 My name is Sharon, Hope and Chilled. My traditional name is Aeolie and I come from the House of Mali, which is the Gitsan First Nations in northern British Columbia. And on that's on my mother's side and on my father's side I have European ancestry. And I work here at VIU, Vancouver Island University, as the Director of Aboriginal Education and Engagement. I've been here for 13 years. We're an office, we're a department, Office of Aboriginal Education and Engagement, and we work kind of best, you know, I have over the years best kind of found the way to describe the work that we do is we're kind of an interface and a resource between communities, Indigenous communities and the institution. And so if Indigenous communities are looking to develop a certain program or want some delivery of a program in their community or they have concerns about students or questions about, you know, students, their students coming to VIU, we can be, we can be that kind of point place where they come in and engage. And sometimes that leads to a conversation that then leads to a development of a proposal and a program. And then we then we would kind of involve different faculty and resources within VIU as we go. And then the opposite of that is internally, if someone within the Vancouver Island University is interested in, you know, enhancing their course or their program or has questions about protocols or anything kind of related to Indigenous history or Indigenous knowledge, again we can be a resource to faculty and admin, senior admin students. Yeah, and a lot of through that over the years, we've applied for a lot of grants and we run a lot of programs through Project Lead, a lot of different programs to support Indigenous students specifically with kind of access, retention and completion. You kind of have to look at it kind of from the micro ways to the more macro, so the micro ways I think is, you know, that's students, seeing students persist or first find their way here or here and then on to community-based programs such as language or what have you, but find kind of get excited about education. And so they see themselves here, they persist and kind of the successes are knowing that how some of those stories, I get to know some of the students and such as yourself. And they're just knowing your daily kind of struggles and how you continue to persist. And I think, you know, that success and then the big kind of marker of that is when students walk across the stage and that's the best day, right? Whether it be our Aboriginal honoring ceremony or the actual formal convocation that happens for Vancouver Island University as a whole. And just seeing, you know, again that you're, you're how proud you are when you walked across and that your family was in the audience and your daughter and your partner. And we hear about, you know, your family, but then we get to meet them and you're, to see those students are, it's important for them to have their families meet the people. And I just think that to me is success, that we became an extension of their community. And that's, so that's that micro that I love that part. And then again, you know, then when I see students alumni out in community, and again, they're eager to introduce you to their, you know, they may have gone on and had kids or, you know, got married or something, then they want to introduce you. And to me, that's, I don't know, it's like it's, yeah, we created community. And then they speak highly of their experience at Vancouver Island University. And then the macro is kind of the, that systemic change, right, where I see faculty, for example, in some of those community-based deliveries that I talked about, faculty who go out and teach in, in community, and their practice changes, right, they come back and say that, you know, that that it was truly a transformative experience for them because, you know, their, their standard kind of way of teaching has always been within the institution. And to go out where students have a lot of authority and agency because that's, that's their domain, right? And, and so the, the instructors are vulnerable one in that situation. And so, and the, and if they're open to learning from those students, that they, those students will so generously share and their own culture and their perspectives. And, and again, I, through that experience, that that's that macro success as I see faculty coming back and saying, you know, when I always tell the story of one faculty member in particular who had gone out to community and, and I had asked her, I said, how has that experience changed the way you teach Indigenous students in your class? And she said, Sharon, it's changed the way I teach all my students in my class. And she said it, because I've, one of the big things she said, I've learned to listen from my heart. And that's that Indigenous value and principle, right? And I thought, so that's that macro success that, that only happens through that reciprocity. And so that's, that's what I get proud of with the work that we're doing here. You know, I thought about this and I think that it, and it was helpful for me to, to make the distinction to, and this is my own interpretation, of as education as being in my own mind, I think of education as being kind of a related to programs and structures, like, you know, the institutions, like education is something you kind of go to or attend. So post-secondary education, right? That's, and so Indigenous education, I think is, you know, what we do in terms of the container that we're in is this institution, which is educational institution, which is inherently colonial. And so it's helpful for me to be open and define that. And then the Indigenous pieces we're bringing in the, you know, the work we do in Indigenous education is to decolonize that educational institution. And so that's helped for me. So the Indigenous piece is, is again, bringing in Indigenous ways of knowing and being and perspectives and that history, and recognizing the multitude of unique Indigenous, Indigeneity, if you will, that students bring and that communities bring in those partnerships. And so that's, that's that kind of, so with Indigenous education, then you're, inherently it's a two-world. It's always walking in two worlds. For me, it's, it's walking in two worlds constantly, like, how do I bring my own Indigeneity, if you will, into the institution on a daily? And how do I support students? And how do I support community? How do I ensure elders continue to feel that they have a voice here? And so that's, that's kind of how I define Indigenous education, which is a different, right? Because I would think in our communities, we wouldn't call it Indigenous education. We would call it our, we'd have a word for our teachings, right? And so I think it's very, for me, Indigenous education is very particular to the work we do in kind of more formal programs and institutions. Well, we had this discussion last week with communities and around, you know, that, again, that holistic application that, that is part of, you know, again, Indigenous values and traditions. And so when I think of 10 years, it's, it's kind of, you know, I always feel, and we talked about this as well, about that, that working within the box and trying to kind of make the box like more of a circle or, and I'd like, I'd like to see in 10 years that we continue to have more of a holistic application that is recognized, not only of having value for Indigenous learners, but for all learners. I mean, I think Indigenous traditions and values that people are waking up that, that we have something to offer, you know, that it's, that our ways and how we come to know through relationships and kinships, through the, through the land, through our language is, is, you know, there's a stewardship there, there's a, there's a morality there and an ethical piece that everyone can draw from. And I think in today people are hungry to kind of live from that principled place. So I think that that's what I hope is that it's not, in 10 years it's not just about, I mean, of course, first and foremost, it's about creating equity for Indigenous learners, but it's, but it's not just that kind of accommodation of, it's, it's know there's value. There's, there's something, it's, it's given that respect that it deserves and as having a contribution to make across all disciplines and all sectors. So that's what I would hope for 10, 10 years. One of the things that, that we're learning, you know, as of late is again, looking at that holistic application is to, to, to make sure that in the, for our work in the Office of Aboriginal Education Engagement is that we reach out and support, work and collaborate with community organizations and schools for younger, like the, you know, so the little ones, so that we, we work together to promote education and possibilities and hope so that they start to see themselves here or anywhere and post their journey for higher learning from a young age, right? So that we don't just start talking about it for a grade 10 and that we don't just start talking about it with students. We start talking about it with their families and, you know, because I think a lot of families, they're the students who come here, they're first generation learners. And so, and sometimes they struggle to have that family support because their families don't know what it means to be a student. And so how can we demystify and create a community for those families as well, you know, and the grandparents, the partners? And I think we're learning that, that to do this work, we have to do that more again, holistically than to just working with the one student or the community, but involving families. And so yeah, I just, I think that's a recent learning that I thought I would share.