Aboriginal education focus for new Malaspina University-College director

Sharon Hobenshield knows how alienating it can be for Aboriginal students to move away from their families and culture to get a post-secondary education.

She’s done it herself.

After high school the young and energetic aboriginal women moved away from her home in the Gitxsan First Nation, 30,000 square kilometers in northwestern British Columbia (close to Hazelton and Prince Rupert) to start her post secondary education in Kamloops. She found the experience so overwhelming that she left, returning to the University of Victoria to take a degree in social work when she was 21.

"It really shakes your identity up and ungrounds you," said Hobenshield of what it was like to go away to school in the late 1980s. "There wasn’t a level of awareness about aboriginal culture and issues like there is now. We have now achieved some level of awareness and sensitivity for aboriginal students. However, there is much more we can and should be doing to hopefully achieve a level of inclusiveness that is deserving of our aboriginal students and communities."

Now she will be using her own experience and compassion to help Malaspina University-College students as the new director for aboriginal education. She said aboriginal education is moving in the right direction and she's happy to be apart of it.

Last year almost 10 per cent of the students studying at Malaspina were Aboriginal.

"The percentage of aboriginal students coming to Malaspina says we’re doing something well and I want to continue to support what is happening," said Hobenshield.

"My position shows there is definitely a commitment from Malaspina to do more. It’s an exciting and optimistic time."

New provincial literacy and relationship building initiatives as well as Aboriginal self-determination are contributing to a great climate for aboriginal educational opportunities, said Hobenshield. And she’s looking forward to helping aboriginal students and communities continue to succeed in all post-secondary initiatives.

As a director she hopes to be an informational and networking link between local Aboriginal communities and Malaspina to ensure the Malaspina experience reflects the local culture and ways.

"There are unique as well as universal ways of knowing and being for aboriginal people and communities," said Hobenshield.

"In order to work in the spirit of true collaboration there needs to be acknowledgment of our history as well as a demonstrated respect for local traditions and protocols. My goal for the position is to provide leadership in this area."

Hobenshield is no stranger to the Central Vancouver Island region. She worked for Tillicum Le Lum and as a First Nations social worker for five years for Kw’umut Lelum Child and Family Services in Chemainus. She has also written curriculum for the Child and Youth Care program at the University of Victoria and taught social work courses.