Saint Mary’s U: Indigenous Student Space Opens on Campus

Saint Mary’s is pleased to announce the opening of its new Indigenous Student space, a dedicated on-campus location for Indigenous students to meet, work, share, and collaborate.

“This is just one of the many ways Saint Mary’s is celebrating and recognizing the diversity of cultures on our campus,” said Saint Mary’s President Dr. Robert Summerby-Murray, “and building on respect for all the ways we intersect.”

A dedication ceremony was held on Thursday, February 4, with Saint Mary’s alumni and faculty. Mi’kmaw elder, author, and Saint Mary’s alumnus and honorary doctorate, Isabelle Knockwood, smudged students and faculty, to commemorate the new space.

Saint Mary’s Aboriginal Society president, student Elora Gehue, was succinct in her enthusiasm: “It’s a place to call home.”

By creating a dedicated space for the university’s growing Indigenous student body, Saint Mary’s is fulfilling a key recommendation of its recent President’s Task Force on Aboriginal Students—and taking steps toward the calls to action put forth in 2015 by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, which called for improving access and opportunities for Indigenous students at Canadian universities.

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