more accepted in that way. But over the years, you know, being more connected, you kn ow, coming, to MRU coming, like, getting more in touch with, you know, Friendship Centre here in Calgary. And, you know, Dion and all the elders that I've met, it became, I kind of regain my self confidence and being proud of being indigenous students in person myself. And you know, just playing up sports is a huge thing for me, because that's, you know, I've been playing hockey for 15 years, and I've been playing native provincials in Edmonton and you know, March Madness out in Siksika. And the connections I made there with, like, indigenous hockey players is amazing, because, you know, you learn, it's just that it's just that atmosphere that you feel comfortable. And then I feel included, I feel stronger in myself as a person. And then over the years, I became, you know, more self confident. And then I finally was like, well, I don't, you know, came to a point where like, I don't care what people have to say about me, you know, or if they discriminate I'm proud of being an indigenous student and hockey player, you know, indigenous athlete. So, you know, with my goal, I just want to like, do the same for other upcoming Indigenous students, we should be active, you know, because being active as well, it's could increase your self esteem, you know, and it's a great way to keep a healthy life because without sports, you know, a lot of discrimination could lead to like unhealthy coping mechanisms which I've seen a lot. And that's one of my goals is that I would like to, you know, I'd share my dad's and my dad's side of the family of like, where this could lead to a lot of unhealthy coping mechanisms. It's sad, but one of my goals in my life is to stop that generational trauma, teaching young, indigenous youth have a sense of who they are to be proud of who they are. And so we could teach other generations on top of other generations and then be strong, too. And with, you know, sports, that would be a great way to do it, and especially, you know, hockey be in a team environment and whatnot. So, yeah, that's one thing that I would like to hopefully accomplish in the future. And also hockey and sports can be expensive. So creating a funding program, you know, for indigenous youth and students to participate.
Liv Taylor 10:56
Yeah, no, and thank you for sharing that. I feel like what I'm getting from what you're saying is that the Iniskim Center really is the the central hub at MRU for Indigenous students, for them to go to for academic support, financial support, emotional support. And that's amazing that we have that. But like you said, it isn't necessarily enough, there are more indigenous students than we maybe have the capacity to help solely within the Iniskim Center. So I think that's really important moving forward. And I know that in our meeting before the podcast Dion, you and I had talked a bit about some procedures that are available to Indigenous students at MRU, one of them being smudging. And I wasn't personally aware that this was a service that was offered at our school. So I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit more about what Smudging is, when it might be used and the process for requesting a smudge at MRU.
Dion Simon 11:47
The majority of our students when they do come into Mount Royal University, they're coming in from very diverse backgrounds, from remote communities and a lot of students are coming into the city. For the first time learning this way of life coming into the university may, may have its stresses may have its problems may have its own barriers. And along that way, a lot of the students find connection, they they find grounding within the practice of Smudge and smudge has been available from, since the time I've been here for the last 12 years. However, it's expanded outside the Iniskim Center and smudge is what we identify as, it's an indigenous practice. That practice may be First Nations it may be Métis and on some level on an Inuit level, and so they they define smudging by different means. However, in this case with First Nations and Métis, we identify a smudge by the burning of medicines, a burning of herbs and incense. And this would help alleviate the pressures and the stresses the illnesses that students may be experiencing. However, spiritual fatigue, emotional fatigue, but smudge's used just to cleanse the mind to cleanse the emotions just to feel a little bit more calmer within within oneself as they go about their day here on campus.
Liv Taylor 13:13
Okay, yeah. So, within MRU if you're wanting to request a smudge, if you're feeling maybe some of this spiritual tension or fatigue that you're talking about, how does one go about actually requesting it to be done?
Dion Simon 13:26
Well, there are a couple of ways. One way that we identify working really well is students that are attending the Iniskim Center students who are with the Insikim Center through the indigenous University bridging program, they have access to smudge. And we do have a room available within the Iniskim Center where students can come and smudge whenever they feel they need to, and they can access the room at any time of the day. However, there are on occasion, when students are needing to do a smudge within a classroom, maybe there might be a heavy topic, maybe they might be going into a heavy issue. And so there's a request for smudge, students would need to get this approval done by their instructors and their instructors then would need to put in a request for smudge for their classroom. Within that request this would go either to a frontline or to a security or to someone else who can approve of smudge. This would involve details such as the time, the place and the amount of smudge that would be burned and not so much the occasion but just some of the details.
Liv Taylor 14:38
Okay, yeah. Thank you so much for telling us about that. I know that for me, I had no idea that this was an opportunity for Indigenous students at MRU. So I think it's really important that we try to clarify how indigenous students can access that process and I know Dalbert, we talked about how you hadn't specifically requested a smudge at MRU before but I was wondering if maybe you've ever felt that need to request one? Or is there any reasons that you haven't requested as much to be done at MRU?
Dalbert Major 15:06
No, from my experience, I didn't really, not yet felt the need to ask for requests to smudge I usually, like Dion said, there is a room provided in Iniskim Center for students to go individually and smudge themselves. So that's what I've been using myself. But no, I never felt the need to yet request to smudge a classroom.
Liv Taylor 15:29
Yeah, no, that makes sense. And can you both please educate me on maybe what is the difference between doing like a self smudge versus doing like a smudge of a space? Or does it kind of have the same effect in terms of accomplishing some of that release of spiritual fatigue?
Dion Simon 15:45
Well on, well, for individuals, individuals who come into Mount Royal have the knowledge about smudge, they have been given the teachings on how to use smudge. And we have a variety of of medicines that one would use. And depending on the individual themselves, with that knowledge, they have that, that that, awareness on how to do smudge. And so the burning of medicines, one is shown from their, from their community on how to cleanse themself. And this is done purely just by them for you know, just to ground themselves in terms of that well being for space for a classroom, then it, it looks at, there's a little bit more logistics that are involved, there's a little bit more of a process that's involved. Whereas with Iniskim, you, one person come into the room, they can let a smudge at any time of the day. Whereas it's a little different if say, a student wants to light a smudge within a classroom, in front of their peers, with the instructor, so then that, that takes on a little bit more work, it's a little bit more of a request, there's a little bit more time involved. And so it's always a little bit more of a process.
Liv Taylor 16:53
Okay, yeah, that makes sense, of course, with the with the logistics and everything that goes in, especially when there are other individuals involved. But outside of this smudging process and procedure, I know that we talked previously before recording about the lack of educational resources, like classes for Indigenous students at MRU. And I'm wondering if either of you can share more about your experience trying to implement these classes or attend these classes, and Dion we can start with you as well.
Dion Simon 17:20
When you come back to, to the process of spiritual practices on campus is that our, our students are very diverse. And in our way of life, we want to connect with our spirituality and spiritual practice. And so looking at ways that are very adaptive ways that that can be implemented and adopted by through Mount Royal on how students could have access to smudge and how that those requests can come in. And that a smudge can be followed through without a lot of barriers. And so right now currently, we're working on ways so that it's a little bit more easier for instructors and students. Along with that, in terms of in terms of courses. Another another area that we see that students have expressed the concept and the idea of having a language a Blackfoot language speaking course on campus, this course, because we're on Treaty Seven Lands, and the majority over the year of students that we've had are dominantly, Blackfoot, it would only make sense to have a Blackfoot speaking course, accredited speaking course. And that has been now in talks for last several years. And then looking at how do we get a course like this going? How do we have it moving and implemented in Mount Royal?
Liv Taylor 18:43
Yeah, no. And I know we had talked about this previously, too, with regards to the Blackfoot language course. But are there any other universities that are teaching this course? And if so, why? Why are there so many barriers in terms of implementing the course? Why aren't we able to do so?
Dion Simon 18:59
I couldn't say at this point, which universities have a full credited Blackfoot speaking course what that looks like at the moment. And I, I could say that, at this point, that Mount Royal University could benefit from having a course like this as though there's been an expression from a lot of interest, not only from indigenous students, but from non Indigenous students as well.
Liv Taylor 19:25
Yeah,so it's, it's really, it's not necessarily just for Indigenous students. It's really for like a shared way of learning these cultural practices and this language and I think that's incredibly important. And in addition to that, I know we were talking about the Iniskim Center earlier and how transformative that's been for you Dalbert but I was wondering if outside of the Iniskim Center or expanding it, do you think that there any resources that are missing for Indigenous students at MRU.
Dalbert Major 19:53
Going back and like what I was saying, it'd be nice to have an expansion on what we already have. Like, it'd be nice to have a bigger space and whatnot. And for me, personally, I've not really run into so many issues of lack of resources, kind of like I have my dad, who supports me on knowing my culture or whatnot, I have, I'm lucky to have Dion to go to to help me and same with Maria to help me with you know funding or, or whatnot, and also, Dion's wife who works at the Wellness Center as well, with mental health services there. So I've been utilizing all those resources, and I've really not yet come to a place where I'm kind of like, stuck and not have any resources, really, but if there's one that I should speak on, as I guess, for me being a physical literacy student, that tutors we have like, you know, tutors of writing and math, but for me to be in physical literacy, I feel like it would be nice to have more tutors are more specialized in, you know, the H Ped program with like biology or chemistry or not, it would be nice to have that.
Liv Taylor 21:13
Oh, that's awesome. And thank you for sharing that I appreciate your insight. And I think that if we don't necessarily have like a total overarching lack of resources, or overall Indigenous students might feel supported, how then can non Indigenous students learn more about indigenous culture? And also, how can we help raise awareness about these needs is there anywhere that we can go to maybe the Iniskim Center,
Dion Simon 21:36
There are several places. Iniskim Centre is a good place to start or non Indigenous students to learn about indigenous culture, just coming in sitting and visiting is good, even just sitting with members. And most material on the websites are pretty current by authentic First Nations, Métis, and Inuit people. And so going on the website and learning but the best way is coming into community going into the community, being a part of those, those celebrations, those events, and those gatherings.
Dalbert Major 22:05
With that glad. Speaking, on following up with Dion, with on how non Indigenous students could learn, although, you know, on Main Street, we have booths, right? of, you know, indigenous practices and culture, like, although we have a booth, that's one way to start, but there's a lot of, you know, there's some people that may pass it, you know, that's trying to get to another class, and most people will just take a quick look, right? So, that's a good way to start. But it doesn't really get people to, like, have an understanding of our culture, right? Cuz what I found as a student at MRU is every inspection that he had, from all classes, I took that every single class that you take, there's always a project or an assignment that each individual student has to do to learn about indigenous practices and ways of life. You know, for me, like, for example, I was taking health and nutrition this semester, and we had to learn about indigenous ways of, you know, eating and practicing, a healthy diet. And also the famine they had to go through due to like, you know, settlers coming into the line. And you know, why they went from a healthy to like diet to like a very, you know, unhealthy diet with a lack of like, you know, nutrition on the plate. So, like, simple like projects like that is an it's worth marks too, it's mandatory. So it's a really good way I found that the school implemented on non Indigenous students to learn about indigenous cultures, ways and beliefs.
Liv Taylor 23:48
Yeah, no, and that's really good to hear as well. I'm grateful for both of you sharing these ways. I know, for myself as a non Indigenous student, I tend to feel a sense of urgency. If I see a problem. I'm like, Well, how can I fix it, but from what you guys are saying it's really less about trying to fix it and slowing down and trying to care and trying to put in the time to come and sit down with Indigenous students and faculty and learn more about your ways of life and your culture because it's central really to everything that we do here at MRU. Special thank you to Dion Simon and Dalbert Major for joining us today for our discussion on indigenisation and health. The Live Well podcast is run by the healthy campus team at Mount Royal University. You can find us online at livewell.buzzsprout.com. We're also available on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you can get your podcasts. Thanks to artist Scott Holmes for our theme. The song is called Feeling Sunny. You've been listening to the Live Well podcast. I'm your host Liv Taylor. Thank you for tuning in.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai