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Dear York community,
June is a time for the York community to celebrate the rich history, cultural diversity and ongoing presence of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples.
For Indigenous community members, this is often a time to celebrate with family and community through participating in cultural traditions and practices.
National Indigenous History Month asks us to contemplate how to integrate Indigenous knowledges and perspectives into the fabric of the University. York has taken steps toward this by funding Indigenous Research Seed Grants, affirming Indigenous cultural practices such as the smudging program launched by the Centre for Indigenous Knowledges & Languages, and supporting our colleagues in providing global leadership on Indigenous issues, like the Indigenous research team that attended the United Nations Climate Change Conference, led by Professor Angele Alook.
There are many opportunities for York community members to learn from and engage with Indigenous ways of knowing and being, such as:
- exploring one’s relationship to colonialism in Module 2 of the DEDI Toolkit;
- supporting the work of the Learning Spirit Alliance, an Indigenous-led student group tackling food insecurity, by following them on Instagram;
- supporting initiatives that bring Indigenous knowledges and perspectives into university spaces through the Indigeneity in Teaching and Learning Fund;
- partnering with Indigenous communities in research, like Michael Rotondi, who was recently named an Applied Public Health Research Chair; and
- purchasing and reading books by Indigenous authors from York, including Kenzie Allen (whose new book of poetry, Cloud Missives, will be released in August), Jesse Thistle, Angele Alook, Susan Dion and Deborah McGregor.
We invite you to visit the Indigenous History Month website to learn about and participate in various events around York University’s campuses.
Together, we offer our best wishes to Indigenous community members and the wider York community in celebrating National Indigenous History Month and National Indigenous People’s Day on June 21.
Thank you. Merci. Miigwech. Anushiik.
Rhonda Lenton
President and Vice-Chancellor
Laina Bay-Cheng
Interim Vice-President Equity, People and Culture
Susan D. Dion
Associate Vice-President Indigenous Initiatives