91ÅÝܽ

Indigenous Studies professor annie ross describes the practice of Making as based in responsibilities to Place and Her many Beings, within frameworks of Indigenous philosophies, protocols and technologies.

“Making means that you know the names and the personalities, the needs and the desires of the living Beings with whom you interact. For example, according to teachings, if you're making a basket, you need to know the calendar round for basketry materials and must live within it, in community. You need to provide for the ancient Yellow Cedar Trees from whose century-old Roots are the only roots that can be used for a traditional cradleboard. Being a maker in an Indigenous tradition means that you know the protocols, you know the teachings from the Legend time to the now, you know your responsibilities to and for those with Whom you interact. One may easily see how a Maker is concerned with a true sustainability, the thrive-ance of all life, alongside modernity’s climate change, pollutions, destructions and sorrows. Making links us to Sacred Creation, and the eternal on-going series of events in constant change; it links us within the Spirit of Beings and those of Place.â€�

Located within the First Peoples’ Gathering House on SFU's Burnaby campus is a new Maker Space that provides a safe place for Indigenous students, staff, and faculty to connect with themselves, their community and the Sacred.

I’m Maya and Irish, and I remember being very young, going to school with my sister, my long hair in braids tied with Maya ribbons. People there thought that was odd and the heritage foods that I brought to school for lunch were barely tolerated. People were so curious: What is this? What are you eating? What are those words no one else had heard before, from my mother’s and my aunt’s language. The things about us that were different were made fun of or caused anger directed toward us.

My mother, my sisters, and I made paper flowers for the church fundraiser, as was our tradition. But those were the things that signaled we were somehow ‘other’—our clothes, our traditions, everything about us. And now, through making, I’m able to create the things I learned from my mother and my aunt here at 91ÅÝܽ. And I can see the power of that, of making for all of us, all of our communities. And it's beautiful to be able to have had a lifetime to see things come full circle once again. - annie ross

Ross says that having a dedicated space where she can engage her students in Making will have a huge impact on Indigenous learning and teaching at SFU.

“In typical classrooms, Spirit and Sacred are completely off-limits, if not denigrated, although these very Beings are for many Indigenous peoples the root of all that is; They are the past to present, the how and the why, they are meanings and road maps. However, to understand Indigenous bioregional reality, within a specific HomeLand, is to work within cultural paradigms that are not those of certain western-centricities. Indigenous cultures, protocols and our diverse Indigeneity, is core to learn, maintain, and express as a matter of the logic of what works in our specific HomeLands, for the long term into our collective future. In other words, there is no cradleboard, no family, without the Old Growth Forest. A dedicated space for freedom of expression, for learning and sharing and making real, for health and freedom, is critical. When I first saw the Maker Space, I was over the Moon with gratitude. I was so happy that we now, for the first time in the history of this institution, have a classroom where culture, Spirit, community, traditional teachings, modern craft, all things tied to Making, can live in the open, be celebrated, worked with, and maintained in beauty. The Maker Space is beyond a dream come true. I never could have imagined it—although I did wish for it—this level of dedicated institutional and community acceptance and support. It is so grand a dream made real.â€�

Ross adds that her hope for the Maker Space and First Peoples’ Gathering House is that it helps move the SFU community further along the path of Reconciliation. 

“Atomic and hydrogen bomb physicist Edward Teller, when asked what his greatest futurism for Western science is, said it would be the further breaking apart of everything into the tiniest, most minuscule particle it could possibly be. And there, he said, and I’m paraphrasing, we will find God. For Indigenous people, if I may generalize, life, in part, is about keeping and putting it all back together. Making, as in Making ceremony, family, society, the health and welfare of all. It is a bioregionally-centric goal. Making includes everyone, including the non-human; it is the Spirit world. It's the constant putting it all back together. That, for me, is an act of reconciliation—an act of Peace and Justice-making—to maintain wholeness and also making new. There's so much that can happen in, for, and with this space around this philosophical and bioregional concept for contemporary times: Putting back together all broken apart by modernity’s failed utopia.â€�

91ÅÝܽ the First Peoples’ Gathering House

The First Peoples’ Gathering House on the SFU Burnaby Campus is a gathering place where Indigenous students, staff and faculty can come together to practice, learn and share in their cultural traditions. In addition to the Maker Space, it includes a Ceremonial Hall, Teaching and Learning Room, and multi-generational space.

Read more  

• First Peoples' Gathering House: a place to breath
• First Peoples' Gathering House: carving a legacy
• First Peoples' Gathering House: walking in two worlds