Browsing Tag Rick Ouellet
Lack of First Nations Faculty = Lack of Aboriginal Knowledge and Perspective
| 12:00 am | 0 CommentBy Rick OuelletOver the last year, First Nations students have seen a significant increase in support from Simon Fraser University. A First Nations Student Centre director and coordinator have been appointed, the FNSA common room has been refurnished, and our old student centre computers have been replaced. All of the above has been implemented with our input and we are more...
Announcing the Cedar Table Series
| 12:00 am | 0 CommentBy Wade Dorvault, Marcia Guno, Sasha Hobbs, Rick Ouellet, and And Paige RaibmonIntroductionby Paige Raibmon Why are First Nations issues in the news so often? Why are we still negotiating treaties with First Nations in British Columbia? Why do I hear about protests when I want to go skiing at Sun Peaks Resort? Why didn't I learn about First Nations history in high school? more...
Buffalo Chips
| 12:00 am | 0 CommentBy Rick OuelletI have long been fascinated with the continuous, yet often ignored, impact of indigenous influence on the political landscape of Canada. As the demographic in places like Saskatchewan slowly shifts to allow First Nations populations the majority of political power in provincial and federal ridings, the outstanding issues will have to be addressed. more...
rebel heart: Bear with me
| 12:00 am | 0 CommentBy Rick OuelletPerhaps it sprung from relations with my first teachers and that fuzzy time in my memory when my Cree was as good as my English. Symbolic stories were the primary way I understood the world. For example, I would never have to be told to stick close to the house after dark when I stayed at my grandparents' place because I knew about the giant Owl that would more...
rebel heart: The buck stops everywhere
| 12:00 am | 0 CommentBy Rick OuelletI got a forwarded email last week from Vivienne Sosnowski. She was responding to the human rights complaint put forward by the Redwire Native Youth Media Society and put in a request for First Nation writers to do an occasional column for theProvince. Why not, I thought. If theProvince, which is credibility challenged, wants to become the thinking person's more...
rebel heart: DEAP flash forward
| 12:00 am | 0 CommentBy Rick OuelletEvery once in a while our collective looks back into the past changes and we begin to think about things differently. Joseph Campbell once reflected on a conversation he overheard between a mother and her child. The child was confused over the age of the earth and existence of things like dinosaurs. The mother rejected the idea, taking a biblical stance, more...
rebel heart: Cop watch
| 12:00 am | 0 CommentBy Rick OuelletI've never had the opportunity to personally get to know anyone who is a member of the RCMP or any other police force. In the Mtis squatter communities that surround my childhood home this 'serve and protect' function of Canadian society is generally viewed as little more than an occupying army. My roots, at least those that I was exposed to, had a long more...
rebel heart: Anomie and the Asshole
| 12:00 am | 0 CommentBy Rick OuelletPost-secondary education is useful for a number of reasons; notably the acquiring of vocabulary that sums up complex ideas or situations. The word anomie certainly accomplishes this for me. It is defined as a feeling of boundlessness and normlessness that comes from a breakdown of values and ideals. In the communities that dot rural Canada, the alienation more...
rebel heart: Ode to Joe
| 12:00 am | 0 CommentBy Rick OuelletOral history and oral tradition in general remain a conundrum for many non-indigenous people. In Canadian society how you say something is more important than what you say and the most important things are generally never spoken at all. So far I have had little success accurately conveying a political or significant cultural perspective of Mtis peoples, but more...
The need for education
| 12:00 am | 0 CommentBy Rick OuelletWell, it seems that the mention of Aboriginal title and the rights of the peoples who have yet to cede the land upon which this university stands and grows has resulted in the opportunity for dialogue. I have been in contact with Michael Geller of the UniverCity corporation and Gregg Macdonald of the SFU President's office, and both conversations provided more...
