CBC News - British Columbia - Queen Charlotte Islands renamed Haida Gwaii in historic deal

Queen Charlotte Islands renamed Haida Gwaii in historic deal

Some hope?

A recent article from the CBC website indicates the Governor General has relaunched the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

First Peoples House progress

It's been a while since my last pictures of the First Peoples house. Here is one from this morning.



I'm going for a tour next week and will post pictures from the inside.

Two Ways Forward

An interesting editorial regarding federal funding for First Nations education in yesterday's Globe and Mail.

Wrongfully convicted Donald Marshall Jr. dies

Wrongfully convicted Donald Marshall Jr. dies

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A new blog

The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian has a blog that I've just found out about. Thank you to my librarian pal Gary McCone from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. I've added the link to the list of blogs and I hope it will be helpful. After just a quick glance, I got a sense that it's a neat place to work. I'll be following this one closely.

New AFN chief

I'm happy to see that Shawn Atleo has been elected as the new Assembly of First Nations Chief. I heard Chief Atleo speak at the FNESC (First Nations Education Steering Committee) education conference last November in Vancouver and I was highly impressed. Congratulations, Cheif Atleo.

Reality

I'm in post-study leave mode since my return to work a few days ago. The nice thing about coming back to work is seeing colleagues and catching up on news since I've been away. It's lovely to be able to tell stories about the past 6 months, too. There are many. Getting back into a rhythm of work will come, but for now, the post-study leave report beckons and that is my project of choice. Fortunately, my calendar is fairly clear for the next little while, so that will help me make the transition from being away to being here. A colleague suggested a daily story on this blog to extend the life of the blog. Seems like a good plan, but I may have to delay starting for a couple of days at least while I continue to adjust. It's not culture shock exactly, but more like feeling everything is familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.

Post-Institute thoughts

This year's Tribal College Librarians Institute had 33 participants and a good number of people who presented a variety of things. The day and a half that I was there, I heard about some good, free medical sites and learned a bit more about PubMed; had a presentation about the Montana Indian Law Portal that is in its infancy; and found out about early literacy programmes and books for babies programmes at the Bozeman Public Library (which is new and beautiful and has a brilliant children's library space). I think had I gone earlier in the week, I would have learned a lot more, but that's how it always goes.

I met tribal college librarians from all over the U.S. and Canada. In particular, I was happy to meet Mary Weasel Fat from Red Crow Community College in Cardston, Alberta. She showed me what's going on with RCCC and TAL - The Alberta Library. Her college library was the first of the tribal college libraries in the province to be included in TAL's Lois Hole Campus Alberta Digital Library. The digital library provides access to 100s of resources for students at many libraries around the province. It's amazing.

I think it would be neat to try to organise something like this institute for librarians around BC and Alberta. I wonder if anyone has done this before?

Finally, a huge thank you to Mary Anne Hansen and Jim Thull who did a great job organising the institute and in particular, to Mary Anne for her hospitality. Congratulations to them for securing sufficient funding to invite librarians to the institute for the next three years. Here's the announcement from the Institute of Museum & Library Services website:

Montana State University - Bozeman, MT
Award Amount: 251,695; Matching Amount: 86,640
Category: Continuing Education

Contact: Ms. Mary Anne Hansen
TCLI Coordinator

Project Title: "Tribal College Librarians Institute"
Montana State University’s Tribal College Librarians Institute (TCLI) is an annual week-long conference of continuing education and professional development experiences for information professionals serving Native American communities. IMLS support over a three-year period will support the TCLI during the summers of 2010, 2011, and 2012. TCLI will offer travel stipends to participants and will not charge registration fees. This financial support will encourage more tribal college librarians to attend TCLI. Funding also will allow 20 tribal college librarians to attend the 2011 National Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums Conference. These activities will benefit tribal college librarians and the communities they serve.

Well done!

Yellowstone in Spring Time

You would think it's summer, but in the high passes in Yellowstone Park, it still looks like winter. The snow is still beside the road and in some places, the snow is piled higher than the car!

Down low it was good though...warm-ish and greening up. After a half day at the Tribal College Institute, we took off for a quick trip to Yellowstone and did a check on the wildlife -- grizzlies - check; moose - check; elk, eagle, mountain sheep -- check, check, check; bison - check and ditto to a trumpeter swan and a heap of Canadian geese.

It was a banner wildlife visit and it was also wonderful to visit the park again. It truly is a majestic and beautiful place.

Presentation for Tribal College Librarians

Well, my presentation is complete and now all I need to do is deliver it to the librarians next Thursday, June 11 -- the same day as my 8 year anniversary of being at UVic. I'll be updating the blog while on the road. Stay tuned.

Camosun visit

I met with Sybil Harrison at Camosun College library the other day. We talked about what the library is currently doing to help their First Nation, Metis and Inuit students. The librarians have put together a couple of really good subject guides for First Nations Studies and First Nations Literature; they visit communities to do library orientations; they are involved with the people in Aborignal Education and Community connections office; and they are conscientious and thorough with their collection for First Nations courses and related courses. Sybil said that in spite of budget cuts and shortfalls for collections, the First Nations materials collection is excellent and thriving. Well done, Camosun librarians!

Sybil and I agreed that we should consider collaborative efforts for students given that many students start at Camosun and then transfer to UVic. We will be talking about this some more when we get together later this month for the Camas Harvest and Pit Cook to be held at Camosun College.

Pre-Institute thoughts

I am almost ready to go to Montana for the Tribal College Librarians Professional Development Institute. I've had to think long and hard about what to present...just going through a list of what I did and who I saw seemed tedious to me, when the study leave was supposed to be so much more. I decided that it has to be part show and part share and in a way, it's a story about what I've had to do for my professional development - as the 'all-of-a-sudden' subject librarian for Indigenous governance and Indigenous studies. The institute is yet another chance for me to continue my learning, so I think it's going to be interesting, informative, and a lot of fun.

Aboriginal History Month

The Province of Saskatchewan has proclaimed June 2007 as Aboriginal History Month in recognition of First Nations, Métis and Inuit people's contributions to Canada -- thanks to the notice on the Saskatchewan government web site for this information. The initiatiation comes from RAPA - Regina Aboriginal Professionals Association. I know that in B.C., June 21 is recognised as National Aboriginal Day as it is across the country, but why not a whole month nation-wide?

Sorting and organising

I'm slowly starting to put together my presentation for the Tribal College Librarians Professional Development Institute in June. The TCLI has been around since 1990 and will be held at the Bozeman campus of Montana State University in beautiful Bozeman, Montana. I'm looking forward to going, partly because I get to meet a whole lot of new librarians, and partly because I get to visit with librarians who I used to work with once in a while when I was at MSU in Billings, Montana. I always thought Bozeman was the better campus given its location in the Rocky Mountains and its proximity to Yellowstone National Park. Besides, Bozeman is a great, western Rockies town -- good wide streets, neat shops and some excellent brew pubs. Anyway, back to the sorting and organising bit...

At UVic

On April 28th, I attended an all-day workshop at UVic on Indigenous post-secondary education. The official title on the agenda: Reconstructing an Indigenous Post-secondary Education Framework: Implications for UVic. The special guest was Dr. Graham Smith, from New Zealand. I was really happy to see Graham again. I met with him early in January this year at his school in Whakatane on the North Island.

The day was put on by the Indigenous Affairs Office and was really well done. Lots of people from UVic were there, including several deans department heads and other faculty, staff and students from various departments:Child & Youth Care, Social Work, Education, Public Admin., Law, Business, the Library, Anthropology, and the Native Student Union. Other members of the Aboriginal Services Plan were there -- student representatives, folks from the community, including Camosun College, and people from around the province. It was a wonderfully diverse group of people and the energy was high. I met new people and saw others I haven't seen for a few months. I was happy to meet two elders who were there and to hear their thoughts and ideas about education and about the house in particular.

The morning included introductions, our reason for being there, and a presentation by Graham Smith, who talked about the house and told us about a saying from where he comes from -- "the house is the people -- the people are the house". There was a great emphasis on remembering that the focus must be on students' academic success. I recently saw a t-shirt with a notice that read "the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing". To me that kind of sums up what we were talking about -- remember why we are there (for the students), and to keep that our main thing.

During lunch I had a chance to catch up with friends and colleagues. The afternoon was spent in small groups to talk about where we needed to go from here with respect to Indigenous post-secondary education. The group I was in had good ideas and there was a lot of discussion. I learned a lot which is what I feel I'm doing each time I attend one of these sessions. One good thing I found out is that the First Peoples House will open in September.

I took some pictures of the house under construction in December before leaving for New Zealand, and I took some pictures the day of this all-day session.

December, 2008

April, 2009

I have to do a bit of follow up with some people when I get back. The library needs to make a connection with the SAGE (Supporting Aboriginal Graduate Education) programme on campus. I think I talked about this in a previous post, and will explore when I'm back. I also need to be in touch with the library at Camosun as they are doing a lot of work right now for their Indigenous students, so I'm keen to find out what's happening.

This all-day session was the first of several, so I'm really looking forward to those. The day was productive, enlightening and a lot of fun.

University of Sydney visit

I mentioned a visit to the University of Sydney in a previous post, but then up and forgot to post anything about it. It was late in February, and the day we arrived on campus was 'welcome back to school' week. Students were just returning to their school year after the summer break and everyone had that first week of school energy that we're all familiar with. I have to say that it was terrific to be there during their version of President's day -- lots of booths advertising clubs, groups and opportunities for you as a student and live music and free stuff. I was particularly excited about the surfing club. What a neat thing, I was thinking...join the surf club and head out with your mates to catch a wave. It seems like a great form of stress relief. Anyway, campus was hopping - here's a shot of the crowds. The uni has about 45,000 students, so it's roughly the same size as UBC.





The university is just finishing up a new law building. It looked really impressive and modern from the outside:



and once inside, I saw just how modern everything seemed. These benches were delightfully green. I have to admit that I was thinking of our assistant university librarian when I saw these. Very stylish.




To the left of the law building was the library, which is less than modern and reminded me of a lot of other library architecture.



The librarians I met with were a bit frazzled -- partly because of beginning of term panic, and partly because they were going through a reorganisation, which had resulted in major changes to business as usual. Needless to say, the librarians were a bit unsure of what exactly they did anymore and that seemed to cloud my conversations with people. Nevertheless, I learned that the Koori Centre on campus was the main place for student services for Indigenous students. Librarians had and still worked with people from the Koori Centre and in fact, one librarian mentioned that all staff in the library had taken sensitivity training from someone in the Koori Centre, in order to work better with students.


The library is making other efforts as well -- one of which is to include the resources from the Koori Centre in the library's online catalogue. The library already has a well-stocked curriculum collection with heaps of curricular materials in different Aboriginal languages. The library has adopted some of the recommendations from the protocols (see the UTS post talking about these), by including a disclaimer on many books in their curricular collection. It was good to see.


There are inconsistencies with respect to protocols for sacred materials. Ideally, sacred materials (if part of the collection in the first place) need to be handled in a sensitive and respectful way -- an example of this would be sacred women's ritual materials should not be seen, handled or viewed by men. Well, it was acknowledged that there are inconsistencies among libraries with respect to these kinds of materials - while some libraries are very good about attending to the restrictions, other libraries will have that same material on the shelf for circulation. I didn't get the sense that this was a surprise to anyone, but it was clear to me that the comments were made with heavy hearts. There's still work to be done.


In a more recent development, the library had good success with a tour for future students who were attending a 2-day mini university programme. Students who came to the library were introduced to all the library materials (books, databases, archival and special collections, artworks, etc.) particular to their people, the Wiradjuri. Lots of staff were involved, everyone worked hard, and those two days were terrific for the students and for the librarians. It seems that outreach to pre-university students may be a good way for us to expose students to what we have for them and to explain how we can all work together to contribute to the students' academic success.


The library was also keen on offering internships within the library for Indigenous students. I heard this from other librarians as well and it seems to be a way of immersing someone in the library which could have benefits for other students -- having a student explain to students what's available is always more effective in my opinion. And, similar to comments from other librarians, if you are going to try for an internship for Indigenous students in the library, do not expect or make the student the Indigenous-'issues'-only person. I like the internship idea, as maybe that will help encourage more students to consider this profession, which in turn could only enhance the way a library creates a welcoming space for its Indigenous students.


So in spite of the upheaval of re-org, I heard quite a lot from the librarians. I thank them for helping me out and for showing me around. By the way, the university is one of the big 8 (?)sandstone campuses..one of the old ones that's been around for years. Here's a final picture to get a flavour for that old architecture:

Quick update

I'm back in Canada after a long flight home. The next step is to organise pictures, add content to this blog, re-read notes and articles, and make plans for the next part of the study leave. I'm thinking a road trip is in order: UBC to visit the librarians at the long house, UNBC to visit with the library there and to renew acquaintances with folks in the FN programmes, and in June, to Montana for the Tribal College Librarians Institute where I'm presenting my findings. In the meantime I'm recovering from the flight, and slowly getting used to the chilly weather. Three months in New Zealand and Australia is a great way to ignore a Canadian winter -- a tough west coast one this year at that.

The Top End

Greetings from Darwin...the top end of Australia in the Northern Territory. It has been a while since my last post. There were a couple of places that I had hoped to visit in the Northern Territory long before the study leave commenced but they seemed remote. Not only did I make it to here, but I managed to fit in both places: Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education in Batchelor (about 100 km south of Darwin) and the National Library of the Northern Territory in Darwin (the sign in the picture above points the way). I dropped in on the libraries without appointments and had really good talks with librarians about what they do to welcome students to their places. What we talked about was familiar: staffing, personal service, displays of appropriate artwork, recognising cultural practices, etc.

Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education

The librarians at Batchelor, Ann Williams and Claire Nield were very hospitable and welcoming. They work with students who are older, often away from their communities for the first time, and are unfamiliar with how a library works. Claire told me a story of simply having students into the library and taking them on a bit of a walking tour to show them the resources about their mob (their Aboriginal group), to find materials to read and then just sitting down in some comfortable chairs and reading. It wasn't 'library instruction', per se, but it was a welcome introduction for students who otherwise knew very little about what was there, and it also gave the students a chance to just be in the space.

The library is a lovely space with lots of natural light, a collection of about 40,000 items (many in Aboriginal languages), a good display of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artwork from all over the country, and (among other usual things) a flat panel monitor that they use heavily to advertise events, to show pictures of communities from where students have come (and where other campuses of the instution are located), to advertise opening and closing times and to recognise donors. This last bit was the most intriguing. A student had donated a couple of books in language to the library and the librarians asked if they could take her picture and post it on the monitor. The student agreed and now her smiling face and those books are up on the monitor and her friends who come to the library are really excited to see her there. Something as simple as that has helped to make students feel more welcome and struck me as something that we could try -- not only to honour our Indigenous students and their donations, but really, to honour all donors in a more obvious and public way.

Because my visit was completely unplanned, I had no camera with me (why, oh why?) so I have no pictures of the campus nor of the library.

National Library of the Northern Territory

The Northern Territory National Library in Darwin was my next stop. Fortunately, I remembered the camera and have some pictures to share. Here's a shot of the outside of the building -- the library is in the Parliament Building.

It was a particularly hot day (about 35 degrees), so going inside was a good thing. Everyone passes through security to get into the building -- because the library is located in a parliament building, security is a given.

The library itself is in a space that was originally designed for a second house if Parliament ever got bigger. In a sense, they're temporary patrons of that space, but they've been there for a number of years now, and government is not getting bigger in the Northern Territory, so it seems their space is secure, even if some politicians feel they shouldn't be there, or better still, that the library should be for the politicians only, not the public.

The day we visited, the library was busy -- full of people doing research, using the computers, and hanging about reading. The central staircase seen in the picture above takes you up a couple of levels to special exhibits and downstairs to the main collection and their special collections. The help desk is along the wall to the far right.

In the last year, the library has developed an Indigenous display that fills up a corner of the library. As a State library, it's important to reflect the population the library serves, and the librarians realised that something had to be done. Hence the display area.

Here are some shots of the area -- note the display of baskets, fish nets, and art on the walls. The baskets are made from pandanus and are dyed using natural ochres found in the bush.

The librarians I spoke with said that it was about time they did something to recognise the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, given that they are the State library. I heard this comment a lot - about how important it is to create a space for people so they feel comfortable and welcomed, rather than turned off or intimidated.

University of Technology, Sydney

University of Technology, Sydney


The library is to the left of the clock tower seen above.

I visited UTS on February 25th, and met with Gabrielle Gardiner. Gabrielle is one of the people who has worked hard on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Protocols for Libraries, Archives and Information Services along with Prof Martin Nakata, Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, Dr. Alex Byrne, University Librarian, and Ms Vicky Nakata, also at the Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning. It's important to know that these were published in 1995 in conjunction with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Library and Information Resources Network (ATSILIRN).

The Protocols address issues and concerns related to Indigenous materials held in libraries, archives and other information services, as well as those related to the provision of services for Indigenous people. The Protocols serve as a guide to assist library and information service providers when handling Indigenous materials and interacting with Indigenous peoples.

I asked Gabrielle about the services they offer to their Indigenous students and they sounded familiar to what other universities are doing: course specific teaching; outreach to 'block' (distance) students; introductory sessions for their Indigenous student assessment program; reserving a block of computers for the 'block' students when they are on campus; providing a liaison librarian for students/staff/faculty. The library has posted their Reconciliation Statement on the wall of the library next to some Aboriginal artwork. It's a tokenistic effort but is recognised by library staff as something that needs to be enhanced.

The other part of our conversation was about how a library can be a welcoming space for Indigenous students. Some suggestions from Gabrielle include -- have a really open front area for your library -- having pass card gates and security near the front door is not exactly a welcoming entry way (which, by the way UTS has, perhaps because they are a downtown, urban campus); put up culturally relevant artwork on the walls; identify materials in the collection that are Indigenous -- the curriculum collection at UTS is particularly well-stickered; consider labelling material with a historical disclaimer -- e.g. "this material is being kept for historical purposes - it may be offensive"; respect materials that are sensitive (sacred ritual materials for example); consider access restrictions on any digitisation projects.

The library at UTS has a good working relationship with the Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning and this relationship is something that is appearing as a common theme the more I speak with librarians in Australia and New Zealand. We can certainly present this information to our First Peoples House and work on developing a good, working relationship with them in order to ensure academic success for our Indigenous students.


I had to take the picture without any faces involved so I was a bit preoccupied - hence the blurry-ness of it all. Anyway, I loved UTS library's help desk sign. It says what it does (finding information, assignments, catalogues, databases, internet research) and that just makes good sense to me. The library also has student assistants who do roving help. We met one on our way into the library who was outside helping people.

Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission

No doubt this news is old news, but I'm just seeing it now. Take a look at what's happening with the commission -- the remaining two members announced last month they will resign June 1, so it's back to the drawing board. A link on CBCnews explains.

Sydney plans

It's been a while since I met with anyone, but I've been reading some articles that have been most interesting. My next meeting is next week with folks at University of Technology Sydney, where they have the Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning. I'm curious to find out what the involvement is with the library as several articles I've been looking through are written by the head of the house of learning and librarians. That's good and obvious collaboration, I think.

I'm also hoping to chat with the librarian at University of Sydney who looks after Aboriginal Services (along with several other subjects -- sounds familiar!). We're in touch but I'm waiting to hear from her. University has just started after summer break, so the term is fresh and everyone is getting back into their routines.

One thing I found out before leaving Melbourne, was that LaTrobe University used to have a librarian who was responsible for Indigenous students, but with cutbacks and such they no longer had that person. However, it appeared that this was being re-considered and there was news that a librarian would be hired. Good news indeed for students and staff.

Fire and heat

While I really need to be writing about the state of education for Aborigines in Australia, the news right now is overwhelmingly about the fires that have consumed towns (Marysville is gone and Kinglake has had many people perish), killed over 100 people and destroyed houses, cars, heaps of bush and no doubt a lot of wildlife. There's a lot of coverage in the Melbourne paper The Age that's worth reading. There are calls for donations to the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, blood banks, and numerous other organisations that can help those who've lost everything. In this morning's paper, the news was bleak. One picture in particular from the Yarra Valley (home of Victoria vineyards) was shocking as we were at that very winery (which was somehow spared) only last week. The surrounding bush is black sticks.

We had gone to Port Campbell which is located along the Great Ocean Road (a glorious drive and a must if you visit) over the weekend. We stopped in Lorne on the way back to Geelong on Saturday for a quick swim. The temperature was lovely -- about 25 degrees and the water was cool-ish with big waves. Within minutes of getting out of the water, a north wind blew in bringing with it blast furnace hot air and an instant rise in temperature to about 47 degrees. That wind and the heat started a lot of the fires, but there are reports that there were also firebugs who started the fires -- casually tossed cigarette butts into dry, dry conditions -- people are describing this as mass murder. However it shakes out, it's tragic and shocking.

The wildlife will have been particularly affected by the heat and there were reports on ABC news all day Saturday, encouraging people to leave out bowls of water or small kiddie pools filled with water for any wildlife as they'd need to drink. Wildlife hotlines were set up in case anyone came across injured or stressed critters.

We came across this koala on Sunday morning who fortunately had found a puddle of water from the morning rains from which to drink. The fact that the koala was drinking at all was unique, given that they normally get all their fluid from eucalyptus leaves. The pictures are a bit grainy because I didn't want to get too close. The koala drank from the puddle for at least the 10 minutes we were there and probably long before and after that.

The 'change' (a change in wind direction to bring cooler air) had happened on Saturday, but later in the day. Melbourne recorded its hottest temperature EVER at 46.4 degrees. We were staying near Geelong in Meredith, with Michael and Chris Wood (Michael was at our library for about 6 months back in 2001) where the Sunday morning temperature was 13 degrees. The change definitely changed the weather quite drastically.

Australia Day

January 26th is known as Australia Day to some, Survival Day and Invasion Day to others. It's marking the day the British landed in Sydney harbour and the day that life changed dramatically for the Aborigines in Australia. The day is celebrated in different ways by different people -- everything from picnics and barbeques in parks, to music concerts and huge fireworks displays.

Mick Dodson was named Australian of the Year. In a quote from The Australian, "Professor Dodson, who is the brother of Pat Dodson, dubbed "the father of reconciliation", was one of the authors of the 1997 Bringing Them Home report on the Stolen Generations. A self-described "persistent bugger", Professor Dodson has long agitated for compensation."

The news was full of suggestions that January 26th was not the right day for celebration for the Aborginal community, but even within the community there were differences of opinion.

At the Share the Spirit Indigenous music festival we attended, there were Indigenous folks suggesting that a song to go with the Aboriginal flag would make things right and that the day would be a celebration for everyone. I saw this flag painted on an apartment wall near where we live right now.



Anyway, the Share the Spirit festival was terrific -- lots of great music from Sol Nation (reggae), some amazing break-dancing boys who looked like they could flip themselves forever, and some good, cool jazz for a toasty day. There were market stalls selling all sorts of Aboriginal art, books, music and other bits. I had to get the t-shirt below which was at the ANTar Victoria (Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation)/Reconciliation Victoria stall.


Reconciliation Vic has a downloadable PDF about "An Australian Day for all Australians" that gives a bit more information about the discussions that seem to need to happen about the date of celebration.

National Library of New Zealand

I visited the Alexander Turnbull Library on Tuesday -- it's in Wellington and is part of the National Library of New Zealand.



















David Jones (my host) is the Māori Services Librarian and he gave me the lowdown on the kinds of services he provides for researchers and the community -- everything from general tours to a formal welcome (powhiri). As well, he's responsible for acquiring and classifying Māori resources for the collection. The library uses Māori subject headings which allows patrons to find the kinds of materials they're looking for without the clumsiness and shortcomings of LC headings.




















The building foyer is full of Māori art and design which provides a welcoming space for Māori visitors. Here's a carved entryway into a bigger part of the library.

So far in NZ

Well, it's been a flurry of a week. We have just arrived in Christchurch on the south island, after several glorious days in Whakatane (north island), where I was fortunate to meet and talk with Graham Smith, CEO of Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi - a tertiary or post-secondary school with several campuses. When I explained my project to him, he was eager to fill me in on what goes on at the Wānanga and how successful they have been with producing excellent students -- 98 percent or so of whom are Māori. With master's and PhD programmes, along with certificates and diplomas, the Wānanga graduates students who are all over the world. Graham spent 5 years in Vancouver at UBC, and still has students he helps supervise in the EdD programme there. He is familiar with UVic's SAGE programme for Indigenous graduate students and encouraged me to be involved with this group. After the WIPCE conference, it was clear that we (the library) had to be involved with SAGE -- a support group for graduate Indigenous students -- that encourages them to talk about their research with colleagues and peers. This programme is based on something that the Wānanga has been doing for a while with their graduate students and it's helped to shape student learning, scholarship and confidence.



















The best part of my visit to the Wānanga though was finally meeting Mereana Coleman, the library manager. Mereana and I had been chatting by email since August/08 and even though we were both at the WIPCE conference, we never did meet up (it was a huge conference!). So, meeting her was wonderful. We're standing outside her library.

Mereana gave me things to read about Māori librarianship, the state of libraries, archives and records in Aotearoa New Zealand and lots of support, encouragement and help. We were put up at the Wānanga while there -- many thanks to everyone for this hospitality. Mereana and her family fed us, drove us around and took good care of us while in Whakatane. We are grateful and we miss you all already.

11,558 km later

We landed in Auckland early this morning (Friday the 9th of Jan) after a long flight. The sun is out, the air is soft and we're off to explore a bit - but not too strenuously as jet lag is a current reminder of long-distance travel.

New Year musings

While it's already a few days past the start of the new year, I wanted to wish my UVic library colleagues a happy 2009. Remember the old adage of 'there's no I in team'? Well, I believe that the team has helped to make my study leave possible. Yeah sure, I worked long enough to warrant one, but it's when you're gone that others have to pick up some slack and they usually don't have a lot of extra time. So, Thanks team! I really appreciate your help and support.

Counting Down

We leave on Wednesday for Auckland, New Zealand. My first visit is to Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi in Whakatane (south of Auckland). Awanuiārangi is one of only three institutions designated as wānanga under the Education Act 1989. I'm looking forward to meeting with Graham Smith (CEO) and Mereana Coleman (Librarian). Before we get there though, we're going to spend a few days in Auckland, looking around and checking out the town.