Tag: Indigenous - Durham College

Durham College (DC) recognizes June 21 as National Indigenous Peoples Day, an annual celebration of Indigenous Peoples’ culture, heritage and outstanding contributions.

In recognition of National Indigenous Peoples Day, we encourage the campus community to learn more about Indigenous culture and history by completing the seven-module training course: Indigenous Histories and Reconciliation.

These modules were created to support DC’s Indigenization Statement by the First Peoples Indigenous Centre (FPIC), in collaboration with the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL), Campus Library and Ontario Tech University’s Teaching and Learning Centre.

True to Indigenous ways of learning and knowing, the course invites participants to discover their own ways of learning. Its seven modules – Love, Respect, Honesty, Humility, Bravery, Truth and Wisdom – provide a framework for post-secondary institutions to adapt to fulfill commitments outlined in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Calls to Action.

Topics include:

Treaties and dynamics between settlers and Indigenous peoples
Residential schools
Assimilationist policies
Missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls
Decolonization
Intergenerational trauma
Resiliency of Indigenous communities

Accessing the training modules

For employees and students
The Indigenous Histories and Reconciliation course can be accessed using network password and login information on Brightspace for employees through the Discover tab, and DC Connect for students through the self-registration tab.

Upon completion of a module, participants will receive a badge. Once all seven modules have been finished, student and employees will receive a recognition of completion.

For members of the public
The training module is available online for members of the public. Participants will receive a recognition of completion after each module.

On May 5, Durham College (DC) joins the recognition of the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit Peoples (MMIWG2S). It is a day to remember and honour those who have been taken as a result of the human rights crisis of gender-based and racialized violence in Canada.

Also known as Red Dress Day, it was named after an art installation by Metis artist Jaime Black called the REDress Project. Empty red dresses were hung in various spaces to represent murdered and missing women, resulting in the now-iconic symbol. The day is generally honoured by observers wearing red clothing and hanging red dresses from trees, statues and doors and in windows.

Despite totalling less than 5% of the Canadian population, Indigenous women account for over 24% of female homicide victims and are 12 times more likely to be murdered or go missing than any other women in Canada. Indigenous women are also more likely to experience physical and sexual assault and are twice as likely to experience violence from a current or former intimate partner. Advocacy groups estimate that over 4,000 Indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit peoples went missing or were murdered between 1980 and 2012.