Indigenous people in Saint John need centre to access cultural services, adviser says

For Indigenous people living in Saint John, there's no central hub they can visit to access cultural programs and services, said University of New Brunswick Indigenous adviser Todd Ross.

He and a group he founded called the Saint John Indigenous Health Advisory Circle would like to change that. 

Ross said last summer's creation of the first permanent sweat lodge at UNBSJ was a step in that direction. He said he saw positive effects for students within months.

"It's increased the ability to have knowledge keepers come to campus and have some of those traditional teachings brought, which I think is tremendously important. We've also been able to increase the visibility of Indigenous people within the university," he said.

Ross wants to see this spread to the rest of the city's Indigenous population. According to the 2021 Census, more than 1,800 Saint Johners identify as Indigenous.  

In many Canadian cities, the services Ross would like to see in Saint John are provided by friendship centres — such as Under One Sky in Fredericton — that offer a space with access to elders, knowledge keepers, language lessons, cultural teachings, and more.

"The ability to bring elders in so that people have the opportunity for some of the traditional teachings … these don't normally exist in the city. So these are some of the services and support that we really want to bring," he said.

"We don't have elders coming to the city on a regular basis because there isn't a community for them to come to."

Susan Ring-Raymond, who is Indigenous on her mothers side, has lived in Saint John her whole life. Ring-Raymond has always been proud to call herself Indigenous and says the city needs a cultural space for Indigenous people to build a community around.  "I'm 65 years old and I just know a few words of our language. We've had that taken away from us … we need our people to teach us … we have children, we have to carry this on. We have to work for them. We have to build a community for our people," Ring-Raymond said.

To Ring-Raymond, such a space would be about reclaiming what was taken.

"It's something that's been taken away from us. You can go back to where my grandmother was living on the reserve and when she went to school, the teacher would go to them and hit them over the fingers because they spoke their native tongue," she said.

Ross said not having a space of its own also affects the community's visibility. He said it "creates the perception that the community is not here."

Having a place of its own not only increases visibility, he said it also gives the community access to cultural supports. 

While a friendship centre would address the need for services, creating one is no easy task. Ross said it requires membership with the National Association of Friendship Centres — and membership depends on community needs. "To start a brand new friendship centre in any community really takes a group of community members coming together to decide for themselves how they want to be served," said Jocelyn Formsma, CEO of the National Association of Friendship Centres. "And then to follow up with just some formalization about that in terms of incorporating and having broader community support to establish a friendship centre."