Connecting to community and finding support
For Laura Hynds, community is what makes the Aboriginal Education & Community Connections (AECC) department unique. Laura, who is Anishnawbe on her mother’s side but spent some time growing up on the Saanich peninsula, is in her second year of Camosun’s Indigenous Studies program. A single mother and full-time student, Laura appreciates the solid support network offered at the AECC. Of the department’s staff she says, “ They give meaning to the saying, ‘We are all related.’ No one is left out.”
Despite the challenges in her youth and home life, Laura stayed in school well into her grade 12 year, until she was forced to leave school in order to support herself. She soon found herself living outside, and was transient for over a decade. “I was homeless for so long I didn’t know I was,” she remembers. At 40, Laura found her way back to her education, and in doing so found connection to her traditions and a place in community.
Receiving encouragement along the way
After completing the BEST program (Better Employment Strategies and Techniques) through the local Friendship Centre, Laura was encouraged to try some academic assessments. She performed well in English, began upgrading her grade 12, and soon enrolled in the Family Support Worker program (now called Indigenous Family Support).
Laura successfully completed the program in 10 months. “I’d never stuck with anything that long,” she says. “But I finished it. So I realized I could finish. I had no idea I could be employable. Because two years prior to this, I was not. I couldn’t sit in a classroom. I couldn’t ride the bus. There were all kinds of things that I could not or would not do.”
Experiencing the sense of belonging
After a short time acting as a First Nations Family Support Worker, Laura enrolled in First Nations Community Studies (now called Indigenous Studies). Laura is especially grateful to the people at Elders’ Voices for helping to connect her with the traditions of both her own people and of the Coast Salish people. Laura grew up away from her traditional territory, and had believed until just last summer that she was Cree. Since she has discovered that her roots are Anishnawbe, community members have come forward to share with her their knowledge of her people. “Tse’alt people taught me our sweat,” she laughs. “The Elders are there to make sure we never stop learning.”
Community connections are the foundation upon which Laura builds her education and her future. The sense of belonging she has developed continues to shape her educational experience and her sense of self as an Aboriginal woman. “I know,” “she says, “when I hear those songs and those prayers and those drumbeats—I belong to it. And that is what this program starts to excite in people who are trying to find their way. We’re returning to our traditions. We’re returning to our instructions.”