TRI News

Saturday’s ‘Community Unity’ Indigenous fashion, music and arts show was a huge success! The event took place in Algonquin College’s Indigenous Learning Commons, Nawapon, and was presented by Anangosh Model and Talent Management — a non-profit Indigenous model management and talent agency developed by activist, educator and model, Kyrstin Dumont.

Celebrated Inuk actress Anna Lambe hosted the event, while the production team for Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) filmed the event for episode five of APTN’s new Warrior Up! series, set to air in early 2023. Continue reading →

Walking down a runway wearing one-of-a-kind Indigenous designs was the first time that Kyrstin Dumont felt she could fully embody her beauty as an Indigenous woman.

Now, she uses her modelling experience to uplift and amplify other Indigenous youth who are struggling to navigate the Western beauty standards set upon them. Continue reading →

June 21 marks the beginning of summer and to mark the day, the Algonquin College community was invited to attend a special event in partnership with PCL, part of the DARE6 initiative, which supports Indigenization efforts. June 21 also marked National Indigenous Peoples Day.

While the weather put a damper on sitting by the fire, guests had the privilege of listening to Chief Kukpi7 Rosanne Casimir from Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc near Kamloops, B.C. Continue reading →

Algonquin College and Ottawa Tourism will launch the second iteration of its Indigenous Tourism Entrepreneurship Training (ITET) in January to support Indigenous entrepreneurs in the creation and development of their own business and tourism ideas.

“When we created this training, we wanted it to be different,” said Andre O’Bonsawin, Algonquin College’s Director of Indigenous Initiatives. “We really wanted to develop an authentic, tourism- focused, entrepreneurial training that will support surrounding Indigenous communities, businesses and most importantly Indigenous peoples. We have also created an advisory board with Indigenous entrepreneurs, community members and subject matter experts to help ensure the content for the training is respectful and culturally safe.”

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Please find links below links to resources for in-person and online ways to learn, reflect and commemorate on the first annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Thursday, Sept. 30. Listings, links and information may be added or updated throughout the week. Flags on Algonquin College’s campuses will fly at half-mast to pay tribute to the victims of Canadian Residential Schools, including survivors and the families of those who lost loved ones. September 30 also marks the annual Orange Shirt Day, which finds Canadians wearing orange and engaging in activities and events to recognize and raise awareness of the residential school system experience in Canada.

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Pre-contact Indigenous artifacts discovered in Vincent Massey Park have been brought to the Algonquin College campus for analyzing, cleaning, and recording as part of a larger project involving the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation and Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg. The project is being assisted by staff from the National Capital Commission and  Public Services and Procurement Canada.
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Algonquin College is pleased to welcome a national exhibit to its Ottawa campus to educate and inform its students. The Legacy of Hope Foundation’s display Generations Lost: Healing the Legacy of Residential Schools will be on display in in front of Nawapon, the College’s Indigenous Learning Commons located in the DARE District, C Building, from September 27 – October 7. Members of the College community who are on campus are invited to view the exhibit at their convenience.
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Chef Russell Weir (far left); Chef Manuel Gomes; Jeff Turner, Partnership Development Specialist; Ron (Deganadus) McLester, Vice President – Truth, Reconciliation & Indigenization (far right); with the fall 2021 harvest from the College’s Three Sisters garden.

Algonquin College’s “Three Sisters” Indigenous garden returned this year and produced another rich fall harvest.

Horticultural Industries students originally planted the ceremonial garden of Corn, Beans and Squash in 2019. After going untended in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the garden — located in the outdoor courtyard between E, H and D Buildings — was re-planted in the spring of 2021 and is being harvested this month.

The courtyard was used to grow vegetables and herbs for many years by the School of Hospitality and Tourism until its transformation into a traditional Haudenosaunee-style community garden. This thriving green space also gives people of other cultures access to the Haudenosaunee creation story, of which the Three Sisters are an important component.

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When the DARE district opened in 2018, Ryan Gorrie, a Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinābek architect, worked to incorporate Indigenous symbols reflective of Anishinābe culture and traditions.

A series of hieroglyphic-style symbols was created for design purposes. Since then, those symbols have been more widely incorporated throughout the college online, on murals and building walls, and in its marketing materials, including most recently in the 2020 Annual Report.

“The college made significant commitments about inclusion and we found it really important to work with Ryan Gorrie,” said Ron (Deganadus) McLester, Vice President – Truth, Reconciliation & Indigenization. The work we do honours the host nation (the territory of the Anishinābe people) and the diversity of our Indigenous students.”

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