 My name is Leah Hogan. I am from Oneida Nation of the Thames and I am Bear Clan. My spirit name that my great-grandma gave me is Gamalongua. I am the manager of Indigenous Education here at Mohawk College, servicing the academic side of the house. So we kind of have two areas here at Mohawk College. We have student services and we have the academic area. And so I service the community partnerships, so Six Nations Polytechnic and Overhoi Skills Trades Training Center, and we run various programs of the community. We tend to have a lot more directly coming out high school now, more than ever before. But I would say with our partnership programs, we do tend to have a little bit more of a mature audience. So really is everything from, you know, 18 all the way up to, you know, students within their 60s as well. So there's a huge range. The ones out in the community partnerships are the ones that a meeting community needs. So Six Nations Polytechnic will come to Mohawk College, for example, and say we need more personal support workers in our community. And so Mohawk College as a community partner will actually support that request by running one of our programs out at Six Nations Polytechnic, for example. And so, and Sam's Overhoi Skills Trades Training Center, they will say we might need more framers in our area. And so then we would link them up with the academic area that would be able to facilitate and support that program. We are developing a OnCAD 2 plus 2 program. That's two years, Mohawk College, College diploma, that will actually stream into a two, into two years at McMaster or Laurier in Indigenous Studies program. And so basically you complete the two years and do the two years at university and receive not only a college diploma but also a university degree. And that one is going to be a general arts and science and we have some courses that we've developed with OnCAD. In addition to that, those course developments were actually a process of developing an Indigenous communications course as well, which we really celebrate Indigenous pedagogy and communication styles, stories, history. So we're really looking forward to that as well. Interestingly enough, in the last year what we've realized is we've actually closed the student success gap. So traditionally student success ranged and I don't have the actual percentage and I will find out for you. But it used to be a large variance between the non-Indigenous students and our Indigenous students. We've actually closed that gap with an variance within like 3% I believe. So we've done, that's kind of one of our things, one of our measurements of success is the student success. Also graduation rates we tried to look at as well to ensure that where students are actually coming out with the credential that they actually came into. Having said that, we also don't just determine success with actually coming across the diploma. It could really be about them being successful as far as entering post-secondary. And sometimes our students have to leave because of family commitments or obligations or something within their community. So we don't see them as not being successful if they haven't completed. We just obviously see them taking a pause and we do our best to be able to kind of bring them back. From my personal perspective really, I'm just kind of being here at Mohawk College for 14 years. I've serviced both in student services while in the academic area. And I really think that Indigenous education really is a personal journey. And I think that we have students come in that don't even know how to say their nation. And we have students that are actually practicing long post ceremonies. So we really do service a whole range of students that come through our door. And just by them being here, we just say that that's enough. You are enough regardless of what historical knowledge or even traditional knowledge you have. And so their education journeys are completely different, completely sacred to them. So some students come in and they want to just be a nurse. Not just, but that's a pretty big tall order. But they want to come in and actually have the credential. Some of our students come in and really want to be educated in a more holistic and a more holistic way in that they actually want to know a little bit more about their histories. They want to know about their culture. They want to be connected to the elders that they don't have access to. So really for me, it is a really tough question to answer because it really is a personal journey. If I was to think about academically as far as Mohawk College, what Indigenous education is, personally, I think it's about trying to break down some of the statements that you hear in academics with regards to academic rigor. And understanding that academics and education don't necessarily come from a book and don't necessarily have to written on a piece of paper, but really is an experiential process. It should really speak to your spirit. I know right now there is a great shift in regards to lay-based education. So that has been a great movement forward as far as honoring that and understanding that being out in the community, being out in the land, going for a medicine walk with an elder is enough. So not having to have it, I mean, then this is where I think I'm going to get the challenge is, you know, the assessment and valuation of those experiences. And that's really where we're at right now is kind of looking at and seeing what is appropriate assessment evaluation with regards to those land-based experiences. Some experiences are actually sacred as well. So that's a question still to be answered. Specifically here at Mohawk College, the very first thing I'd really love to see is just to have more Indigenous faculty. Full-time faculty specifically, in that we have a teaching community in order not only for our students but for each other. I find that some of our faculty members don't have a lot of resources here in order to support what they need to do within the classroom. So that would be the first thing I'd really like to see. The second thing is really about honoring our pedagogy in our ways of being and doing and teaching and learning and seeing it as an equal way of being in the institution. Yeah, I'd really like to see that evolve hopefully. I do believe it's going to happen here with my community here. I have really great colleagues and we have a really great leadership team. So I don't doubt for a second that that's not going to happen. So I'm really excited. I'm excited to be here. And when we talk about education, one thing I didn't talk about was the Indian Residential School legacy that's happened here in Canada. And I think that the reason why I personally went to education and to continue on was to it didn't start out that way actually. Education, as I've come to learn the residential school experience and my grandmother's experience in residential school, I've continued on her legacy. I've continued on knowing that she fought for this. And so my job comes from my heart and my job comes for supporting and honoring my ancestors and their experience in school and some of the history there, but not coming out of a place from deficiency, but really of a place of honoring their experiences. And I really want to be able to do that and keep that in mind. I actually keep my great grandmother's picture here. And so sometimes when I feel lost or if I don't feel enough or if I don't, you know, you sometimes wonder, you know, sometimes the struggle can be very real. When you hear some of the students experience, some of the some of the conversations you have to have are difficult. And she keeps me grounded, you know, even, even to this day, she keeps me on a path that I don't want to stray from. But coming into education, I never had that. I never knew that that's what I was doing until I, as well, was learning my history. And so we're all in that journey where we're trying to figure out where we came from, what our histories were. I didn't find out until I was an adult that my grandmother went to residential school and everything made sense. Everything, my history, the family breakdown made sense in that moment when I figured out that she was a residential school survivor. And so, yeah, it's education. I think for many more people come from a different place. It comes not only just from our head and from wanting to be, but it actually comes from a legacy that we're trying to change the direction, right? We're trying to make it a safe place for our students. And that's where that really strong passion comes from. So, yeah, I guess that's why I didn't get to touch on those questions was about residential school and how that is really for me, what keeps me grounded and keeps me going is doing that work, even if it's just a little tiny bit of it. So the reason why I carry this picture of my great-grandmother Cassie with me is because when I first started to teach, I was teaching a course called Average in Western Perspectives. And it really was the first time I academically took a dive into my history and some of the impacts it had on the communities. And I just never felt like, who am I to teach this, right? I mean, I didn't, I wasn't brought up in the community. I don't have that history. And it felt, I felt a little bit like a fraud, you know. And, but yet I knew I wanted to teach this. I wanted to learn more. And so I was, I still remember the day that I was in the garage and this is exactly the way it happened. And I was in the garage and I was thinking, I don't think I'm going to teach. I think I'm actually going to quit. Like, I think this is going to happen because I just don't feel like I, I bring enough to the class. I don't feel enough. And so I was thinking that and I looked down and on this table, my mother had gave me some books and one of them was called Three Generations and it was an old book and it was all coiled and there were stories of elders to say, what would you say to young people three generations from now? And I am the third generation from her. So my great-grandmother who did this, she was a medicine woman. She knew, I think it was three languages and really, really well-respective woman in our community. And in here she talks about that. She talks about learning your language and she says, never give up even if they laugh at you. You just, you keep going. And you just, you learn what you can. And there was a real sense of forgiveness for her to kind of, and what she was basically saying is that you're enough. And it was literally that moment that I was going to actually email that evening and say like, I'm actually not going to continue with this. I don't think I'm the right fit. And I got this message and so I keep that with me because there's times when you, when you do feel like, well, maybe not everybody, but I know I specifically do feel that way where I do stumble to my words and I do try my best. And if I've come to realize that the impact of colonization is the reason why I don't know everything and I don't know my history. And that was the purpose. That was the reason behind Indian Residential School was to take that away from us. And so I will keep stumbling hopefully with some grace and with some humility and to honor, to honor that. So that's where I'm with us. And that's why I keep this close because there are, there are times when you second guess or you might think whether or not you want to keep going and then I just see your words and I'm like, absolutely we do, you know, we still keep going. And she's still, and if she knew, if she knew that those words would impact me as a grown woman, I don't, I don't even think that she would, I don't think she'd realize that it really did have an impact on me. And it turned everything, everything, my perspective, that, and it's not a large article she wrote, but it changed everything. And she told me I was enough. And that was what I want to share with you. And so this, it's called Three Generations. And this is my great-grandmother, Cassie. And she was part of my childhood. She was a very knowledgeable, strong woman. And I just know that she's here guiding me. I just feel it. So, yeah, some of the words that keep and she talks about the language, which is actually going to be my PhD. So I've decided I'm not going to do a PhD, if you will, that, you know, but what I'm going to do is I'm going to learn my language. And so that is because she's asking us to learn our language. She's actually asking us here to also learn what we want from. And so, remember, this is 1970s. No one was talking about welcome there. And so she talked about that. So this is, this is what she wants for her third generation. So I feel a commitment to do that to honor her. So that will be my next, my next education journey.