Confederation College has a new road map to keep rooting out systemic anti-Indigenous racism.
President Kathleen Lynch says the school’s Decolonization Committee, involving Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, is presenting its new Decolonization Report.
It’s a work plan for how to carry out the 24 recommendations from a 2019 systemic racism report. The document lays out steps like training for all employees and creating a decolonization policy.
Those also include dealing with third-party vendors and making sure they have appropriate training, hiring more Indigenous people at the college, reviewing and changing policies and practices, and developing a tool kit to help Indigenous students in distress. .
The Decolonization Committee started its work in February 2020, and the pandemic forced it to delay the report and continue discussions in virtual meetings.
She points out this will involve some difficult conversations to confront systemic racism, which she says more people are starting to do after the discovery of a mass grave at a Kamloops, B.C. former residential school.
“But we have people who don’t understand that history, and don’t realize that we all have a part to play in reconciliation with Indigeous people,” she admits.
Lynch says this work will never be over, but they will give yearly updates and re-evaluate the progress they’ve made three to four years from now.
“I think we’ll need to refresh and say, ‘Well, what’s next now? What have we accomplished and what do we still have to do?’ and we will develop a report card for ourselves to see how we’re progressing,” Lynch adds.
