The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 42, No. 2 - 108

Verna J. Kirkness * Ray Barnhardt

The emphasis of a critical analysis shifts
away from what strategies those in power
can develop to help those not in power,
to analyzing how power exists in the
organization, and given how power operates,
to developing strategies that seek to transform
those relations. All organizational participants
will be encouraged to come to terms with
how they may reconstruct and transform
the organization's culture. As opposed to a
rhetoric of what mainstream organizations
will do for Native Americans - a top-down
managerial approach - the struggle is to
develop strategies and policies that emerge
from a vision of working with Native
Americans toward a participatory goal of
emancipation and empowerment.
Tierney's call for the reconstruction and
transformation of the university's culture
to better serve First Nations ends may seem
at ﬁrst to be a daunting task, but it really is
no more than a matter of shifting to a policy,
posture and practice of actually working with
First Nations people, and in doing so, attending
to the "Four R's" of respect, relevance, reciprocity and responsibility. We have ample evidence
that this can be, and is being done, within existing institutions, as well as through institutions
of First Nations peoples own making.

CONCLUSION
It is the notion of empowerment that is at the
heart of First Nations participation in higher
education - not just empowerment as individuals, but empowerment as bands, as tribes,
as nations, and as a people. For the institutions
to which they must tum to obtain that education, the challenge is clear. What First Nations
people are seeking is not a lesser education,
and not even an equal education, but rather a
better education - an education that respects
108

them for who they are, that is relevant to their
view of the world, that offers reciprocity in
their relationships with others, and that helps
them exercise responsibility over their own
lives. It is not enough for universities to focus
their attention on "attrition" and "retention" as
an excuse to intensify efforts at cultural assimilation. Such approaches in themselves have
not made a signiﬁcant difference, and often
have resulted in further alienation. Instead, the
very nature and purpose of higher education
for First Nations people must be reconsidered,
and when we do, we will ﬁnd that the entire
institution, as well as society as a whole, will
be strengthened and everyone will beneﬁt. The
only question remaining is, can those who are
in a position to make a difference seize the opportunity and overcome institutional inertia
soon enough to avoid the alienation of another
generation of First Nations people, as well as
the further erosion of the university's ability to
serve the needs of society as a whole? Can we
make the necessary adaptations and escape the
misfortune of the monkeys in Indonesia? Let
us hope so, because the university is too vital
an institution to end up in the zoo.
Verna J. Kirkness, a member of the Cree Nation
originally from Fisher River, Manitoba, is the
director of the First Nations House of Learning
and associate professor in the Department of
Administrative, Adult and Higher Education
at the University of British Columbia. She
has accumulated over thirty years of active
involvement in nearly all aspects and levels
of First Nations education in Canada, from
teaching to policy making.
Ray Barnhardt is a professor of cross-cultural
education and rural development in the

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The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 42, No. 2

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