Manitoba’s largest university has issued new calls to action for administrators and academics to advance reconciliation on its campuses.
On Monday the University of Manitoba unveiled Time for Action — a framework with four focus areas that cement the school’s commitment to decolonizing daily operations.
Senior administration pledged to review curriculum to find opportunities to embed traditional knowledge, develop an Indigenous mental-health strategy and explore “culturally responsive housing,” among other first steps.
“I’m so excited that it’s not just me that has to do reconciliation,” Angie Bruce, vice-president (Indigenous), told an audience that erupted into giggles with her at the launch event.
“What I love about this is that everyone — every single one of us, whether it be the clerk who is processing our payroll, whether it be professors, instructors, facilities, whether it be administrative assistants — there is a role for all of us.”
The framework highlights the need to integrate Indigenous voices into policy-making, research and governance.
The 25-page document prioritizes the recruitment and retention of First Nations, Métis and Inuit students and staff. It also sets goals to design more campus spaces for Indigenous community members and bolster the overall understanding of Canadian history at U of M.
Bruce, who is Red River Métis from St. Laurent, chairs the internal committee that oversaw the project and is currently working on ways to measure progress.
Roughly 350 people, including knowledge keepers, students and academics, gathered to participate in a pipe ceremony, the lighting of a qulliq — a traditional Inuit oil lamp — and learn about the initiative.
Representatives from the faculty of architecture spoke at length about how they have undertaken efforts to Indigenize programming in their discipline, as well as ongoing challenges.
As an example, for three years before his death in December, Valdie Seymour was placed into a leadership position as the faculty’s elder-in-residence, leading solstice ceremonies and feasts.
For Indigenous scholar Shawn Bailey, reconciliation “is about building community.”
While his faculty has been engaged in this work, which has included land-based learning, the assistant professor said there are barriers, such as paperwork required to smudge or start a fire, that regularly pop up.
“The little things are big things that need to change to allow more fluidity in exploring culture in these spaces,” the member of the Métis Nation of Ontario added.
The framework states administration will engage with community members and “listen and learn how to create Indigenous community spaces.”
“(This project) makes me feel like I belong here, but I do think that there’s more work to do and I want to see more action,” said Jory Thomas, one of a handful of architecture students who identify as Indigenous and are part of the Class of 2026.
Thomas, who is Métis, recalled the surprise and excitement she felt last year when she was asked to weigh in on her university’s reconciliation framework.
The Indigenous Design and Planning Student Association has been heavily involved in truth and reconciliation projects in their faculty in recent years.
Student advocacy efforts have led to greater Indigenous representation in the faculty, Thomas said, noting there are about a half-dozen Indigenous practitioners running workshops for students on everything from landscape architecture to city planning.
The 21-year-old said she’s skeptical about how the framework will be carried out in faculties that do not have a significant number of Indigenous students.
She urged staff and administration to take a lead in such disciplines, such as engineering.
Following the announcement, Bruce highlighted that the university’s top decision — making bodies — in particular, the senate, which oversees academic programming — had endorsed the document.
Historically, truth and reconciliation efforts have happened in pockets on campus, the vice-president said, adding her hope is this guide ensures everyone is on the same path.
