e along Route 132, in the Odanak Native reserve, a seemingly banal building has become a symbol of crucial importance to the First Nations. It is a school. A school out of the ordinary: Kiuna is the only college in Quebec dedicated to higher education “by and for” Aboriginal people.
For ten years, this mini-cégep has succeeded in encouraging young people from the 11 aboriginal nations of Quebec to continue their studies after high school. How? ‘Or’ What ? By offering programs adapted to the identity, history and traditions of Aboriginal people, while respecting the guidelines of the Ministry of Higher Education.
This one-of-a-kind college, located between Sorel and Nicolet, in central Quebec, is a sort of “safe space” for young Aboriginals. It must be remembered that the education system is associated with trauma for First Nations. This system served to colonize and assimilate Aboriginal people. We can understand that these young people do not rush to go to CEGEP or university.
“Some of our students come in with fears, but they come out with their heads held high, with self-esteem and pride,” says Prudence Hannis, director of Kiuna since it opened in 2011.
This Abenaki welcomes us in the sparkling building, adorned with bright colors and adorned with Innu, Mohawk or Atikamekw works of art. Calm reigns on this rainy day in November. The majority of Kiuna’s hundred or so students are still taking their courses remotely because of the pandemic. A few dozen have chosen to return to class, after a year and a half of virtual teaching.
Kiuna’s birth took a decade of work and negotiation, but interest in the indigenousization of education (and other sectors of society) has exploded over the past year, says Prudence Hannis. “We receive half a dozen requests for collaboration a day from establishments that need advice on adapting their offer to Aboriginals. We are not able to meet the demand, ”she said.
130 sources of pride
Prudence Hannis lingers for a long time in front of two walls on which are aligned 130 photographs. These are the 130 graduates of Kiuna College since its founding. All Aboriginals, except two non-Aboriginals (who are welcome at the college). She remembers each of them. Such is an Innu from Pessamit, her neighbor is an Atikamekw from Manawan, and here is a Mohawk from Kahnawake…
“Each diploma is a victory,” says the director. The first cohort was made up of four graduates, three of whom were “dropouts” who returned to school after dropping out of school. More than a third of Kiuna’s students have children. The Aboriginals began to start a family at a young age. And since the vast majority come from outside the region, the establishment offers student residences, including for families with children.
“Students are often confused when they arrive. Many are living outside their community for the first time, ”says Geneviève Bellefleur, an Innu native of Pessamit, on the North Shore.
After graduating in special education in Kiuna, she stayed in Odanak with her husband and their 10-year-old daughter after her studies. She works with student families. We meet her in her room which looks like a daycare with its toys and multicolored cushions.
“By leaving their community, young people lose their support network. We support them so that they feel like part of a family, ”says José-Tomas Arriola, doctoral student in psychology and clinical supervisor at Kiuna.
Train citizens
Students follow the same general education as all other CEGEPs (in philosophy, physical education, French and English), but all of the institution’s programs add an Aboriginal perspective. Courses in ancestral languages, history, cinema, literature and law, in particular, are offered from the point of view of the First Nations. The college offers two pre-university degrees (Human Sciences and Arts, Letters and Communication) and three one-year programs, in French and in English.
Two-thirds of the staff are indigenous. Students have the chance to have extraordinary experiences: trips have been organized to New Mexico (for an international gathering of indigenous nations) and Finland (to learn about the caribou hide trade). The students recorded songs with Loco Locass and with Elisapie Isaac. Four indigenous languages are taught, including Abenaki (real name Aln8ba8dwaw8gan), spoken by a total of five people.
“We want to train leaders, committed citizens who will serve their community,” explains Prudence Hannis.
What is an engaged citizen? For Jessica Rose Lacroix, a film student, for example, it is producing a documentary on her stepfather of Cree origin, who had his leg amputated after a work accident in James Bay. He stepped on a rusty nail, the wound became infected, he had his toe removed, then part of his leg. “I want to tell the realities that challenge me,” she says.
Identity awakening, take 2
Kiuna is inspired by the late Manitou College, the very first native Quebec CEGEP, which has had a history as short as it is tumultuous. This establishment was established for barely three years, between 1973 and 1976, in the village of La Macaza, in the Laurentians.
“Manitou College was popular. The authorities feared that it would become a hotbed of indigenous radicalism, ”explains Emanuelle Dufour, educational advisor at Ahuntsic college, consultant in indigenous affairs and author.
The aboriginal board of directors of the college had decided to close the establishment, officially for financial reasons, after having trained a generation of committed young people – including Ghislain Picard, who became chief of the Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador, and Lise Bastien, Executive Director of the First Nations Education Council, which founded Kiuna College. The Cégep de l’Abitibi-Témiscamingue and Dawson College are partners in the project.
“We have to get out of the colonial bureaucratic framework, which does not work in education for Aboriginals,” says Emanuelle Dufour, whose master’s thesis was on Kiuna College. There are some students who arrive with their hoods over their eyes, their backs hunched over. They are going through difficult things, but do not understand why. By learning to contextualize the issues of the First Nations, they regain confidence in who they are. I have seen students transform through Kiuna’s journey. “