Welcome to the Kéxwusm-áyakn Student Centre

In your own words, what is the significance of the Kéxwusm-áyakn Student Centre?

The significance of the Kéxwusm-áyakn student centre is it had created a place for our Indigenous and non-Indigenous students to gather, to share food, to share knowledge, to share teachings. And it has created a space for studying, a space to socialize, a space to get support and a place that our Indigenous students feel comfortable and welcomed.

What does the Centre provide for students?

So the Centre provides a place to come and study. We have computers and we have printing for our students. It’s a place to come and socialize, hangout, support each other. We run student success workshops in here, we run peer mentoring, we run our in-residence Elders program, we try to have food three days a week for a hot lunch. So, it’s really, it’s a social place, but it’s also a place to come and study and support each other.

What can students who have never been to the Centre before expect from their visit?

That we welcome whoever comes in the door with open arms. And that’s one of the things we’ve heard in the last five years since we’ve been open is people say – whether it’s employees, students, admin – [they] all say this is probably one of the most warm and welcoming spaces on campus.

What do you hope students take away from each visit to the Centre?

We hope that they take away, whether it’s learning about each other or sharing food, is that they know that they’re supported here in the centre and it’s a very non-judgmental space and we just support all students in their educational journey, whatever that looks like.

As you mentioned, there are in-residence Elders at the Centre for students to speak with which is of course very special – how would you describe this opportunity for students?

So about seven years ago we started creating our in-resident Elders program. It serves multiple purposes, the first purpose is to provide that cultural Indigenous teaching from the elders, to not only our Indigenous students but our non-Indigenous students. And for many of our Indigenous students, they come from remote communities and they don’t have an Elder that is close to them here, so it provides that Elder.

When you’re an Indigenous person and you’re removed from your community, it can be lonely. So, this provides that warm, welcoming, Elder support. And the Elders love it, you know, we love our Elders and they love coming here. So, it’s been seven years. We have Elders here three days a week, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and then this fall we’re looking at expanding that from Mondays to Thursdays.

Our Elders are from, to be respectful of the two territories, the Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh. So, two Elders at the moment, and at the moment we have two male Elders but we’re looking at finding a female Elder to start in the fall too.

How have you seen this opportunity of meeting with the Elders impact the students – what does it mean for them to get to have these conversations?

For our non-Indigenous students – I’ll start with that – it’s a way for them to learn some of the teachings. And I think over the last seven years the number of students that have come by and met – we hate to say interviewed – but met with the Elders, visited with them, asked questions for research papers. We’ve had documentary students do a documentary on one of the Elders, they’ve also done a documentary on the Kéxwusm-áyakn. So those are the things that have helped with our non-Inidgenous students. And again, with our Indigenous students, it’s creating that presence of [family]. We’ve created a home away from home for our students… Family to us in Indigenous communities is really important. So that’s also what this space has created, a sense of family. We tease each other, we support each other, we laugh, we cry. All those range of emotions are supported here.

What was the hope for the Centre in terms of community building on campus, and how has it succeeded?

The hope was to create a space – and we got direction from the Elders, from community, from students – is that we did not want this space to be an exclusive Indigenous only space, we wanted a space where we could break those barriers down, learn from each other, share culture, share teaching, share food. Because in order to move forward in the process of reconciliation we all need to do this together. This September will be our sixth year that we’re dedicating a full week to truth and reconciliation, and on average we have 800 to 1,000 students coming through our events that week. That’s really key; many of those events are held here in the centre, and then some of the events are too large for the space here so we use the Bosa Theatre and stuff. But it’s bringing that awareness to the campus community.

Like you said, you also host cultural workshops at the Centre. What do those entail?

So we’ve done numerous workshops for both students and employees. We’ve done cedar hat weaving workshops, we’ve done drum making workshops, we’ve done moccasin making, cedar wristbands, we’ve done reconciliation through art by a really well known Cree artist, George Littlechild. It’s really about ensuring that our culture and our art and all those things are kept alive, because for 100 years our culture and our language and connection to the land was taken away and we were being assimilated by the government through residential schools. So, it’s ensuring we have a space to share those teachings and to learn and to make sure that those teachings such as cedar weaving, which Coast Salish people have done for thousands of years, is kept alive. Or drum making, you know, because for us the drum is key to the work we do. It’s making sure that those cultural teachings are kept alive… We also [have] children from the Children’s centre visit, and learn songs and visit with the Elders.

Is there anything you would like to see coming out of the centre in the future?

In this past year we have expanded to create a quiet study area and some offices as our department has grown. I see the bigger future as, in the five years since we built the Kéxwusm-áyakn Student Centre we actually outgrew it and that was one of the reasons we expanded. So, I kind of go, ‘where are we going to be in 10 years? Are we going to need to take over even more space?’ We just hope that we will continue to be a focal point for the whole campus community, which is what we have created in these five years.

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What this space means to us

Business administration students, Rose Williams and Vanessa Lewis, took some time out of their studies in the newly opened quiet study section of the Kéxwusm-áyakn Centre to speak to what the space means to them.