Walking Together: Social Service Worker grad gives back to his Indigenous community
Posted on Monday, May 28th, 2018
When Kane Odjick-Dumont left his community in western Quebec to attend Algonquin College two-and-a-half-hours away, it was so he could help his community when he went back.
But as it turned out, not everything of value learned during his two-year Social Service Worker program was taught in the classroom. Odjick-Dumont’s experience with Algonquin’s Mamidosewin Centre, whose goal is to support and empower Indigenous students, left him with a deeper sense of his culture than he had when he arrived.
“Here at the Mamidosewin Centre, it was kind of like a community within the college,” says Odjick-Dumont, who says he became more involved in student life because of what the centre offered. That made him more successful in his studies, he says. “Algonquin College giving a centre like this to Indigenous people is so awesome.”
Mamidosewin is Algonquin/Ojibwe for “Meeting Place” or “Walking Together,” and for two decades the Mamidosewin Centre has strived to provide a space for Indigenous students to “walk together”. Since 2012, when the Centre moved to handsome new quarters in the Student Commons, it has become an even more vital part of campus life.
Odjick-Dumont is now a Family Wellness Worker for his community, the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation near Maniwaki, Quebec. He originally learned of the Algonquin program that would lead to his new career from counsellors who were running a summer camp at Kitigan Zibi.
“I asked (them) how did you get into this kind of work, and they said the Social Service Worker (program) at Algonquin. I came to the Mamidosewin Centre and the rest is history.”
Odjick-Dumont eventually found work at the Centre, helping other Indigenous students become acclimatized to student life. An event he helped organize through the centre gave him his most profound experience at Algonquin.
The Algonquin Student Powwow is an annual celebration of Indigenous culture meant to engage all students and is planned and run by students through the Mamidosewin Centre. For the 2016 Powwow, Odjick-Dumont was the flag-bearer and participated in ceremonial dances.
“When (the college had) the Powwow that was even eye-opening for myself,” Odjick-Dumont admits. “Having elders come in and talk about what the Powwow is and (explain) the different dances; I wasn’t exposed to that until I was 16, which is pretty old.”
“I’m still trying to … expand my knowledge of the culture, different dances and different styles, and (understand) why we did that. I’m still learning.” The Algonquin Student Powwow gave him fresh insights, he says.
“Now I’m on the Powwow committee back home on my reserve, so the little things I learned (at Algonquin), I’m trying to (use) over there,” he says. That includes opening up the Powwow to a more diverse attendance and engaging young people, he says.
As a Family Wellness Worker at Kitigan Zibi, Odjick-Dumont works with social workers from Maniwaki and the reserve. “They refer a client or a family to us and we work with them on pretty much what they need to work on, whether it’s parenting skills … budgeting, time-management skills, things like that.
“This is actually what I learned at Algonquin College in my program,” he says. “What I was taught here in the program, I’m applying in my every day work.
“I’m helping community members who helped me when I was younger. I’m giving back to my community right now, so I’m very fortunate where I am.”