Trent University’s Indigenous Studies Program and the First Peoples’ House of Learning (FPHL) will welcome visitors to celebrate the University’s 50th anniversary at a special gathering on Saturday, August 9, 2014 from 1:30 – 3:30 p.m. in the Ernest and Florence Benedict Gathering Space at Gzowski College. Refreshments will be served and all are welcome.

In partnership with the FPHL Indigenous Alumni Chapter at Trent, the celebration will acknowledge the amazing and unique achievements of the Williams family of Curve Lake and Trout Lake First Nations, three generations of whom have graduated from Trent University.

Douglas Williams attended Trent in the early 1970s and was among the first graduating class of the Indigenous Studies program. He is an Elder of the Curve Lake First Nation and director of the Indigenous Studies Ph.D. program at Trent. Alice Olsen Williams also began studying at Trent part-time in the early 1970s, and later became a full-time student so that she could graduate during her friend Margaret Laurence’s time as Trent Chancellor. Alice graduated from Indigenous Studies in 1982 and received her degree from Margaret’s hand. Originally from Trout Lake, Alice is a renowned quilt artist and activist for Indigenous and women’s rights.

Douglas and Alice’s children, Saga (Alison Sagateh), Sarah Leona, and Keesic Williams, and their granddaughter Amelia Megan Williams-Millard, also graduated from Trent University. Sarah Williams is now a medical doctor and senior advisor for Health Services with the First Nations Health Authority in British Columbia, and will be a panelist discussing family issues in the Life and Health sessions at the Ideas That Change The World Symposium.

Indigenous people in Canada are just now beginning to access and successfully complete the educational requirements for degrees from Canadian universities. Since 1969, Trent University has had a longstanding commitment to provide First Nations, Métis and Inuit people, as well as non-status Native people, with access to the school through the Indigenous Studies Diploma program, which continues to facilitate admission and studies for Indigenous people from all over Canada.

The anniversary gathering will also be the venue for the official opening of the Dr. Gilbert Monture Oral History lab, a portrait installation in the Jake Thomas room, and the launch of several new books:

• Aboriginal Knowledge for Economic Development, edited by Prof. David Newhouse, Jeff Orr, and the Atlantic Aboriginal Economic Development Integrated Research Program
• Indigenous Poetics in Canada, edited by Neal McLeod
• Spirit of the Island: Manitoulin’s People, by Prof. Rhonda L. Paulsen, translated by Prof. Shirley Williams and Isadore Toulouse
• Paa Giigoonh Ke Daa / Let’s Go Fishing, from storyteller Jim Shearer, and writer and illustrator Elizabeth Gauthier

The Indigenous Studies celebration will take place following the Saturday morning panel of the Ideas That Change The World Symposium at Trent University, taking place Friday August 8 and Saturday August 9 as part of the 50th Anniversary Kick-Off Weekend. Fifteen influential and renowned speakers will participate in panels for the Indigenous Peoples in Canada theme, on the topics of Politics and Policy, Education, and Socio-Cultural Development. More information about the Symposium’s Indigenous panels and ticket registration is available at http://www.trentu.ca/fifty/symposiumindigenous.php.

For more information about the Indigenous Alumni celebration, please contact:
Christine Welter, administrator, Indigenous Studies Department, Trent University, at 705-748-1011 ext. 7610 or cwelter@trentu.ca

Posted on Wednesday, July 30, 2014.