If we as Indigenous people walk away from and disengage from the academy [it is] at our own peril given that the academy performs a vital societal role of producing the elite knowledge in society” Smith, G. in Kovach, 2011:89
I have always believed that those who hold knowledge, mainstream colonial constructs of what is considered knowledge, hold the majority of societal power and influence. The education system was one of colonization’s greatest tools; it stripped nearly everything from our people, but not quite everything. Growing up I didn’t value the education system as it had nearly annihilated my people, and I couldn’t connect to how this system of methodical oppression and cultural genocide could actually make space for me or serve me personally; but throughout my mid-twenties I realized that education was the key for me to most effectively manipulate the structures of society to better serve me and my people and raise our collective cultural awareness and resurgence. My education has not only served me professionally, it has dramatically and powerfully awoken a deeper level of consciousness that has been slumbering in me since before my conception. Education helped me tap into generations of wisdom from my ancestors. Education grounded me, it humbled me, it centred me. Education helped me to make the mind, body, spirit, heart connection. Education saved me from my self-destructive tendencies and gave me a platform in which to share my challenges and gifts with others. Through education I ensured that my Grandmothers early death from alcoholism that stemmed from her education experience was not in vain.