We have to pluck up so much more courage
I remember some fellow students who really were very supportive of me I guess I always assumed that they knew that I was an Indigenous woman and—I don’t know, maybe they knew I had kids, too. Maybe they just knew that I needed all the help I could get.
I mean, I hate to think that they assumed I needed a lot of support just because I was Indigenous. I had a lot of other things going on. But you know, I think it’s okay. If they look at me, they go, “She’s an Indigenous woman trying to get through law school. She needs help,” I think that’s okay.
The truth is I think a lot of us as Indigenous people, when we try to do something like that, we do need a lot of help, because I think chances are we have much lower level of self-confidence. We have to pluck up so much more courage than the average person to do something like that. That’s why I say it would have been easy to just put me off.
When you’re Indigenous, you know the community that you belong to and you belong to a community that’s been down and out for generations, I think it weighs on you. I think it’s something that you have to overcome.
I do remember. I was lucky enough to have fellow students and profs and who really helped me out, and I’m really grateful for that. I would have not made it through if it weren’t for people like that to help me out.
But I know that other Indigenous students didn’t have that great of an experience. I know that a lot of people relate racist incidents and stuff like that. But luckily I haven’t experienced a lot of racism. So I think I’ve been lucky that way. But I know that for some other Indigenous people, their experience at UBC law school was a nightmare.
Trying to teach people about who Indigenous people are
I tried out [for the corporate moot], and I tried out knowing—I felt I knew that I was not going to make it. But I just want them to see an Indigenous person come up and try. I didn’t get in, but at least they saw me try. And that was fun.
And I ended up answering a question using as an analogy the language. I don’t speak my language, but I know that I listen to it and can understand some of it. I ended up saying, “You say something in English, but when you translate it into our language, it’s way funnier.” It was something like that that I ended up answering.
So I guess I find that I’ve kind of done that my whole life, trying to teach people about who Indigenous people are, trying to just make them aware that they know an Indigenous person. They know at least one Indigenous person. That’s me. “I may be the only interface you’ve ever had or ever will have because you’re not seeking it out, but here I am and you can leave now and you can say that you’ve had this experience or that you interfaced with at least one Indigenous person.” Just try to make it positive, right?
Their hearts aren’t really in it
I think what a lot of non-Indigenous people fail to realize is—and I think this is especially happening with the TRC—they are sort of going through the motions of reconciliation, but their hearts aren’t really in it. And you know what? I really feel like, “You know what, if that’s all you can muster up is to go through the motions, I think that’s good too.” But I think to realize that you may just be going through the motions and your heart’s really not in it, I think when people realize that, there’s things they can do to help themselves, like move their hearts into it, like getting to know more about Indigenous people.
That’s what the school should realize too for itself as an institution. “Are we just going through the motions?” Like having a program, hiring people, these are all things to do, but I think the impact or the effect it has depends on whether it’s in people’s hearts to do that.