Brandon University welcomes Indigenous Education Week

Brandon University is celebrating Indigenous education throughout the campus all this week, with events and installations.

• Monday, Sept. 30 — Orange Shirt Day. Everyone on campus is invited to wear orange to raise awareness of the history of residential schools, and acknowledge the harms it caused the victims and survivors. Brandon University is inviting the public to stop by the Indigenous Peoples Centre and leave a message on an Orange Shirt to be placed around the campus. Learn more at http://www.orangeshirtday.org
• Tuesday, Oct. 1 — The BU Indigenous Peoples’ Centre will host a beading workshop that is open to the public, at 12:30 p.m. and again at 5 p.m.
• Tuesday, Oct. 1 — Pow Wow Club is scheduled for the BU front lawn, also at 5 p.m. Open to the public.
• Friday, Oct. 4 — The Faculty of Health Studies is unveiling a new series of Seven Sacred Teachings plaques with a reception at 11:30 a.m. in the He Oyate Tawapi room on the main floor. The faculty has also relocated a large, metal four-colour dream catcher, which had been previously on display in the Library, back to its original space in Health Studies Building.
• All week — Everyone is encouraged to visit the permanent tipi installation located just off of 18th Street, on a triangular piece of grass near McMaster Hall and the BU book store. BU’s tipi is part of the Tipi Tours Legacy Project, of which two more are planned to be installed elsewhere in the city during Indigenous Education Week.

The following week, on October 9 and 10, Elder Eugene Ross has Dakota Collection in the He Oyate Tawapi Ceremony Room all day both days. This will include crushing chokecherries, paper moccasin making, silver bracelet making, and medicine pouch making

Also coming up on Oct. 10, the university’s Learning and Development Office is offering a session of the KAIROS Blanket Exercise, which develops awareness and understanding of the nation-to-nation relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada.

More Indigenous events are planned on campus in the coming weeks, including a special Indigenous Alumni Reunion at Homecoming.

At the reunion, Brandon University will welcome back Indigenous alumni from all years past for a special reunion day and celebration gathering. The reunion includes a morning pipe ceremony on Saturday, Oct. 19 and an Indigenous Sharing Circle and Luncheon later that day. There will also be bannock over an open fire that Saturday afternoon, a family-friendly come-and-go occasion in the Kavanagh Courtyard starting at about 1 p.m.

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