Red Deer Polytechnic cuts the ribbon on first Indigenous Student Centre

The creation is a product of RDP’s Reconcili-Action plan, which outlines its mission and efforts in addressing calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and, in addition to student services, the space and its outdoor amenities will also be used for cultural teachings and ceremonies.

“Part of our responsibility to the Indigenous students is not only bringing more Indigenous students into our learning environments, but ensuring they are successful,” remarked Stuart Cullum, RDP president. “This space does so many things, but it also ensures that the Indigenous students have a space to go to study, to learn, to meditate, to do ceremony.”

Smudging tools available in the Centre. (rdnewsNOW/Ashley Lavallee-Koenig)

RDP serves over 450 Indigenous students, a number that Lloyd Desjarlais, Dean of Indigenous Initiatives, said has been increasingly steady, aside from a hit during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, he said they have returned to pre-pandemic levels.

Desjarlais took a moment to address the past Indigenous students of RDP who didn’t have access to a space like this.

“I do want to acknowledge those students from generations past that have continuously lobbied for an Indigenous student space. Without them, and their words and their conversations, a lot of this stuff might not have picked up,” he said.

Construction of the facility began in January 2024 and was completed around the end of August that same year.

At that point the Centre still needed a name, so the team behind the project reached out to Treaty Seven Nations for some ideas. A Siksika Nation Elder, Johnathon Red Gun, then gifted the centre its official name, Pónokaisissáhta. The term is Blackfoot, translating to “Elk River,” and is a significant component of the space.

“It’s a return to traditional place names that Indigenous people had for these lands and territories,” explained Desjarlais, “and that was intentional because we want people to know the history of what is known as Red Deer and what that looked like from an Indigenous perspective.”

Despite completed construction and a meaningful name, Desjarlais said the ribbon cutting was postponed so finishing touches, such as the mural covering the exterior walls of the space, could be completed. Otherwise, students such as Jerry Young have been utilizing the space since school began in September.

Young is a fourth-year student taking a bachelor of arts in psychology at RDP. He shared that when he started at the school, the only place Indigenous students had to go was Desjarlais’ office or, later on, a small space that wasn’t in a very accessible location.

Now, he said he’s already utilized the new space for group projects and has seen an improvement in his grades.

“These areas traditionally weren’t meant for us. We weren’t meant to have an education, we weren’t meant to farm our own land, we weren’t even allowed to have lawyers.”

“I’d just like to say thank you to Red Deer Polytechnic for creating a space and saying, ‘Here, come be beside me; come be beside us.’ And I just want to say, let’s move forward together, as a people,” said Young.

Community members enjoy bannock and mingle atop the river-blue flooring in the Indigenous Student Centre. (rdnewsNOW/Ashley Lavallee-Koenig)

Whether indoors or outdoors, when students come to utilize the Pónokaisissáhta Indigenous Student Centre, they will first be greeted by sky blue murals designed by Crystal Lee Clark, an Indigenous artists with Métis, Nehiyawak and Denesuline ancestry.

Her contribution to the project spotlights traditional cultural symbols such as plants, animals and transportation. For example, the Inuit are represented by polar bears and a traditional wooden kayak, while a Red River cart represents the Métis.

“When you think about students, we’re journeying and we’re trying to get somewhere into our future. So, the theme of traditional forms of transportation came up, and how we can embrace our traditions, but we can also use them to move forward and pave new ways into the future,” shared Clark.

She added, the animal and plant depictions are also meant to remind us of the life forms that inhabited these lands before urbanization.

Interior and exterior components of Clark’s mural. (rdnewsNOW/Ashley Lavallee-Koenig)

The interior design is abundant with meaning as well: light blue flooring representing the river dividing the Treaty Six and Treaty Seven Nations winds through the room; a tree trunk partition brings the outdoors right inside; and an expansive lighting fixture embodies the sun and fire.

(rdnewsNOW/Ashley Lavallee-Koenig)

A tree trunk partition brings the outdoors inside. (rdnewsNOW/Ashley Lavallee-Koenig)

by Ashley Lavallee-Koenig

Red Deer Polytechnic cuts the ribbon on first Indigenous Student Centre

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