A "Made in the North" vision for a university in the North
Thursday, November 4, 2010
YELLOWKNIFE—There are 52 circumpolar universities and eight circumpolar nations in the world, and an average number of seven universities per circumpolar country. The exception is Canada, where there are zero universities in the North (for a map of how Canada compares to other circumpolar countries, click here). From November 2 to 4, a group of northerners who are committed to post-secondary education and who have a deep understanding of Indigenous knowledge met with key institutional partners in Yellowknife to address this deficit and determine what the solution might look like.
In recent years, a number of grassroots initiatives have emerged pushing for a northern university in different forms, though they remain largely separate from one another. What unites these initiatives, however, is both the conviction that a strong North requires university-level education accessible to northerners in the North, and the view that simply replicating southern university models is not enough.
Over the course of the three day dialogue, representatives from many of these grassroots groups gathered for the first time to try and identify a set of shared principles to help provide a framework and draft vision for a university in Canada’s Arctic. On the final day, the group released their vision statement: “As Northern peoples of Canada, we envision in our homelands a renowned institution centred on the teachings of the land, led by the wisdom of Indigenous peoples, fostering innovation, dialogue and inspired communities.” “After an overwhelmingly positive and constructive few days, I think participants came away with a renewed hope that a university in the North can and will happen,” said Joe Linklater, from the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation and Trustee, Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation. “But our university must be based on a new, northern model, one with northern, indigenous culture at its core. If done properly, in 25 years we envision a North where we teach the world to live in balance, local languages are revitalized, communities are healthy, young people are educated both academically and traditionally, and northern cultures prosper and grow.”
A northern university would also advance all four pillars of the federal Northern Strategy, in particular promoting social and economic development as well as addressing the capacity gap related to improving and devolving northern governance.
The Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation was established in 1965 as a private charitable foundation with a mandate to improve public policy in Canada. One of its major programming areas supports northern peoples to participate in and help shape public policy at any level - local, regional, national or international. www.gordonfn.org For more information, please contact: Tanya Guy tanya@gordonfn.org 647-224-0422
RSS AGP Newsfeed