College opens Truth and Reconciliation Week with signing of Indigenous Education Protocol
Truth and Reconciliation Week is an opportunity to reflect and honour the victims and survivors of Canada’s Residential School system, ensuring they are never forgotten.
To begin Truth and Reconciliation Week, Red River College Polytechnic today joined the members of Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan) as a signatory of a national Indigenous Education Protocol.
This comprehensive document underscores the importance of structures and approaches required to address Indigenous peoples’ learning needs and to support self-determination and socio-economic development of Indigenous communities.
“We have dedicated ourselves to reconciling a broken trust in our education system and recognize that advancing Indigenous achievement requires organizations to listen, embrace new ways of learning and work together to prompt meaningful change,” says Fred Meier, President and CEO of RRC Polytech.
“By upholding this agreement, RRC Polytech and its CICan partners will continue to create opportunities to integrate Indigenous knowledge and teaching methods into student and faculty supports, to inform our administrative processes, and to build collaborative partnerships that elevate reconciliation.”
Indigenous Education Protocol signatory institutions agree to:
- Commit to making Indigenous education a priority.
- Ensure governance structures recognize and respect Indigenous peoples.
- Implement intellectual and cultural traditions of Indigenous peoples through curriculum and learning approaches relevant to learners and communities.
- Support students and employees to increase understanding and reciprocity among Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.
- Commit to increasing the number of Indigenous employees with ongoing appointments throughout the institution, including Indigenous senior administrators.
- Establish Indigenous-centred holistic services and learning environments for learner success.
- Build relationships and be accountable to Indigenous communities in support of self-determination through education, training and applied research.