Aboriginal students find campus roots

Aboriginal students find campus roots

CHELSE MCKEE, STAFF

Soon Aboriginal students on campus will have a cultural and spiritual hub to call their own. The new building, entitled the Aboriginal Student Centre, is scheduled to have construction done in February 2008.

The building has been in the works for over a decade. The idea for an on-campus Aboriginal sector first emerged in the ’70s with activists Moses Okimaw and Ovide Mercredi and about a dozen other Aboriginal students. However, the actual proposal was not put forth until the mid-nineties. Even so, the process for construction did not begin until 2005.

Kali Storm, director of the Aboriginal Student Centre, was present during the first proposal for the building. Storm said that the Aboriginal Student Centre is “really, really excited to have a space on this campus that reflects who we are in a very respectful way. It’s very exciting and very empowering.”

The building, designed by Prairie Architects Inc., will be two storeys high and approximately 13,000 square feet. As well, it will include a computer lab, an elder-in-residence, student lounge, a meeting area for pubic events, a healing room, and offices.

Prairie Architects Inc., for the design of the building, included four University of Manitoba Aboriginal students, two of whom are still presently attending. Storm commented on the importance of the inclusion of Aboriginal students in the building.

“It’s our own students who had a major, major role in the design of the building which is just a huge bonus.”

The Aboriginal Student Centre, which presently resides as five offices in University Centre, will be unlike other Aboriginal facilities on the Fort Garry or Bannatyne campuses. The Aboriginal Student Centre will be an entire building dedicated to the Aboriginal students of the University of Manitoba.

According to Storm, the Aboriginal Student Centre “provides safety and familiarity. We need something very visible on this campus because the campus is on Métis land, which is on Anishnaabe territory of Winnipeg, and yet there is nothing visible to say that aboriginal people are here. We need something on campus that not only visibly says that aboriginal people have a strong presence here but that we’re easy to find.”

Currently 1,578 aboriginal students attend the U of M, according to voluntary self-declarations collected by the Office of Institutional Analysis. For the past five years, since the University of Manitoba began the self-declarations, the number has been on the rise.

The University of Manitoba Access Program will also be moving to the new building. The Access Program assists approximately 20 students who would not otherwise qualify for university each year with entrance into professional programs like engineering.