The Gathering Place

(Fanshawe College Alumni News , Winter 2011)

When Donna Smith-Sutherland decided to pursue higher education, community Elders held a Going to Battle ceremony to prepare her for the road ahead. Years later, she draws on her own education and life experiences to lead the team which is paving the way for current students to tackle the challenges of post-secondary education at Fanshawe College.

The Elders who met with Donna when she was a young woman understood the internal struggles that she would face. As an Ojibway-Pottawatomi woman from the Kettle & Stony Point First Nation, she would soon find that her Aboriginal world view would be challenged by Western academic teachings.

One Elder gave Donna a wooden bowl. "The bowl represents who you are," he said. "This bowl is your foundation, and when you fill it with their [Western] knowledge you will bring it back to your people."

That was more than 20 years ago. Donna went on to earn a Master's Degree in Social Work, but never let go of her heritage. Today, as the Supervisor of Fanshawe College's First Nations Centre, she uses her understanding of both worlds to help Aboriginal students navigate their own path to success.

Opened in 1996, the First Nations Centre - also called The Gathering Place - is now recognized as a national role model for Aboriginal post-secondary services. "Everything we do here is embedded in our [Native] world view," says Donna. "We don't just pay attention to the academics."

While Western culture prizes competition and the individual, Donna explains that Aboriginal culture values cooperation and the collective. And while each First Nation has its own teachings and spiritual laws, the Aboriginal world view places equal emphasis on intellectual, emotional, spiritual and physical wellbeing.

That holistic approach is reflected in every aspect of the centre's programming.

In addition to providing academic services, spiritual counselling, referrals and recreational and cultural activities, The Gathering Place is a home away from home for Aboriginal students from across the country.

"There's a lot of help here," says 28-year-old business student Clintin Young.

Clintin, a member of the Chippewa of the Thames First Nation, comes to The Gathering Place almost every day to work at the computer lab and meet up with friends in the lounge and study area. "I feel good here," he says.

"It's a really inclusive space," comments Belinda Sayeau, an Anishinaabe woman who grew up in Red Lake, Ontario, and who is a member of the Shoal Lake #40 First Nation, where her birth mother is from, and the Eagle Lake First Nation, where her birth father is from.

The 37-year-old came to Fanshawe in 2007 when she found temporary work with the Financial Services department. Inspired by the success of other mature students and encouraged by co-workers and family, Belinda began a Business diploma while continuing to work part time and volunteering with the First Nations Centre.

She graduated in November 2010 and was awarded this year's Colleges Ontario Award for student excellence.

Belinda is one of three new full time staff members recently hired to help the First Nations Centre support Fanshawe's growing Aboriginal student population. By October 2010, 180 First Nations Status, Non-Status, Métis and Inuit students had already registered with the centre, doubling last year's numbers.

While Belinda provides front line customer service and acts as a liaison and resource to the First Nations Student Association, Bev Antone-Collar and Melanie Akiwenzie-Lisk took on the respective roles of Aboriginal Student Success Advisor, and Aboriginal Community Outreach & Transitions Advisor.

Bev, a member of the Oneida Nation of the Thames First Nation, came to Fanshawe after high school, graduating from the Culinary Management program. She worked in the industry for a short time before realizing she had chosen the wrong career path.

Bev found her true calling after accepting a part time position at the First Nations Centre in 2001. "Getting to meet people from all over Canada was really important," she says. "It made me proud to see our people coming to school and pursuing their education."

Bev returned to the classroom, earning a General Arts and Science certificate from Fanshawe and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology degree from the University of Western Ontario.

In her new role at The Gathering Place, she offers academic support and advice, often using a success plan in the shape of a Medicine Wheel to help students discover their own strengths and weaknesses.

Melanie, an Ojibwa from Cape Crocker Reserve, north of Wiarton, Ontario, is another Fanshawe graduate. She completed the college's Social Service Worker and General Arts & Science programs before going to Queen's University for a Bachelor of Education degree.

"It was very challenging," she says of her own student days. "I was away from my reserve and the only First Nations person in my program."

Melanie draws on her personal experience to help ease the transition of Aboriginal students entering and leaving the college. She also organizes career testing events for Aboriginal high school students, and acts as a liaison between The Gathering Place and other local First Nation community organizations.

When Melanie graduated from Fanshawe in 1994, she chose to wear a traditional Aboriginal outfit to the ceremony rather than a cap and gown. "I wanted to be true to my own roots," she says.

That is the essence of what the First Nations Centre is all about. "I've had a lot of students walk out of here proud," says Donna. "They walk out of here with that bowl, with a solid foundation of who they are. It's that grounding and honouring and acknowledging of who they are that make us so successful."

- Nicole Laidler

Core Values

(Lifestyle, January/February 2011)

Dundas Street, 2020. The sidewalk cafés bustle with young professionals enjoying an after-work espresso. An elderly couple lingers over the fruit and vegetable stand outside the neighbourhood green grocer, before walking home to their condo overlooking the Thames River. A family enjoys a meal and heads out to the latest show at the performing arts centre, just down the road.

That vision could become reality if work currently underway on the Downtown Master Plan bears fruit.

"We're creating the blueprint for the next steps of downtown revitalization," explains Gregg Barrett, a City of London planning manager.

A series of public meetings held last year has already produced a Vision Statement for the core. That statement will be brought before the public in a series of meetings to be held between now and June, when a formal Downtown Master Plan will be presented to the built and natural environment committee.

"I think most people would agree that [downtown] is starting to turn in the right direction," says Barrett. "What are the pieces that build on that success? How do we make sure that downtown continues to resonate for Londoners? That's really what this is all about."

Not surprisingly, Downtown London - formerly called MainStreet - has been actively involved in the process.

With most of the recommendations of 1998's Downtown Millennium Plan now implemented, the time had come to create a framework for the next decade of growth, says Downtown London manager, Janette MacDonald.

Her job is to get as many people involved in the discussion as possible. "Downtown is for everybody," she notes. "People who think downtown is awful - we want to get them involved too."

In addition to participating in the public meetings, Downtown London launched a Visions of Dundas discussion on its Facebook page. Three questions are up for debate: What if transit no longer ran on Dundas Street? If you could transform Dundas Street what would you do first? What does your Dundas Street look like in 2020?

"We're focused on Dundas because it's the sentimental main street of London. It's also what we're measured by," explains MacDonald. "People will see downtown as a failure unless Dundas really turns around."

The Visions of Dundas tag line seems to have struck a chord with the public. More than 240 people attended the 2010 Downtown London / London Downtown Business Association annual general meeting, held in November.

The evening's keynote speaker, Ronald Soskone, is no stranger to the challenges of urban renewal. The Toronto-based real-estate development consultant spent more than a decade working towards the redevelopment of that city's Young-Dundas Square.

Soskone was pleasantly surprised by his first trip to London. "I had come expecting a much more deteriorated downtown than I found," he says in a phone conversation a few weeks after his visit. "Yes, there are some problems on Dundas Street, but they seem to be fairly localized and are offset by so many healthy things."

Soskone lists a busy Covent Garden Market, a respectable population of downtown office workers, established retailers like Kingsmill's and Nash Jewellers, the John Labatt Centre and a vibrant restaurant scene as accomplishments Londoners should be proud of.

"Downtown London is clearly a place that the middle class has not been alienated from, and that's important," he notes.

Soskone was also impressed by the number of young people who participated in a Visions of Dundas Ideas Salon, hosted by Emerging Leaders as a follow-up to the Downtown London AGM.

"You've got a lot of smart young people engaged in wanting to make change downtown. There's a potential to have a lot more young, hip people living downtown. So how do you connect that to the development industry and the market place?" he asks.

Perhaps part of the answer will be found in the new Downtown Master Plan.

To share your own vision of downtown London, complete the online survey at the City of London website, participate in Downtown London's Facebook page discussion, or attend an upcoming public meeting.

- Nicole Laidler

A City Untamed

(London Citylife, December/January 2011)

Nature London and the London Public Library are set to expose some of London's wilder inhabitants.

From badgers to bees, the sixth annual Nature in the City series explores the urban lifestyles of our animal neighbours. The free illustrated talks, held at Wolf Performance Hall on six consecutive Tuesday nights during January and February, attracted more than 1600 people last year.

"Its popularity, we believe, is due to the quality of speakers, a desire to learn more about nature, and the time of year - people are looking for some hope of spring," says organizer Pat Tripp.

For Karen Auzins, winter is high-season for Wild Turkey watching. Up to 145 fowl flock to her back yard to feed during the coldest days of the year. Auzins shares stories about the birds' struggle for survival during the first Nature in the City 2011 talk, slotted for Tuesday, January 18.

Once native to the area, Wild Turkeys were extinct in southern Ontario by the early 1900s, driven to the brink by over-hunting and loss of habitat. Reintroduction began in the 1980s and is now considered a wildlife management success story.

Turkeys started showing up in Auzins' back yard in 2002. "Our home backs on to Dingman Creek so we have a lot of birds who come to our feeders," Auzins notes. The family thought the large birds might want more than just leftover seed and started putting out corn, which was quickly gobbled up.

Auzins broadcasts the spectacle over a turkey web cam on the family website. "People always make fun of turkeys but they are a very smart and very wary bird," she says. "You have to have some respect for the fact that they have made a come back. I certainly respect them for that."

The secret life of a hidden but no less important creature is revealed when Dr. André Lachance shares his love of yeasts in early February.

The University of Western Ontario microbiologist spends much of his time searching for new species of the tiny organisms that are most commonly associated with beer and bread. "I'm interested in discovering where they grow in nature, how they are distributed and why they are distributed the way they are," he says.

Although we can't see them, Lachance explains that yeasts play an important role in the food chain by providing a nutrient-rich food source for small animals, insects and snails.

Lachance's research has shown that yeasts - unlike other microbes - have their own distinct habitats. His talk will focus on yeasts that occur only in the Great Lakes region. "They may have relatives in the southern US or Central America, but the ones we find here are unique to this part of the world," he says.

Honey bees, badgers, invasive plants and the experiences of the Thames Talbot Land Trust round out this year's Nature in the City series. For information on the series, visit www.londonpubliclibrary.ca.

- Nicole Laidler