Ten With Ken (audio)

This week, Ken Steele talks with Steve Robinson, interim President & Vice-Chancellor at Brandon University in Manitoba, about one of the most urgent changes facing higher ed in the next decade: indigenization. Every university in Canada, particularly those in Western Canada, is faced with the challenge of accommodating Indigenous peoples and cultures on their campuses, and since institutions and local Indigenous communities vary widely, the solutions and innovations will be unique at each institution. Campus leaders need to ensure they create an environment in which Indigenous people feel welcome, through visual symbols, dedicated spaces, practices and ceremonies that reflect and respect Indigenous cultures. But universities also need to reinvent traditional western decision-making processes and governance mechanisms in order to embrace Indigenous perspectives. Institutions need to bring more Indigenous peoples, elders and knowledge-keepers, to campus in order to participate in institutional governance, p