"Educational institutions turn blind eye to Native women"

SIX NATIONS - Universities and colleges often turn a blind eye to how Native women are treated and their concerns, said Native Women in Higher Education seminar participants.

The seminar held at the Woodland Cultural Centre on Saturday, April 23, covered topics such as countering discrimination,making curriculum Native-positive and making Native voices heard on campus.

Native women who participated in the discussion forums were told that their comments would be put in a public report and to encourage people to speak no names would appear on the report.

Among the difficulties Native women experienced in post-secondary institutions many came forward to speak on sexual and racial harassment.

Getting a hold of a college or universities' discrimination policy and knowing the procedures to make a complaint is one way of coping with harassment, facilitator Elaine Garner said to the women.

"We tend to be a people who shy away from formal ways, but you need to know the policies are there if things get unbearable," she said.

One woman described going to a Quebec college as a "hellish experience" due to a teacher who harassed her sexually and racially.

"He was obsessed with the fact I was a Mohawk," she said adding that the teacher would often make derogatory comments about her during the class.

The woman said the situation became so bad she approached the ombudsman twice and then had to file a comprehensive four page report before the college would take any action.

"The college ended up getting other teachers to teach me," she said. "That teacher is still teaching. The college told me they were handling it and not to tell anyone about what had happened to me."

Other women commented that when they had to go through formal channels to make a complain, their complaint would often be minimized or discounted when it appeared in a report.

One of the problems with issuing formal complaints, is backlash from the post-secondary institution.

"In colleges and universities, they tend to deny any well educated person would be racist," said one woman. "When it comes to racism they just try to shuffle it under the carpet."

Other problems with issuing formal complaints was having to relive the event several times in order to explain to different people what happened.

"I find it difficult to say I've been injured and then walk around saying "I'm injured, especially when I want to be strong," one woman said.

Universities and colleges have to look at who is going to use their human rights services and committees and tailor them to meet the needs of minorities, women suggested.

"Sometimes it seems like nothing happens about discrimination until an outside newspaper picks it up and that's when universities and colleges start to move to correct the problem," one woman said.

When told that the experiences Native women have in reporting harassment was similar to Non-­native women by a male university professor, who claimed the discrimination and harassment were problems caused by men not being educated to know better, many of the women strongly disagreed.

"We have education about sexual harassment and it still happens," said Garner. "Pushing a policy through doesn't stop that fact that it is still out there. What we have to do is deal with the fact that it is there, being educated doesn't make the problem go away."

"We are here to share our thoughts and feelings, you Non-­natives should sit here and take it," another woman said. "If Non-natives want to change their system then open your hearts and listen, don't say our problems are similar because you don't recognize the problems."

Most of the post-secondary curriculum is not geared to recognizing beliefs outside white middle class society, women said.

"This has been my worst year of university, it was a real struggle," said one woman. "I decided not to return to university because it was crushing me and my values."

Often when the woman would ask questions attempting to incorporate some of her course theory to her life, she would be met with silence from the teacher and class. "Then they would proceed on like nothing happened," she said. "Every time I opened my mouth I was silenced. Often I would go home and cry.The loneliness is a killer."

Garner suggested that starting student associations and clubs and making new students coming into post-secondary school aware of those clubs might be one way to ease the loneliness felt on campus.

Mary Clare, from the University of Waterloo who helped organize the seminar said this is the first time a seminar has been done on making post-secondary institutions friendlier towards Native women.

"We were surprised to have such a large turnout. We had over 80 people attend," she said. "The seminar was very informative, we got a lot of good suggestions."

Clare said the university hopes to conduct more seminars like the Native Women in Higher Education one in the future.