By Nick Liard
Aboriginal student council members Ronald Leaman, and Dustin Brant read over the new council's mandate. Photo by Nick Liard
An Aboriginal student council, separate from the Loyalist student council, has been brought back to the college.
“We just want to try to create more awareness of different cultures, so everyone can be happy, said Loyalist College Aboriginal Outreach Officer Dustin Brant.
At one point around five years ago there was an Aboriginal student council at Loyalist College, and it was going strong. But due to the members graduating it never stuck with the new students and it faded.
“They did some really great things, they did a lot of fund raising, but the students who were really into it just moved on, “ said Aboriginal advisor Paul Latchford. “They actually still have an account for money to go into from the fund raising.”
Brant said busy timetables prevented the council from starting up for a couple of years.
“Student schedules played a big part of it,” said Brant. “We can see having a few meetings already that it is hard to accommodate everybody’s schedule. It’s hard to catch everybody at once.”
“I thought it would be a good idea to start it back up, to have a purpose mission mandate drawn up,” said Brant. “I sent out some emails and we got some interest from students who use the services here. And we had our second meeting yesterday.(Tuesday)”
Their mission is clear.
“The Aboriginal student council would like to create awareness of indigenous perspectives and culture outside of the Aboriginal resource centre by planning events and activities within the Loyalist College community,” said Brant.
The new council doesn’t to have solid funding but they have a plan.
“So far we have no money, so it will be up to the council to do some fund raising. We are going to try and get what we want done with minimal cost, but everything comes with a cost, “ said Brant. “So there are talks of doing some fund raising within the college community as well as in Tyendinaga.”
One of the ideas involves giving the community a chance to learn about an old tradition.
“Dustin is working on getting people out to Tyendinaga, to show people how to tap maple trees and make maple syrup,” said new member Aronhiawerate Barberstock.
After finishing their second meeting they have some idea of at least one thing they hope to accomplish come spring.
“The one thing that we thought would be really good was a community garden, somewhere on the Loyalist campus,” said second-year Border Services student Ronald Leaman. “We could all get together and volunteer our time, and plant some vegetables or whatever. Just come together as a community to do one thing.”
Leaman said the interest grows by the day.
“For now we have are going to develop a signup sheet, and I have told a few people, so people can see what it’s all about,” said Leaman. “At first people were pretty excited, the people who were here seemed really interested.
New members are welcome, no matter what culture. The council plans to advertise around the college to gain new members but for now, anyone can go to room 3H8, the Aboriginal Resource Centre, at any time.