First Peoples’ House has existed for over 50 years. We moved, but our mandate stays the same.
To our University of Alberta First Nations, Métis and Inuit students:
This is a promise.
A promise that YOU belong.
A promise that YOUR dreams matter.
A promise that YOUR voices will continue to be heard.
A promise that the generations that will come after you will have a place to begin.
A promise that this will be a place where you can be authentically yourself, where you are seen, supported and celebrated.
That is the power of First Peoples’ House.
That is the power of this moment.
That is the power of sahkitowin (love).
And that is the power of this marker of 150 years since the signing of Treaty 6.
That is the power of kisewastiwin (kindness).
A presence. A strength. A story carried forward.
On a day filled with ceremony, celebration and hope for the future, this striking moment captured something powerful: the strength of culture standing proudly in the present.
In the movement, the regalia and the presence of a men’s traditional dancer, generations of knowledge, identity, resilience and spirit come forward.
A reminder that culture is not only something we honour from the past. It is living, powerful and carried forward: by the people who are here today and by the generations yet to come.
150 years. A legacy of Treaty. A future together.
In this moment, as we gathered together to cut the ribbon, we paused to recognize the significance of where we stood and what this moment represented for each of us.
Surrounded by the community, First Peoples’ House staff, university leadership, Elders and all who helped bring this vision to life, stood together carrying many hopes, many dreams and many possibilities for what can be.
This ribbon marked more than the opening of a building. It marked the opening of a new moment in our collective history: one rooted in connection, healing, belonging, learning and community.
As we looked toward the future, we imagined all that this place may become: the relationships that will grow here, the stories that will be shared, the First Nations, Métis and Inuit students who will find a home here, and the generations who will carry this work forward.
For generations, there was no place at the university table for the First Peoples of Canada.
Just as a university makes space for the many communities who call it home, reconciliation asks us to make meaningful space for the First Peoples of Canada. Not simply incorporating their presence within the institution, but for First Peoples' ways of being, knowing, teaching and ceremony to help shape the institution itself.
First Peoples’ House has been part of the University of Alberta for over 50 years, and we have served our First Nations, Métis and Inuit community from a small space in SUB. We have grown beyond those walls. This new space is not apart from the University, but within it.
That is reconciliation: making space for the First Peoples' ways of being to not only belong within the institution, but to help shape it.
