The power of gifted spaces and how they live in all of us

Gifted and ethical spaces and why they are important to Indigenous Canadians will be the keynote-address topic at this year’s ii' taa’poh’to’p Journey Update event, Circle of Relatives.

The Nov. 27 Update celebrates another year of progress on the University of Calgary’s journey towards reconciliation, as guided by its Indigenous Strategy, ii' taa’poh’to’p.

Keynote speaker Willie Ermine, a retired Emeritus Professor with the First Nations University of Canada, is a Neyhiyaw from the Sturgeon Lake First Nation in Saskatchewan, where he is a traditional health lead working on medicine, knowledge and ceremony. Ermine has worked extensively with Elders and continues to have deep interest in the nature of Indigenous thought. 

During his talk, Ermine will delve into the concept of ethical and gifted spaces as they pertain to the university. 

“I wanted to explore further how this ethical space is enabled,” says Ermine. “Everybody has this; it is a part of our energy, our interior makeup and also it has impact on your exterior. So, to enable it to happen there are certain things that are produced working with that energy, the ethical space.”

Ermine says gifted space is about connection. It is not something taught within an education system, but is something that lives in us all. “I wanted to dig further and remind people that our interior world, our inner space, it’s almost like it’s magical that we have great capacity,” says Ermine.

Ermine hopes the talk steers people to look inward at their own interior resources, which are extremely important within the Indigenous world view. Ermine says many understandings between people and societies come from these interior resources. 

“(The interior resources) are gifted to us as human beings but how we develop them, how we train them, how we educate them; these are all issues that are still not really out there in the mainstream,” says Ermine.

Ermine says UCalgary members can help implement this Indigenous way of knowing and doing by treating connections with kindness and opening up to disrupting their world view to allow them to connect with themselves.

Ermine has written an article, “The Ethical Space of Engagement,” that sets a framework for how Indigenous people and western society can created understanding when discussing the legal system in Canada pertaining to Indigenous peoples.

The ii' taa'poh'to'p 2024 Journey Update: Circle of Relatives takes place in the MacEwan Hall Ballroom beginning at 12 p.m. on Nov 27. In addition to the keynote, there will also be four stories offered by UCalgary staff and faculty in support of and in alignment with the Indigenous Strategy’s four visionary circles: Ways of Knowing, Ways of Doing, Ways of Connecting and Ways of Being. There will also be a presentation on campus highlights from our continued journey towards reconciliation, as guided by ii’ taa’poh’to’p. 

To learn more and register, visit the webpage.