Gabriella MenezesAt the Indigenous Students’ Union (ISU) forum on February 28, some presidential candidates struggled to bring ideas on how to address the issues Indigenous students face. Sophie Martel, however, had a clear grasp on what needs to be done. This comes as no surprise, seeing as Martel is currently the ISU’s president, but that by no means discounts her ideas. It’s also worth noting the moderator of the forum, Emma-Leigh Snow, is also Martel’s campaign manager.
Martel’s connection to the Indigenous community is obvious, but that translated into actual ideas that could make real progress for Indigenous students. One suggestion that stood out to me was a march for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit (MMIWG2S). Mobilization on this issue has been missing from the U of A. More disappointingly, the SU and university rarely talks about this. An SU facilitated protest could bring greater awareness to MMIWG2S not only to our campus, but more widely too.
She also mentioned holding the U of A to account by using Braiding Past, Present, and Future, the university’s Indigenous strategic plan. As she has said in previous forums, the university often points to this plan as proof of progress but doesn’t follow through on their promises. Using this formal plan to hold the university accountable to Indigenous students is a great idea.
More specific to the SU itself, Martel spoke about having a greater commitment to reconciliation from the SU. And not just in words, in actions too. One such action would be having the SU’s Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation Committee (ARRC) meet more consistently. Martel also mentioned updating ARRC’s recommendations, which haven’t been updated since 2019. It’s wild to me that the SU has been failing so miserably at holding up its end of reconciliation on campus. Martel is really only suggesting the SU fulfill its basic commitments, but obviously it’s much needed.
Only Pedro Almeida acknowledged the SU’s failures to support Indigenous students. A glaring one was the lack of support in securing a OneCard reader for the ISU lounge. Appallingly, a non-student was able to enter the lounge and assaulted an Indigenous student in December. Almeida acknowledged the lack of support and the concerns around safety.
But he focused more on external factors than the internal problems Martel rightly pointed out. He mentioned, once again, bringing together a coalition to address safety concerns on transit. While this is a big concern for many Indigenous students, it doesn’t guarantee results. Additionally, he mentioned promoting I-STEAM, a program that supports Indigenous students in specific programs. Again, this isn’t a bad idea, but it’s a small piece to larger issues.
Joseph Sesek and Ofure Eigbe suffered more from a lack of concrete ideas. Sesek promised adding an Indigenous student representative to SU council. While it’d be great to have a designated representative for Indigenous students at council, I don’t have much faith he’d be able to follow through. When I asked about the bureaucracy to adding seats and how candidates would tackle that at the last forum, Sesek didn’t know. Again, he shouldn’t be making uneducated promises without any sense of how he would follow through on them.
Eigbe, on the other hand, continued to emphasize the issue of food insecurity. This is undoubtedly an important issue, but what she said lacked specificity to Indigenous students. She identified some issues, such as safety concerns. But beyond keeping close contact with the ISU and supporting them, Eigbe lacked any plan for execution.
One unique idea she brought up was working with the vice-president (academic) (VPA) to require all students to take an introduction to Indigenous studies class. But this has been suggested before and not followed through on, much like the promises to add seats to council. Beyond just working with the VPA, how Eigbe would get this requirement implemented is unclear.
All together, this forum really showed Martel’s strengths. Though the depth of her knowledge of issues Indigenous students face was unsurprising, she had real ideas on how to turn knowledge into action. That kind of vision gives me confidence in her leadership and ability to address issues. Regardless of whether those issues are specific to Indigenous students or not.
CORRECTION: This article was updated at 2:12 p.m.. on March 1 as it had incorrect information about when the Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation Committee had last met. The Gateway regrets this error.
