From the Editors’ Desk
The University College of the North (UCN) has continued to make every effort possible to respond to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action through the education it provides. Over 75% of students at UCN are Indigenous. This current issue of Muses from the North (MFTN), the 11th in the series, has more to offer to the reading public as they get to read about UCN students’ contributions to the conversation on Truth and Reconciliation.
On March 8 and 9, 2023, Muses from the North hosted a special panel, “Challenging Existing Stereotypes and Controlling the Narrative: Motivating Indigenous Student Writers at the University College of the North,” at the 7th edition of the annual Truth & Reconciliation Gathering. The theme of this year’s conference was 7 Generations: Strengthening the Relationship of Communities and Education. The conference was held at the Kikiwak Inn, The Pas, Manitoba. The MFTN team, which included two student writers, Nateshia Constant-Personius and Kelly Laybolt, and the two faculty editors of the journal, Drs. Ying Kong and Joseph Atoyebi gave individual presentations at the event. The editors talked about UCN students’ dreams, aspirations, and challenges in their quest for academic success and their two unique challenges that set them apart. The first of these challenges is their need to reconcile with the ill-treatment and abuse their parents’ generations experienced under the guise of Western education. They are what Wagamese (2018, p. 129) refers to as “victims” of the residential school system. Their parents, who were the direct experiencers of the system, are the “survivors.” The second challenge is that they (i.e., Indigenous students) study under the weight of deficit stories about their identity and culture and the questions about their scholarship potential. The editors also highlighted the importance of the student journal Muses from the North (MFTN) as a tool for students at UCN to challenge the existing stereotypes and negative narratives about their individuality and collective identity. MFTN is a platform for students to take advantage of the digital space and share their stories with the world.
This 11th issue, the second in the two special issues on Truth and Reconciliation, includes Nateshia Constant’s speech and Kelly Laybolt’s presentation at the 7th Annual Truth & Reconciliation Gathering. Nateshia’s speech, “Kiskisomito–Remind One Another,” touched the audience’s heart at the conference. Nateshia also has poems on Intergenerational Trauma published in this issue. She uses imagery to appeal to the audience’s senses and imagination of how the speaker suffers from the hereditary disease of intergenerational trauma. She also reaffirms her determination to build a better life for her children and people. Kelly’s presentation, “How Can I Help in the Truth and Reconciliation Process as a UCN Student?” explores the writer’s perspectives about Indigenous peoples’, history and culture, especially how his preconceived ideas have changed through his studies as a student of history (major) at UCN. In addition to his presentation at the Truth and Reconciliation Conference, the current issue also publishes his reflective paper from the course American Gothic Literature, “Reflecting on the Use of Gothic Literature and Changing Western Perspectives in Sophia Alice Callahan’s Wynema: A Child of the Forest.” Finally, Kelly’s “Interview with My Indigenous Peer on Intergenerational Trauma” introduces the intergenerational trauma that a third-generation residential school survivor experienced and analyzes the cause of the deepened intergenerational trauma.
There is a total of four interviews in this issue. “An Interview with Elder Edwin Jebb, A Survivor of Canada’s Residential School System” was conducted by Vritee Marrott. Vritee is the newly hired student copy designer. Elder Jebb is also the chancellor of the University College of the North. In the interview, he reveals the abuse and trauma that residential school survivors experienced and points out the importance of education for Indigenous people.
“Interview Sessions with my Grandpa Brian Rowden” was conducted by Chadwin Scatch from Norway House. Chadwin is one of our regular contributors. His interviewee was his grandfather, a former staff member of multiple residential schools. Although Brian Rowden talks about abuses in the residential schools he worked in, he admits, “I was fortunate to have worked in some of the best [run] residential schools.” As Chadwin points out, “His story about residential schools was a different type of story which didn’t have a brutal ending as most residential school stories do with the abuse and children dying. His story started and ended with the success of his life.”
An emerging student writer, Janice Muskego, a Cree woman from Pimicikamak First Nation under Treaty 5 Territory, interviewed Cameron Stanley Francois on intergenerational trauma. Cameron lives in Thompson Homeless Shelter and talks about how his mother became an alcoholic after she went through Residential School. He was too young to attend Residential School, but his three older siblings attended. They all learnt to be cruel to each other, mimicking how they were treated in Residential Schools. So, the impact of intergenerational trauma still hangs on to him, which Cameron calls “trails.” Cameron admits, “Now all the residential schools are closed but the trail is continuing. I am not sure how many people care about the trail. It is carrying on. It is leaving a trail. And that trail has not stopped.”
Furthermore, in this 11th issue, there are two submissions from Dr. Keith Hyde’s Northern Images course and one submission from Dr. Ramona Neckoway’s Introduction to Aboriginal Studies. Shaila Moodie’s “A Portfolio of the North” selects texts that reflect conflicts in the North. In her “Portfolio,” she provides the reader with an Indigenous perspective on the conflicts between the Indigenous people and the government. The conflicts relating to the north have multiple interpretations, but Shaila believes, “I am the writer of my own stories which tell the truths from an Indigenous perspective.”
In his “The ‘Civilization’ of The North: Two Worldviews with the Same Goal,” Andy Jeske examines the Western drive to ‘civilize’ the northern wilderness and her people as reflected in the 18th-century journals of Hudson’s Bay Company employee James Isham and French explorer Pierre Gaultier de la Varennes de la Vérendrye. No matter whose version of the North is, as Dr. Hyde points out, “While traditional Indigenous perspectives view the northland in terms of fullness—the presence of life, beauty, people, ceremony, animals, etc.— many European colonists regarded the north in terms of emptiness— the absence of familiar Western technologies, religion, knowledge, and cultures.”
Sarah Brown’s “The Roots of Injustice to Indigenous Women in Canada” is a research paper from a first-year course, Introduction to Aboriginal Studies. Sarah did research on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Canada from the perspective of colonial influence. Sarah believes that “The constructs of colonialism run deep within Canadian society, and Indigenous women are still challenged with ending violence against them and sharing their experiences with the rest of Canada.”
Thanks to the Small Research Grants Fund from the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR), Muses from the North has been able to publish these interviews of victims and survivors of Canada’s residential school system. Without the NCTR fund, this project would not have seen the light of day.
On a final note, we would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to Elizabeth Tritthart, our immediate past print copy designer for Issues 5-9. Lyz (as they like to be called) is in their final practicum in the Bachelor of Nursing (BN) program with UM/UCN. Congratulations to Lyz on receiving two prestigious awards, namely, The Association of Regulated Nurses of Manitoba’s Medal of Excellence (ARNM), and the UCN/U of M Bachelor of Nursing Program Outstanding Academic Achievement Award. We at MFTN are proud of our very own Lyz and genuinely happy for their receiving these awards. We wish Lyz the very best in all future endeavours.