Indigenous

Seaweed product research, Christmas magic & sustainable packaging 📦

November is a busy month at VIU. Students are showcasing projects they have been working on all semester, and we have a lineup of community-focused events and campaigns. 

Wilson Williams (Sxwíxwtn), a Squamish Nation councillor and spokesperson, will deliver the keynote address at VIU’s 2022 Indigenous Speakers Series event on November 29.

Wilson Williams (Sxwíxwtn) grew up without knowledge of his culture or history.

His parents, both residential school survivors, did not talk about any element of their First Nations background and it wasn’t until Sxwíxwtn was in his twenties that he began to get more connected to his Nation and cultural roots.

VIU video project acknowledges Nanaimo armed forces members' contributions to the First and Second World Wars.

Private Reginald Edgar Emblem, a farmer and resident of South Wellington, served in the 72nd Battalion during the First World War. He died at age 20 of influenza and pneumonia in October 1918 and was buried at Seaford Cemetery in Sussex, United Kingdom.

Dr. Shanna Lorenz, VIU’s 2022 Fulbright Canada Visiting Research Chair in Indigenous Studies, is working with Indigenous communities on a data gathering app.     

 Dr. Shanna Lorenz’s research is supporting Indigenous data sovereignty thanks to a digital app called Our Data Indigenous, which she helped design alongside faculty and First Nations community data specialists in Canada and the United States.

Kelly Black, a Vancouver Island University Adjunct History Professor, received the Anne and Philip Yandle Best Article Award from the BC Historical Federation this June. The article, “Explaining Settlers to Ourselves: Rethinking interpretive narratives at heritage sites” was published in the spring 2021 edition of British Columbia History magazine.

VIU’s campus in the qathet region will now be called tiwšɛmawtxw.

The Tla’amin Nation Executive Council has gifted Vancouver Island University (VIU) the name tiwšɛmawtxw (teew-shem- awt-xw), which means House of Learning, for its campus located in ɬaʔamɩn ʔəms gijɛ (Tla’amin Territory).  

The gift is in the spirit of decolonization and reconciliation. Following a renaming ceremony on September 20, 2022, VIU’s campus in the qathet region will now be called tiwšɛmawtxw and not by its colonial name.

The camps are organized by the ‘su’luqw’a’ Community Cousins Indigenous mentorship program.

A pair of free summer camps that aim to make the transition to university easier for Indigenous youth are returning to in-person delivery at Vancouver Island University’s (VIU’s) Nanaimo campus this summer.

The Thuy’she’num Tu Smun’eem: Building a Foundation for our Youth summer camps take place July 18-22 (for Grades 7-9 students) and August 8-12 (for Grades 10-12 students) on campus, with students staying overnight at VIU Residences for five days.