The Knowledge Seeker by Blair Stonechild

Author:Blair Stonechild
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Regina Press
Published: 2016-05-02T21:12:24+00:00

Chapter 7

Contemporary Crisis

Achieving an Impossible Dream

The challenges of restoring cultural and spiritual integrity are nowhere more evident than in Indigenous communities themselves. We struggle to maintain spiritual, inter-human, and natural-world relationships that are necessary for a healthy, well-functioning society. Our societies have seen degradation by traumas of historical contact: decimation of population, loss of land and economic base, autocratic control, residential schools, and undermining of religion. The consequences are seen in dysfunction of our societies. What happened during the existential crisis at First Nations University that began in 2005 is an instructive example. Chapter 2 described how the university had been immensely successful, defying predictions of inferiority that had been made since its inception. Scholars from all over the world paid attention to the operation of the university, and major research and projects grants were readily obtained. Student numbers rose rapidly. The construction of a new facility and the adoption of a new university name were a high-water mark. Such success was the best possible situation for a First Nations higher education institution. But there was a fundamental weakness in governance that would bring the whole enterprise tumbling down.

When the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College (SIFC) began to realize the need for a new building, such an idea was so novel and unique that many wondered if constructing a First Nations facility on a major university campus was even possible. Over the years, the college grew rapidly and came to be housed at six separate locations, including a trailer on the University of Regina campus and in downtown office space. As a First Nations institution, the college did not have the benefit of government statutory funding for capital expenditures.

I met renowned Indigenous architect Douglas Cardinal when I was appointed by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney to the board of trustees of Canada’s national museum, the Canadian Museum of Civilization (now Canadian Museum of History),1 in 1990. The museum, located across the river from Canada’s Parliament Buildings, bears Cardinal’s signature curvilinear designs, which reflect the country’s natural landscape. A reporter who was attempting to create political mischief asked whether the museum faced Canada or Quebec. Cardinal responded that the form was inspired by nature, and that the land does not point in any particular direction. Cardinal is the architect of other challenging projects, such as the National Museum of the American Indian, which sits directly adjacent to Congress on the Smithsonian Mall in Washington. With his bold and imaginative designs and use of groundbreaking computer technology, Cardinal claims the unique distinction of designing museums facing capitol buildings in both Ottawa and Washington.2

At a layover with Douglas at Toronto’s international airport, I outlined the college’s aspirations for a building and suggested he examine our needs. “Let me put something together,” he responded. One of his first actions was to sit down with local Elders and seek guidance on the form such a facility might take. He presented the SIFC board of governors with a dramatic design that reflected traditional symbols, including the circle, four directions, and a central ceremonial space.

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