News

Jean Becker will join the University of Waterloo on January 13, 2020 in the newly-created Senior Director, Indigenous Initiatives position in which she will provide strategic leadership to articulate a University of Waterloo-specific response to the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action, and identify systemic and systematic changes that move beyond the Calls to Action by creating a long-term vision for the University.

Story from the Waterloo Region Record, September 23, 2017. As part of the conversation surrounding intergenerational trauma and reconciliation, seven female leaders from different parts of Waterloo Region’s Indigenous community share their personal healing journeys.

If you’ve ever been to an event at the Waterloo Aboriginal Education Centre (WAEC), you might have a pretty good idea of why the University’s Status of Women and Equity Committee (SWEC) awarded the Centre with the 2017 Equity and Inclusivity Award.

Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Canada's largest annual academic gathering that takes place this year at Ryerson University in Toronto, May 27 to June 2, features an array of high-profile events on reconciliation.

The Faculty of Arts and the Waterloo Aboriginal Education Centre (WAEC) are co-sponsoring a new Indigenous Speakers Series highlighting the voices of Indigenous artists, writers, activists, and leaders from across Turtle Island. The series offers UWaterloo students, faculty and staff opportunities to learn from, understand and engage with Indigenous issues.

Post-secondary institutions across the country have been looking to implement new policies, programs and events to support the work started by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in 2008.But there is concern about how effective these changes can be due to the long history of colonization and the oppression of Indigenous peoples.

Watch the opening ceremony and full keynote address by Professor Cindy Blackstock at Integrating Knowledges Summit, October 14, 2016:

The Mush Hole Project at the Mohawk Institute Indian Residential School was previewed by several media outlets, including our own Waterloo Stories. Here they are with links to the full stories:

Mino Ode Kwewak N’gamowak (Good Hearted Women Singers) are an Indigenous and non-Indigenous women’s drum circle following the teachings of Community Elder Jean Becker, who began this group in 2003.