At U of T, Indigenous advocacy and engagement have taken on various forms through the support of Indigenous community members, from research and knowledge sharing to creating space for cultural practice.

Indigenous community members at U of T told The Varsity about their advocacy both at U of T and globally; the kinds of spaces they aim to create for the Indigenous community; the challenges associated with their advocacy work; and what needs to be done to address these difficulties.

What advocacy looks like

The Varsity interviewed Giselle Del Valle, a fourth-year student studying psychology at UTSC who is Mohawk from the Six Nations Grand River Nations and the Hoof Clan Lead at U of T’s tri-campus Indigenous Students’ Association (ISA). 

In her position, Del Valle is expected to host socials, develop partnerships with student groups, promote the ISA’s cultural initiatives, and manage the group’s social media. They said that uplifting student morale and creating spaces for ceremony and culture is important to the ISA’s work, especially in times of hardship.

“These past two weeks, we’ve lost three community members, and it’s just been kind of hard navigating through grief. [Having] a space [is important so] that [it] is safer for Indigenous peoples to not just feel their grief but also understand that whenever hardship happens like this, we [can] make sure to bring up morale,” they said. 

Yojana Miraya Oscco — a PhD student studying political science and a member of the Quechua Indigenous community in Peru — is a co-host and producer of the podcast Kuskalla: Juntos-Together. Available in Quechua, English, and Spanish, the podcast shares stories about the Quechua language and Andean knowledge, culture, and politics. For Miraya Oscco, sharing knowledge and centring Indigenous people’s voices is the basis of advocacy.

“I know I’m going to be writing a dissertation, but people in my community don’t read [academic] articles or books. They don’t even have access… Often universities produce knowledge just within the [academic community], but how can we actually expand that and make it accessible to people? So I think the podcast is very useful, anyone can listen to it,” she said. 

Another advocacy initiative is the Ziibiing Lab in UTSG’s Department of Political Science, which conducts research on global Indigenous politics and self-determination, focusing on how research and building partnerships are essential for advocacy. 

The lab actively engaged in advocacy to support partners, such as the Hawaiian Environmental Alliance, to petition for the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to address the human rights violations from Canada’s support of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project on revered land in Mauna Kea, Hawaii. 

The TMT is projected to be the largest visible-light telescope on a burial ground of sacred ancestors and the site of many religious rituals conducted by the Kānaka Maoli, the Indigenous people of Hawaii.

“This initiative highlights Ziibiing’s role in supporting Indigenous sovereignty and amplifying Indigenous voices on an international platform, particularly in defense of rights threatened by large-scale projects,” wrote Indira Quintasi Orosco, a PhD student studying education at OISE and a knowledge mobilization specialist at the lab, in an email to The Varsity.

Challenges with advocacy, social media

Despite all the advocacy that campus groups have accomplished, there are still many challenges and barriers that these groups face.

While the ISA uses Instagram as a part of its advocacy, Del Valle says much of its reach is through offline connections with community members. However, creating such spaces and making them accessible for students also comes with challenges. They pointed to the low enrolment rates for Indigenous students at U of T as a concern.

“It’s really difficult having and maintaining space for Indigenous students, especially with the excuse from U of T being a low [Indigenous] student presence… That’s the fault of the institution and how they enroll students, as well as a lot of the supports they don’t provide for us,” Del Valle said. 

According to U of T’s Student Equity Census of 2023, across all three campuses and all levels of study, only about 0.7 per cent, or 653 students total, identified as Indigenous. 

Miraya Oscco says that building solidarity networks and creating long-term impacts can be difficult because of the unique challenges each Indigenous community faces. 

“For many organizations who advocate for communities, often the advocacy is not long term; it is sometimes very short term. Sometimes it’s just symbolic but not doing anything in a tangible way to impact these communities,” she criticized. 

For the Ziibiing Lab, using media platforms such as their lab website has helped expand their reach. The lab has also supported the production of two podcasts: Kuskalla: Juntos-Together podcast and the REDsurgence podcast. Despite the range these platforms carry, they are expensive to maintain. Orosco wrote that, “managing these platforms effectively requires dedicated resources, and securing sufficient funding for full-time media staff remains a key challenge.”

The Ziibiing Lab also feels that Indigenous methodologies and perspectives are not always prioritized in a research and academic context. “The Ziibiing Lab remains committed to preserving the integrity of Indigenous approaches in our work, but balancing this with academic expectations can be complex,” she added.

What should U of T do?

Miraya Oscco says it’s up to U of T as an institution to develop long-term relationships with existing Indigenous community organizations to support their advocacy efforts for students. 

“[Many communities] have their own organizations that are rightly working to [be], for example, more equitable,” she said. “So what we have to do as an institution is support these kinds of [organizations] existing in these communities… I think it’s important to have commitments with a community for [the] long term, not just for a few months, if we want to see big changes.” 

The Ziibiing Lab believes that creating dedicated funding and support for Indigenous research and advocacy initiatives at U of T would allow organizations like the Ziibiing Lab to expand their outreach through media platforms and provide more programming. 

“Additional institutional support from U of T’s administration in publicly endorsing Indigenous-led advocacy would also be instrumental in strengthening our impact within the university community and beyond, as well as in promoting the university’s commitment to Indigenous rights and knowledge,” Orosco wrote. 

Del Valle says that U of T needs to consult Indigenous groups to implement the advice of Indigenous community members and make a concerted effort to provide resources for Indigenous students.

“[U of T] refuses, time and time again, to actually listen and implement [the advice] of our elders and community members,” they added. 

However, Del Valle says it is the dedicated spaces for Indigenous people at U of T — such as First Nations House — that have allowed them to feel a sense of belonging on campus. 

“I would not be able to get through academia if it wasn’t for [the First Nations House],” they explained. 

The Varsity did not hear back from the university administration in time for publication.