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Indigenous Community Perspectives on UBC Night Time Events

University of British Columbia. Campus and Community Planning

This report examines Indigenous community perspectives on the Arts & Culture District at UBC and on night time campus events. While there is a lack of academic literature on the topic, students from minority and non-dominant backgrounds are susceptible to negative experiences in higher education systems. A mixed-methods approach was utilized for this engagement, which took place in the First Nations House of Learning. An Indigenous medicine wheel was included in order to incorporate Indigenous epistemology as a method of welcoming and acknowledging our Aboriginal participants in a respectful way. The research uncovered a recognizable cohort of young students who live very close to campus and identify as Indigenous women. A majority of the participants were not familiar with the UBC Arts & Culture district, though some had attended events. Significant barriers for attending Arts & Culture events revolved around cost, content and inclusivity. Suggestions from participants for future events almost exclusively included Indigenous pop-culture and Indigenous arts-related content. If UBC wishes to host events that appeal to the Indigenous community, strong considerations should be given to the inclusion of Indigenous artists and cultural celebrations. This will provide an opportunity for an inclusive event that centralizes Indigeneity at UBC while still welcoming the broader UBC population to experience the strong cultural identity of First Nations Peoples. Disclaimer: “UBC SEEDS provides students with the opportunity to share the findings of their studies, as well as their opinions, conclusions and recommendations with the UBC community. The reader should bear in mind that this is a student project/report and is not an official document of UBC. Furthermore readers should bear in mind that these reports may not reflect the current status of activities at UBC. We urge you to contact the research persons mentioned in a report or the SEEDS Coordinator about the current status of the subject matter of a project/report.”

Report

eng

2019-12-04

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/72558

Unreviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/