'My existence is resistance': Indigenous graduates in Hamilton reflect on what empowers them

Raven Mancini said she's celebrating two things on Tuesday — National Indigenous Peoples Day and her recent graduation from McMaster University in Hamilton.

The 29-year-old marked the end of her family medicine residency at the Indigenous graduation ceremony held at the university on June 16.

"It's nice to keep that celebration going … I'm finally entering a new part of my life," said Mancini, who is an Oneida woman from Six Nations of the Grand River.

The ceremony was open to Indigenous students, as well as staff and faculty. It was the first time the ceremony had been done in-person in several years.

Students could also take part in the university's broader graduation but Mancini said the Indigenous event was special. 

"It's a lot more personal, you know everyone there. It's a little community," Mancini said.

Sage Hartmann graduated from the psychology, neuroscience and behaviour program and also left with a minor in Indigenous studies.

She said her sister and brother both had graduations during the pandemic and didn't get a convocation. 

"This is kind of like my family's first real convocation ceremony," the 23-year-old woman from Red River Métis Nation in Manitoba, told CBC Hamilton, hours before graduation last week. 

It was also Hartmann's first Indigenous graduation ceremony. She, like Mancini, said she felt the event was extra special given it was days before National Indigenous People's Day.

"There's just something about being here, at university, in an academic institution, in a place that wasn't meant for Indigenous people and still being able to be here and take up space and succeed, it feels very empowering," Hartmann said.

"I find myself thinking about when Indigenous peoples weren't allowed to engage in ceremony, dance, celebrate or speak their language and there's just something about being here now and being able to do all those things with my family that feels worthy of celebration and in my mind, that's what that day is for, to celebrate where we are now."

What's next for the graduates?

Mancini said she'll be working with Niagara South Family Medicine while doing emergency medicine on the side.

"I'm hoping to collaborate with the Indigenous health centre out here as well."

Hartmann said she'll be attending Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto in the fall.

She said she hopes other Indigenous people will draw inspiration from this year's graduates.

"I feel sometimes my existence on its own is resistance and that's something I find motivates me," she said, offering a message to prospective students and graduates.

"Stay focused, stay motivated, even when times seem tough or when you find you're struggling, you have to keep doing you and returning back to who you are."