{"id":54432,"date":"2020-03-20T17:47:34","date_gmt":"2020-03-20T23:47:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=54432"},"modified":"2020-03-20T17:49:26","modified_gmt":"2020-03-20T23:49:26","slug":"how-promoting-indigenous-culture-starts-with-representation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2020\/03\/20\/how-promoting-indigenous-culture-starts-with-representation\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinook Lodge is ‘your home away from home’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Welcome Place: <\/strong>The Chinook Lodge at SAIT in Calgary on Feb. 12. The Lodge is a safe place for Indigenous students. (Photo by Kaley Ramage\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

C<\/span>hinook Lodge, SAIT’s aboriginal resource centre, is located near the Tim Horton\u2019s in the Senator Burns building.<\/p>\n

W<\/span>hen you walk in, the first thing you’ll notice is the walls lined with different Indigenous art. The warm faces of the advisors sit throughout the room and are always willing to let you pull up a chair and talk.<\/p>\n

Norma Gresl and Vaughan McMillan are two student advisors at the Lodge that take great pride in working with the Indigenous population on campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important for Indigenous students to have a space to go to,\u201d said McMillan. \u201cWe always tell people this is your home away from home.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lodge offers many programs for Indigenous students including advising, career planning, a study space, ceremonial smudging and a chance to talk with Elders to connect with more Indigenous culture. Most importantly, it provides a safe space.<\/p>\n

Even though it is specific to Indigenous culture, the Lodge welcomes anyone wanting to learn more.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you come to SAIT there are so many different cultures, Indigenous [also] needs to have their own [space] as well,\u201d said Gresl. \u201cIts like a one-stop shop to find all the resources you need.\u201d<\/p>\n

As coming from a small reserve or town far away isn\u2019t always the easiest, and a new huge city like Calgary can be intimidating, the Lodge always welcomes people coming in looking for help from all over Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s very important to provide a space like this on campus because coming to a huge urban city can be frightening in itself,\u201d said Gresl.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen coming to an institution bigger than their high school, sometimes students can get lost and feel homesick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being a part of something where one can find their place in a huge new world is crucial to staying in that setting.<\/p>\n

All Indigenous groups have gone through extremely harsh times, and making sure the culture of the First Nations of Canada is held on to is something very important to the advisors at the Lodge.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very important to hold on to our culture because a lot of Indigenous cultures are dying,\u201d said Gresl.<\/p>\n

We are losing a lot of the language, so we promote having a cultural identity a lot in here. – Norma Gresl<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Lodge does a lot of cultural awareness sessions on campus with staff and students, which is vital to raise awareness to the general public about who Indigenous people are.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith everything that\u2019s happened in the last 100 years, we have sort of lost who we are,\u201d said Gresl.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we are just trying to find ourselves again, and as we find ourselves we want to express to the world this is who we are.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SAIT\u2019s Chinook Lodge is an important resource on campus for all. [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":607,"featured_media":54439,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"S2 Chinook Lodge ","footnotes":""},"categories":[1229,2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-54432","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-natoysopoyiis","8":"category-campus-2"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/607"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54432"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55492,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54432\/revisions\/55492"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}