Faculty Profile #27: Kim McKay-McNabb

Kim McKay-McNabb, Assistant Professor, Department of Science. Kim has been a faculty member since 2006. She is originally from Sakimay First Nation in Saskatchewan. She was born in Regina and has lived here most of her life. She is the mother of five children, one of who attended the First Nations University of Canada; Kim hopes that the others will consider attending First Nations University when they are old enough. Kim is an alumnus from the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College where she received her undergraduate degree, a Bachelor of Arts (Psychology) and her Masters of Arts degree in Clinical Psychology. She is currently completing the requirements for her Doctorate, in Clinical Psychology at the University of Regina. She will be one of the few First Nations Registered Psychologists in Canada once she completes her degree. Kim also coordinates the National First Nations Environmental Contaminants Program (NFNECP). This program is administered at the First Nations University of Canada in partnership with First Nations Inuit Health Branch, Research and Monitoring Section and the Assembly of First Nations. The objective of the NFNECP is to help the First Nations of Canada assess the extent of their exposure to environmental contaminants and the potential for associated risk to their health and well being (see www.nfnecp.ca for more information). Her research interests are Environmental Health, Aboriginal Health, Aboriginal communities and HIV/AIDS. She is a community-based researcher who believes in action-based research.

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Action #6: Four Friends Video (embedded version)

Please support and help us save First Nations University of Canada.

1. Send this video to FOUR Friends
2. Go to fnuniv.wordpress.com
3. Print the letter of support and send it to your MP, Minister of Indian Affairs, and/or the Prime Minister.

The Four Friends video can also be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zc1xmmQlOY

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Letter #47: Rosealee Naumann

To: MLA of Prince Albert

Dear Mr. Furber,

The Media has released information that will affect First Nations University of Canada. On Feb 8, 2010 it was released that the federal government was to cut its funding. The amount of funding to be cut is $7.2 million. This non-renewal of $7.2 million in funding is another severe loss in addition to the already withheld $5.2 million dollars in funding from the provincial government.

As a student enrolled in programming facilitated by the FNUniv I am seriously concerned about the future of academic programs being gravely affected by these funding cuts. These funding cuts will have detrimental affects throughout Prince Albert and northern communities. Please understand that these cuts are not just associated with the Regina and Saskatoon campuses but will have serious implications for the Prince Albert Campus.

Currently there are 440 students to date that are enrolled in various programs, at different sites within Prince Albert, and Northern communities such as Ile la Crosse, Black Lake, La Ronge. The dissolution of the FNUniv, primarily in Prince Albert will affect these 440 students and surrounding areas. And this is the largest student body of the FNUniv of Regina campus and Saskatoon. A majority of these students are from northern communities, have traveled great distance to be part of the greater good of educating themselves and have uprooted there families, families which contribute to the downtown core of Prince Albert.

This institution is very important to everyone. We have the only Dental Therapy program offered in Canada, the Nursing Education Program of Saskatchewan is truly unique, the Indian Social Work program is a non transferrable program, where are these students going to go? The impact to Prince Albert is comparable to the loss of Weyerhaeuser.

Please understand that these funding cuts are severing any hopes and dreams of future Native and Non Native students to access quality world class education in Prince Albert Saskatchewan. The funding cuts proposed to FNUniv will negatively impact the core downtown area of Prince Albert. The economic impact will be felt if the FNUniv will have to close its doors.

Please advocate on our behalf to reinstate the funding for FNUniv.

Respectfully Attending student at FNUC

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Letter #46: Megan Morrison

Dear Minister,

I am 26 years old and currently starting my PhD in Community Health in St. John’s Newfoundland. I would like to stress the significant impact that the professors and classroom style that First Nations University of Canada has had on my education and life-skills success. This university is important because it recognizes the fact that not all students learn in the same ways, but it actually moves beyond this recognition and adapts so that they can learn. I know that some students attend to learn more about their own culture. I attended hoping to learn more about their history, and ended up with the realization that it is our history. I witnessed students that I had previously heard making racist remarks about First Nations people, take classes there and then stand up against the racist remarks after having completed the semester.

This university is responsible for educating first nations students and non-first nation students, at a much deeper level and a much more important level, than any other university in Canada.

If you revoke their funding, plain and simple, you are un-doing years of education, you are supporting every student that has made negative or racist comments, and you are setting the people of my generation on a backwards path, where once again, “white” takes away from “non-white” and makes those two categories stand out and stand apart even more.

Sincerely,

Megan Morrison
Department of Women’s Studies
Memorial University of Newfoundland

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Overwhelming Support for First Nations University of Canada from Alumni

March 19, 2010

First Nations University of Canada provides a unique academic and cultural post-secondary education experience. With over two-thousand and five hundred graduates working regionally, nationally and internationally our Alumni are educators, social workers, artists, nurses, doctors, lawyers, policy analysts, researchers and Chiefs.

Our Elders teach us that education, or ‘the new buffalo’, is the key to prosperity, livelihood and economic independence. A post-secondary education is a good investment. Canadians cannot ignore the detrimental effects that the lack of education among Aboriginal Peoples is having on all Canadians.

Canada originally was a partnership between three Nations: the Anglophones, Francophones and First Nations. Through binding legal agreements now called Treaties, First Nations people allowed for peaceful settlement and access to the land in exchange for support to participate in the new economy. These Treaty rights are enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as Part II of the Constitution Act, 1982 Sec. 35. First Nations University of Canada is a manifestation of those Federal constitutional obligations.

The First Nations University of Canada Alumni executive support the vision of first-class education. Achieving this vision will be for the benefit of all Canadians, with current alumni having made positive contributions to communities across Canada.

We invite all Canadians who share this vision to challenge governments on all levels to clearly demonstrate how their actions both current and future will support the First Nations University of Canada. The time for rhetoric is over. The Federal Government and the Province of Saskatchewan must provide clear and detailed firm commitments which support the First Nations University of Canada.

Aboriginal Peoples and Canadians deserve nothing less.

Respectfully,

FNUC Alumni Executive Team
Milton Tootoosis, BA, PAED, President
Alika Lafontaine, M.D., BSc.
Marmie Poitras, B.Admin.
Pearl Yuzicappi, B.Admin.

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Winds of change blow through FNUniv

From a letter by student Adam Martin to the Leader-Post, February 19, 2010

It was clear they left behind a renewed confidence in the leadership of FNUniv. The day after the meeting, many were happily met with smiling faces and witnessed the return of bursts of laughter from far off corners of FNUniv.

Read the full letter in the Leader-Post.

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Milton Tootoosis, Alumnus

I was a very unmotivated student in high school. The Saskatchewan Indian Federated College (SIFC; predecessor of First Nations University) changed my attitude towards learning almost 360 degrees. 24 years have passed since I graduated from SIFC. Now in my mid life I look back and realize that the U, with its caring staff, elders, and faculty was the key ingredient. I met hundreds of other indigenous and non-indigenous students during the early 80’s and we all motivated each other to succeed. The alternative was a lifetime of poverty and social problems back home. The province of Saskatchewan and Government of Canada must look at the longer term benefits of this still young institution versus the alternative. The investment, the treaty guarantee to education, etc. must be retained and fulfilled if we are see more First Nations as productive citizens, living successfully in a multi-cultural global village without assimilating and losing our culture. The U gave me and thousands of others that same opportunity. I want my own children and grandchildren (yet unborn) to have that same opportunity I had. I could go on but I will stop there. The academics and others on this blog have said it best.

Milton Tootoosis, B.A. (’86)

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Lorena Lynn Cote, alumna

My name is Lorena Lynn Cote. I am a Saulteaux Lecturer with the Department of Indian Languages, Literatures and Linguistics at First Nations University of Canada. I received my BA from Saskatchewan Indian Federated College (predecessor of First Nations University) in 2002 in Saulteaux Language Studies. In my last semester of classes I had the opportunity to teach introductory Saulteaux as a sessional and this is how my interest in teaching my language began. In 2005 I was accepted in Graduate Studies through the University of Regina. I have completed two classes through U of R Grad Studies and since transferred to the Canadian Plains Research Center. In July 2006 I gained employment with the First Nations University of Canada as a Level I Lecturer for Saulteaux. I have been teaching full time since my hiring in 2006 and as a sessional since 2002.

The reason I chose to attend SIFC was that I wanted to learn about myself and my people. Where else can we learn about things like that? They are not taught in schools or in the home. This also got me interested in continuing my studies, my intended completion of my Masters is 2010. The main reason for continuing my education and teaching at this institution is because of the uniqueness of the courses, faculty, students and support staff. Where else in the world can I go to learn my language and about my people? Everyone should be allowed to learn about themselves.

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Lesley Bear, Alumna

My name is Lesley Bear and I am First Nations University Alumni, Northern Campus. I love First Nations University and the vision behind it. I graduated in 2006 with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, and I graduated from the first crop of graduates from the nursing program, here in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan.

I am currently faculty at First Nations University and was awarded this position in June 2009. I am proud to tell my students that I am a First Nations University graduate. I am currently working toward my Master’s degree in nursing which has been made accessible to us here at FNUC.

First Nations University has made education accessible which is not just nice to have for our urban First Nations populations, it is a need to have. It deeply saddens me think that this valuable educational institution may be coming to an end.

Sincerely, Lesley Bear R.N. BSN

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Students’ Voices on the Importance of the First Nations University of Canada

My name is Joan Sanderson and as an associate professor in the School of Indian Social Work at First Nations University I developed a research project to provide an opportunity for Saskatoon Campus students to share the impacts that this unique university has had in their lives. Data gathering has begun. Willing students respond to the following two questions, and have the choice of remaining anonymous or not. They were aware that their responses would be used in a variety of public forums, which now includes this blog.

Research questions:

1. “What has been the importance of First Nations University of Canada in your life and the lives of your extended family?”
2. “Summarize in about one sentence what has been the importance of First Nations University in your life?”

Participants’ Responses:

Anonymous

1. The First Nations University of Canada has been important in my life as well as my extended family. When I first attended school here I was in a bad place in my life. I was confused, but with the help and guidance from the faculty and staff and students I was able to leave a very unhealthy relationship and start to better the lives of me and my children. Going here has made me have a whole new way of thinking about life and how to live a balanced and holistic way.
2. First Nations University has been important to my life because it has been my support to finish my schooling and to become a better person.

Crystal Moser

1. The First Nations University has made me look at myself and my past and I felt safe and comfortable to deal with past issues. Because I was able to deal with my past issues, my life has done a complete turnaround, which has impacted my family in a very positive way. Prior to First Nations University I was so hurt by my past, I was on many medications and diagnosed with two mood disorders. Since I have been in school I have become comfortable dealing with my hurt … now I haven’t been on medication for 1-½ years and have never been more healthy and happy.
2. First Nations University has been a powerful, life altering experience.

Damien Rogue

1. The First Nations University has been the birthplace to my family receiving a post-secondary education in both my mothers and fathers family. The First Nations University was the only school that I felt comfortable in. The atmosphere of the students and teachers made it easy for learning. Without this school I do not know the life that I would be living. This school was a place of learning and healing. This was also a place where I rediscovered my culture. I feel that this school filled a void in my life.
2. It filled a huge void in my life.

Anna Hendry

1. FNUniv has been important in the following ways:
   • Being able to learn more about my culture, identity and values.
   • Learn and speak another First Nation language.
   • Being able to participate in ceremonies such as: pipe ceremonies, feasts, smudging, and sweatlodge.
   • Being able to participate in art classes and the First Nation University of Canada pow-wow.
2. Being accepted in the Faculty of Indian Social Work program and fulfilling my dream of becoming a social worker.

Jocelyn Campbell Chaplin

1. This university has taught me the importance of my First Nations culture. It has taught me to be proud of who I am. I have become more spiritual and I now live a very different life, a better life.
2. First Nations University helped me believe in myself.

Tod Red-Iron

1. The First Nations University of Canada has been one of the most important and crucial aspects of my life to date. It has put in place the missing links to my past, and to who I truly am, a First Nations person. Without the First Nations University of Canada, I am not sure I would understand myself, my people, and my culture as well as I do.
2. FNU’s importance has been in providing a path for the lost, linking our current society to our past as First Nations people, and helping to uncover my true identity.

Gladys R. Sinclair

1. In most of my classes (for this term), we address each other from a circle and I learn that the majority of the other students are mothers and fathers of families. Some of the students are grandparents. A fair number of these students have been through the mill. Nevertheless, there we all sit in the circle, working towards degrees. I have never experienced the circle method of teaching, nor have I ever seen this demographic across the river at the U of S among all the young white 20 year olds.

   There’s good reason why this is so. First Nations people are distinct peoples, and we have lost so much, and have been so disrespected. We First Nations people need, absolutely need, our own “places”, our own institutions, our own high school (and we have one in this city) and most importantly our own university. I want this First Nations University to continue, because I have a “place” here and the University of Saskatchewan, however well-intentioned, could not meet that need.

2. I chose to attend the First Nations University over the U of S because I “fit in” and I have never felt that sense of “fitting in” at the U of S where I was often the only brown face in classrooms and lecture theatres.

Wendy Jacklin

1. The importance of the First Nations University of Canada in my life is that it has given me healing within myself to help guide me in my decision and my education to obtain a Bachelor of Indian Social Work. This impacts my extended family in a positive way, because it helps heal my family dynamics as well. In saying this it is also helping heal the people that I come into contact with, because the ignorance that surrounds First Nations people and culture runs in many circles that I visit. The knowledge and respect that I am given at this University, infiltrates the dealings that I have with others.
2. The importance of University has been it is showing me how to heal, so I am able to be a productive member of society.

Anonymous

1. The staff and professors have been understanding when it came to family issues. There is a cultural aspect to the course in Indian Social Work. (I can only speak to the BISW or ASW due to the fact it is the only course I have taken). My daughter would like to attend the school following her completion of high school.
2. It helped me find my culture, my voice and assisted me in being a stronger family member along with a positive member of the community. It gave me confidence.

Gilbert Kewistep

1. This University has been very important for my healing journey. I might add that five of my children have followed me to this educational institution. They have attained their degrees here, but the most important factor that they received here was their sense of identity. This University allowed them to reclaim their family values and how important they are in the family structure. I find that very important for them and how they relate to their families and other people in general. This University has allowed the students and myself the will to grow and has empowered each and every one of us. The identity and history that we are taught here is immeasurable. I am very fortunate to have been selected to do my Undergraduate here. I will take the education that I have been taught here and help those that need it.
2. I am thankful for the traditional education and assisting me on my healing journey.

Crystal Saulteaux

1. The importance of this institution to me is that I honor the fact that our “education” came from visions and sacrifice of the old ones. This is my main reason for attending from my Undergrad to Masters Level. Secondly, I see what education has provided to my mom and now myself and consequently my children. I hear from my children how they are proud of me and how my education has enriched their lives. On a larger perspective, it is my inherent right as a treaty stakes person.
2. It enhanced my own essence and my understanding of my history; it gave me a way to continue to heal, grow and develop.

This project was approved by the Research Ethics Board of the University of Regina. If you have any concerns or questions about your rights or treatment as a participant 585-4775 or by e-mail at research.ethics@uregina.ca.

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