B.C. college incorporates Indigenous teachings in its hairstyling program

Barbie Torres of Cranbrook, B.C., remembers shaving her head and burying her hair last May in a ceremony held at her backyard to show support for her aunt, a Métis elder, who was diagnosed with cancer.

"It too released a lot of trauma that I had had in the past," Torres said.

"It was like a weight lifted off [my] shoulders after I had done it."

Since September, Torres has been enrolled in the hairstyling program at the College of the Rockies (COTR) in the East Kootenay community, about a 147-kilometre drive west from the border with Alberta.

She says she's glad to see the 43-week program honour the cultural significance of hair among Indigenous people.

"There's [been] a lot more acceptance [of Indigenous culture] since I've been in this program," she said.

"[The instructor] brought such diversity and equity to the program."

The college describes its hairstylist foundation program as the first of its kind in the province to Indigenize its curriculum, by inviting Indigenous elders to share their knowledge with students, and accommodating feedback from Indigenous students on how the course can better represent their cultures.

'We need to uplift that knowledge'

Dana Wesley, executive director of Indigenous strategy and reconciliation at COTR, says her main duty is to decolonize university study programs, and to meaningfully incorporate Indigenous knowledge in the classroom.

"Indigenization is broadly the elevating of Indigenous knowledge and ways of being … creating an intentional space within the classroom to elevate those voices and that knowledge in a culturally safe way," said Wesley, a member of Moose Cree First Nation.

She says the college also offers Ktunaxa language courses and has appointed several Indigenous people to its board of governors.

"Our systems of knowledge and ways of being have been systemically denigrated over time through colonialism," she said.

"We need to uplift that knowledge in ways that it hasn't been in the past."

Sacredness of hair in Indigenous cultures

Gwen Stewart, a non-Indigenous instructor, says she learned about the sacredness of hair in Indigenous cultures from a colleague, whose Ojibwe culture considers hair as having a direct connection to ancestors.

She says she teaches students to ask Indigenous clients what they want to do with their hair after it has been cut off. 

"We'll offer them to keep their hair," she said.

She adds she has also invited Indigenous elders to her classes, to have conversations with students about truth and reconciliation. 

COTR says most of its over 2,000 full-time student population come from the East Kootenay region, and around eight per cent of the student population is Indigenous. 

The college admits that unlike its other programs, the hairstylist program doesn't currently have Indigenous instructors.

Wesley did not explain why in an emailed statement to CBC News, but said Stewart has worked on incorporating Indigenous knowledge to the curriculum for the last seven years.

She added that last fall, the ?aqamnik' School Traditional Powwow in Cranbrook invited instructors and students of the college's hairstylist program to provide hair braiding. 

"Indigenization is the work of everybody. It's ongoing and an individual journey for our instructors as well as our students," Wesley said in the statement.

"Introducing Indigenous teachings and learnings into our classrooms is a long-term continuous goal."