Wilfrid Laurier University's Centre for Indigegogy has permanently closed

Wilfrid Laurier University's Centre for Indigegogy closed for good on Tuesday.

The centre promoted Indigenous ways of knowing, teaching and learning, including through hands-on workshops that incorporated traditional medicines, circle work and ceremonies.

The centre's director, Kathy Absolon, has led the project from the beginning. She said a lack of tenured positions is at the root of the issue.

"We have lost several faculty members and we haven't had positions replaced. We just don't have any more faculty positions to pick up the work of the centre," she said.

"A centre for Indigegogy is not simply a business. It was much more than that."

The closure was first announced by the centre in a post on Instagram on National Indigenous People's Day in June. Since then, Wilfrid Laurier University has deleted all pages related to the centre from its website.

CBC News reached out to the university for comment, but a spokesperson said it does not have any statement to share.

Absolon said that since the announcement, many people in the community have reached out to her to share their shock and disappointment.

"People [spoke about] the degree to which they've been impacted by the centre — the transformations that people have undergone within their own personal lives and within their professional lives, how the centre has generated them to transform their teaching, to transform how they work and even the way they live."

'Reality of fiscal ... and faculty cutbacks'

Absolon said the decision to close the centre was made in March.

"It was a very difficult decision for us to make," she said. "But we had to make that decision ... in the reality of fiscal cutbacks and faculty cutbacks."

Absolon said she got the idea to open the centre when she was a mental health worker in the 1990s. She wanted to create a way to customize training with a more Indigenous lens.

"We would decolonize it, we would Indigenize it and make the training relevant to us," she said.

"That vision is still there. Does something like that belong [at the university]? I don't know about that. If it's not in the university doesn't mean it's not out there."

Myeengun Henry is the Indigenous knowledge keeper of the University of Waterloo, a campus that neighbours Laurier and offers similar Indigenous-focused programs.

Henry said he was concerned when he heard the news about the closure.

"It's concerning in general for First Nation programs. Historically, they've been early to be omitted when there's financial difficulties, so that always bothers me."

After the closure announcement, the centre cancelled a number of courses and workshops that were planned for the rest of the year and refunded students. Henry said he'd rather work together with Laurier than try to pick up where the centre left off.

"I'd rather say let's work together, you know, to complete an Indigenous education journey. It's better if we cooperate and and work together for the benefit of the students."

'I just really want to say thank you'

When Lisa Nicole enrolled into courses at the centre in 2023, she was a life promotion co-ordinator at an organization that supports Indigenous youth across Canada. A member of the Manitoba Métis Federation, she says the centre allowed her to reconnect with traditional teachings.

"Moving from Manitoba to Nova Scotia, I felt disconnected from culture. The disconnection was amplified during COVID," she told CBC News.

"Through the centre, I connected with new kin and enhanced existing relationships by walking together through conversation and ceremony."

Brenda Quenneville is a social worker by trade. She first started taking a course at the Centre for Indigegogy in September 2021 and got her certificate in Holistic Healing & Colonial Trauma after studying there for three years.

Quenneville said the lessons she learned at the centre have transformed the way she approaches clients as a social worker. She currently leads a private counselling service for people who need trauma and grief psychotherapy in North Bay, Ont.

"From a settler point of view, it was such a huge privilege, and it just changed my life and my trajectory completely," she said, adding that her studies at the centre inspired her to pursue a PhD at Trent University.

"My inquiry really started with the Centre of Indigegogy. When I realized just how much sense it makes in terms of all the teachings that they're sharing and giving so freely and so welcoming, it was actually really quite painful ... realizing what I've been missing," Quenneville said.

"I just want to say a deep thank you to Kathy and to the whole team for providing this while it was a possibility for them to do so."