Lethbridge College is making an effort to include and celebrate Blackfoot culture, even as the knowledge of it dwindles with every generation.
Pam Blood, the Indigenous Service’s Academic Advisor, said preserving a culture brings in a lot of different facets.
Some of these facets include language preservation, structures of family, the importance of traditional parenting and reclaiming and repatriating the ways that kept things intact.
She emphasized language preservation as a key point in making sure culture is not forgotten.
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“We need to do what we can to preserve the language by learning by the elders, but also teaching it to those in the generation outside of residential schools.”
One Lethbridge College student fully admits he is not as knowledgeable as he could be in the ways of his culture.
“My mom and step dad were both Catholic,” Jared Wolf Child, an Indigenous student, explained. “But my grandparents were always on the more spiritual side.”
Wolf Child said he wanted to learn more from a younger age and wished more resources had been available to him.
“When I was in junior high, I had a Blackfoot class and they didn’t really teach me much,” he said.
The young man compared the class to time on a reserve, stating their schools out there go more in depth and actively teach the customs.
Wolf Child said he thought being around the culture from a young age would go far.
“My grandparents didn’t really speak it too much around me,” he said, “so I didn’t end up learning it until around 10 years ago and now I’m still really rocky.”
Blood said the college is working in the right direction to help students reconnect with their culture and feel more comfortable pursuing it.
However, the progress is slow and stilted by the past estrangement and forced assimilation during the times residential schools were still open.
“With residential schools, it was really stopped: “you can’t talk, you can’t speak your language anymore, you can’t practice these things” and I think coming out of that is going to take a lot of time,” said Blood.
The academic advisor lamented over the gap in knowledge, finding many First Nations do not have the cultural education they need, and saying those who do are uncomfortable communicating the way their ancestors have.
Leaders providing encouragement, she said, was extremely critical to helping the Indigenous community flourish.
And the first step to understanding is seeing.
“We have a lot of First Nations students that are new and they can feel kind of out of sorts and out of place but when they see our displays – the artwork here and there and the explanations and the references to their culture – it reminds them they have a place here.”
Indigenous services play a big role in the transition Indigenous students go through when they enter the college.
Many support programs are in place to improve the cultural, social and academic lives of Lethbridge College students.
This support system is something Blood hopes transitions into life after college as well.
“The community of Lethbridge is seeing what Lethbridge College is doing and having that marked influence on doing that really important role of helping will be beneficial to our culture.”
The International Peace Pow-Wow is February 24th for any Indigenous people excited to get involved with the community.
