Photo courtesy of siit.sk.ca
The Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies is reaching out to the corporate community, educators, business leaders, government departments and agencies to provide an intense two-day crash course on what residential schools have done to the Indigenous community.
It is a follow up to the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation report, but its approach is unique. The manager for workforce development at SIIT is behind the project. Kathleen Worme says its approach is direct, hard-hitting and delivered by three facilitators.
Pilots of the program were launched in January. The cultural unit of the Regina Police Service describes it as extremely valuable. Worme says the main goal is to unite everyone in a common and shared understanding of the impact of residential schools, without sugar counting or dumbing down what happened.
“This particular course is not watered down,” she said. “It’s the hard core truth.”
Because that truth may be hard from some to take cultural and emotional support is being offered as part of the two-day workshops. Worme says there are valuable lessons to be learned for anyone who takes the course.
“Racism is systemic, right? So the way to combat this is to have people understand the true history and where we are coming from,” she said.
The next group to take in the workshops will be internal staff at SIIT so they can better understand how to create successful students.
Groups interested in booking the sessions should contact the workforce development unit at SIIT at 306-477-9338 or email at: wdu@siit.ca