So there’s this awesome teepee that is set up at my school’s Aboriginal Student Centre, and I really like it, I have to admit it’s nice to have around. BUT it’s fucking ridiculous that the Fire & Safety people have mandated a “Emergency Exit” sign on the inside over the ONLY entrance/exit. Like… are you fucking serious? And people wonder why Indigenous folks don’t feel welcome on university campuses. This is one small example of how these kinds of policies need to be reexamined in order to make any sense with Indigenous cultural issues on university campuses. Now can you imagine how the same university is trying to “attract and retain native students” while also having absolutely NO self-identifying Indigenous professors that teach Indigenous-themed classes on tenure-track positions? Yeah. None of this shit makes sense.
Bureaucratic bullshit at its finest. You know, I really used to be a believer in indigenizing the academy, but I’m not at the point where I think you can inject the beast with very many ideas in a way that will profoundly change its makeup. I think it can be different if it’s created that way from the beginning or if you have a greater sense of control over an entire department—otherwise, it’s a whole lot of this shit repeatedly happening over and over again.
omc an exit sign in a thípi
(via moosedeevita)
