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Navigating the Academy: A CAUT Forum for Aboriginal Academic Staff 

31 January – 3 February 2008, Winnipeg, MB

by Patricia O'Riley, Coordinator, Cross-Disciplinary Certificate in Aboriginal Studies, Social Sciences, Atkinson

10 Mar 07 - The Navigating the Academy: A CAUT Forum for Aboriginal Academic Staff held in Winnipeg, MB from 31 January – 3 February 2008 was an historic event bringing together over 100 university and college Aboriginal faculty and staff from across Canada. The purpose of this forum was to provide a space to discuss issues and concerns specific to Aboriginal faculty and staff in the following areas: 

1. Working conditions specific to Aboriginal academic staff and other more general working conditions issues that affect Aboriginal academic staff;
2. The role of academic staff associations in representing the interests of Aboriginal academic staff members;
3. Career developing and mentoring for new academic staff;
4. Student issues (i.e., discussion of how to get more Aboriginal students to consider graduate work and teaching);
5. Institutional attitudes and barriers;
6. Community relations (i.e., the Aboriginal communities’ engagement with colleges and universities);
7. Collegial issues (amongst and between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal academic staff)
8. The role of Indigenous knowledge in teaching and research.

This forum was unique in that it was a space of conversation and mutual nurturance, rather than representational thinking typical of many academic conferences. The needs of not only Aboriginal faculty and staff were put forward, but also the urgent needs facing Aboriginal Peoples and their communities on reserves and in urban centres — and how the academy might address these needs through teaching, research and service. 

Some key recommendations from the forum specific to York University and YUFA include: 

1. CAUT to publish a rating of institutions on their “Aboriginal supportiveness”;
2. Universities to make it a priority to hire more Aboriginal faculty, not only in Native / Aboriginal / First Nations / Indigenous studies, but across the disciplinary areas;
3. CAUT to pressure provincial organizations such as the Ontario Confederation of Faculty of Associations, as well as faculty associations, to have Aboriginal issues taken seriously;
4. CAUT, in association with the Aboriginal Post Secondary Education Working Group (APEWG) or their appointees, to develop a guide and workshops on Aboriginal issues for collective agreements;
5. CAUT, in association with the Aboriginal Post Secondary Education Working Group (APEWG) or their appointees, to develop a policy statement on “Aboriginal and Indigenous Knowledge” issues in the Academy, including the acknowledgement of Aboriginal knowledge as equivalent to Western knowledge;
6. CAUT and faculty associations to rethink “equity” so that Aboriginal faculty are not simply considered as one of the equity-seeking groups, but to recognize their Aboriginal Rights in accordance with the Constitution Act, 1982;
7. Based on #6 above, faculty associations to create separate Aboriginal Committees to deal with the distinct and unique issues facing Aboriginal faculty and staff;
8. CAUT and faculty associations to look at the language in the Federal Contractors' Program to see how it might help support #6 and #7 above;
9. Faculty associations to have “community service” — a crucial and integral aspect of the scholarship of Aboriginal faculty — recognized as service for tenure and promotion purposes;
10. CAUT and faculty associations to bring national pressure in defense of Aboriginal priorities (e.g., recognition of Elders for tenure at Trent University).