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U of A launches program for Indigenous Sport and Recreation

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Busy professionals working with Indigenous communities in the areas of health and wellness, recreation management and education have a new way to expand their knowledge and skills thanks to the University of Alberta’s recently launched certificate in Indigenous Sport and Recreation.
Believed to be the first graduate-level certificate of its kind in the country, the program is a joint initiative of the faculties of Physical Education and Recreation and Native Studies. The certificate is designed based on intensive research and consultation with a range of community groups to give working professionals a deeper understanding of the cultural context of Indigenous communities through sport and recreation.
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Beginning in September 2017, students in the program will take three online courses over a 10-month period: an introductory course covering historical and contemporary issues relevant to Indigenous people in settler states, a course focused on managing recreation, sport and physical activity programs in Indigenous communities, and a final course that looks at physical activity and sport in the lives of Indigenous peoples, past and present.
“It’s important that we’re drawing on research that is grounded in Indigenous perspectives,” says Tara-Leigh McHugh, an associate professor in the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation who was involved in developing the courses that make up the program. “A lot of the research that is emerging in Indigenous sport and recreation talks about the importance of community, the importance of culture, connecting to the land and incorporating traditional teachings.
During the nearly three years that it took for the program to go from inception to final approval, the university presented to and worked with a range of groups, including members of Alberta’s Treaty Six First Nations, representatives from the government of the Northwest Territories and the Alberta Recreation and Parks Association.
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“What we heard was that people felt there was a need for this,” says Christine Ma, an assistant dean of international and community education in the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation who worked closely with university and community stakeholders to make the certificate a reality. 
The certificate in Indigenous Sport and Recreation addresses the calls to action published by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Canada in 2015—in particular the calls for national sports policies, programs and initiatives to be more inclusive of Indigenous peoples—and comes at a time when many post-secondary institutions are talking about the complexities of reconciliation and what it means, in practical terms, to Indigenize academic programs and courses. 
For Shana Dion, director of the U of A’s Aboriginal Student Services Centre and an advocate for the Indigenous Sport and Recreation certificate, one of the benefits of the program is its focus on sharing knowledge about the histories and contemporary lives of First Nation peoples with a broader audience—non-First Nation and First Nation people alike.
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“This program is about literally moving forward in a physical way, to improve the health and wellness of our communities,” says Dion. “With the TRC, there’s momentum for reconciliation. But people need to understand that as we are going through reconciliation, we as First Nation people are also learning about the devastation that came from settler colonialism. We still need to go through that learning and healing. That’s one of the most integral pieces going forward. Unless you have that knowledge, you won’t understand why we struggle with certain areas in our lives and within our communities.”
The primarily online format of the program makes it especially convenient for professionals. Whether they are based in an urban centre or a rural area, they can continue to work while they study, doing coursework in the evenings or on weekends. They can also choose to take the program as a one-off professional development opportunity or use it to ladder into a course-based master’s degree later on.
“It is an opportunity for working professionals to upgrade their education without having to uproot their lives,” says Ma. 
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The certificate is offered using a cohort model, meaning that students who enrol in the program will complete their online courses together, in sequential order, and also do a mandatory one week, face-to-face learning experience that includes attending the annual Alberta Recreation and Parks Association conference in the Rocky Mountains. 
“The cohort model gives students the opportunity to learn from each other—there is real value in making connections with other people, with other leaders in the worlds of recreation and sport, and creating more of a base of like-minded practitioners,” says Ma.
For professionals who may never have talked about Indigenous peoples’ historical and contemporary relationships with Canada back in their university days, the opportunity to tackle these issues in-depth with fellow practitioners, to engage with Indigenous knowledge and belief frameworks and to revisit policies and concepts related to sport and recreation from a different perspective could be a game-changer.
Applications for the University of Alberta’s certificate in Indigenous Sport and Recreation are now open. Space is limited. Visit UAB.CA/PERCert to begin the application process.
 

This story was created by Content Works, Postmedia’s commercial content division, on behalf of the University of Alberta.
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