[Witness speaks in Nehleueun]
Hello everyone. I greet you all.
I am very pleased to be here today.
I am a member of the Pekuakamiulnuatsh Nation in Mashteuiatsh.
I will tell you my story. I think that will be necessary for you to understand what I have to say today.
I was a student before our community took charge of education. Religious congregations taught us. For a young student starting school, it's very important to experience something profound, because it will give them the drive to continue their studies. Personally, what happened to me left a deep mark, but not in a good way. I was marked literally: I had marks on my body because the nuns knew how to use their tools very well.
Afterwards, the community took over education, but it happened all at once. Obviously, the transition was not instantaneous. So, there was a long process before the community took charge of education.
I must say that, for me, these times were not exactly happy. Going to school, that was never happy time. However, I persisted and continued following my path. At a certain point, I ended up at university. First, I did an undergraduate degree in art education, and then I did a master's degree of arts, educational stream, which let me go back to my community of Mashteuiatsh to teach.
I was truly privileged, because the first position I took in Mashteuiatsh, where I taught for 15 years, was to be a preschool teacher, meaning the kindergarten program for four-year-olds. After a few years, I moved on from the kindergarten program to teach five-year-olds. We had an Indigenous language immersion program to rekindle the fire for the Innu language in my community. Afterwards, I was able to take up my real job, that of art teacher. I taught all levels of primary and secondary school for 15 years.
I also taught CÉGEP during some of this time. Afterwards, I ended up in Chicoutimi, in Saguenay, more specifically at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi. I was the director of the Centre des Premières Nations Nikanite for 10 years. The mandates at the Centre des Premières nations Nikanite were mainly to develop programs; give community members access to university education; develop research projects in collaboration with communities; develop service offerings for indigenous students; and, finally, raise the university community's awareness about issues regarding First Nations and their culture, of course.
During those 10 years, my team experienced many problems associated with university education, but I'll come back to that a little later.
After spending 10 years at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, I obtained the position of director of the Office of Inclusion and Student Success at UQAM. The office isn't necessarily reserved for Indigenous people, because it serves several populations, such as students living with a disability, students with children, LGBTQ2A+ students, international students and the entire UQAM student body.