Treaty Relations

TREATY RELATIONS COMMISION OF MANITOBA BRANDON UNIVERSITY EXPANDS NATIVE STUDIES OPTIONS By Jennifer McFee for the Free Press BRUCE STRANG IS THE DEAN OF ARTS AT BRANDON UNIVERSITY. Submitted photo STARTING IN SEPTEMBER, BRANDON UNIVERSITY WILL OFFER A CLINICAL SPECIALIZATION IN NATIVE STUDIES PROGRAM ��� THE FIRST OF ITS KIND IN THE COUNTRY. Native Studies students will soon have more options thanks to a new program about to launch at Brandon University. S tarting in September, Brandon University will offer a Clinical Specialization in Native Studies program ��� the first of its kind in the country. As Dean of Arts, Bruce Strang said the goal is to offer thirdand fourth-year classes that specifically address counselling in aboriginal settings and with aboriginal people. ���The reason for the program goes back into Canadian history. We���ve had a colonial relationship with aboriginal people in this country. The relationship frequently marginalized people and destroyed traditional cultural practices,��� Strang said. ���Students went into residential schools where people suffered abuse, where they were made to abandon their language and learn English. There is a whole legacy of abuse over decades, along with unequal treatment, unequal access to jobs and real discrimination.��� Counsellors need an awareness of these cultural contexts to work effectively with aboriginal people, he added. ���There are increased levels of poverty, alcohol abuse and sexual abuse that are part of the broader community but also have a particular emphasis in some aboriginal communities. So this legacy of colonialism is really quite striking in our society,��� Strang said. ���And in order to begin to address this legacy and the damage that���s been done to aboriginal people in this country, we need counsellors who are going to be able to counsel with an awareness of aboriginal issues, awareness of this legacy of colonialism, awareness of aboriginal epistemology.��� The Clinical Specialization in Natives Studies program will provide this awareness and will likely attract interest across the country, Strang said. ���We hope to be recruiting students into the program. They will start doing their first-year Native Studies courses and their preparatory work to doing the specific training,��� he said. ���The first two years of the program will be the same for any Native Studies student. They���re getting their background information and the broader context. Then in years three and four, the programs diverge. The students who are studying the Clinical Specialization will have a unique set of courses that really focus on the specifics of counselling.��� Course material will focus on indigenous contributions to health and healing, ethics from an indigenous context and theoretical backgrounds on human service. Students will learn about indigenous methodologies, counselling in indigenous family systems, counselling in Native communities, and substance abuse with models of recovery. Graduates of the program can aim for careers within the entire field of human services. In addition, the university is collaborating with the Manitoba First Nations Educational Resource Centre and the Southern Chiefs��� Organization to help preserve aboriginal languages. To accommodate the changes, the department is going to double in size from three to six full-time faculty members. Currently, 22 students have declared a major in Native Studies at Brandon University, and Strang expects to see more soon for the Clinical Specialization. ���It is a unique program. The only one that���s really close is the University of Victoria���s master���s-level program in aboriginal counselling. Our program would lead naturally into that program,��� Strang said. ���But at the undergraduate level, I don���t think there���s anyone else who���s doing anything like this.��� ��� Bachelor's degrees offered in: ��� Nursing / Psychiatric Nursing ��� Music / Fine Arts ��� Education / Physical Education ��� Arts / Social Sciences ��� Science / Environmental Science ��� Business Administration ��� NEW Clinical Specialization in Native Studies beginning September 2013 Greg Monias 3rd year Student YOUR UNIVERSITY. YOUR EDUCATION. www.brandonu.ca YOUR UNIVERSITY.

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