Indigenous student faces racist backlash for petition saying Secwepemc students should park free at university

What started as a school assignment for Thompson Rivers University student Morning-Star Peters has turned into a larger conversation about parking — and what reconciliation looks like in Kamloops, B.C. 

Peters, 32, a Secwepemc woman who is a daughter and granddaughter of residential school survivors, started an online petition asking the university to stop charging Secwepemc students for parking. 

In it she writes, "If the university acknowledges and honours the Secwepemc and ancestral peoples who have lived here for thousands of years — upon whose traditional and unceded land Thompson Rivers University is located why would they charge the children of these ancestors to pay to park?"

When Peters, whose legal first name is Nicole, first posted the petition "the response was good," she said. However, after news stories were written about it and posted on social media, things took a turn.

"[People are] posting comments that are just blatantly racist. Some of the things that are being said [are] awful," she told Daybreak Kamloops' Doug Herbert.

The fourth-year Bachelor of Social Work student posted the petition, which had more than 250 signatures as of Monday evening, because she and her classmates were offered extra marks to put their assignments on a public forum, she said.

"I found it really interesting why there's so much outrage over parking."

At events and on its own website, TRU recognizes its Kamloops campus is located on the traditional lands of the Tk'emlups te Secwepemc, the unceded territory of the Secwepemc Nation, but Peters wants this land acknowledgement taken further with action. 

"I find when the acknowledgement happens they speak as though we're not there anymore and we don't exist anymore and that this happened a really long time ago and it didn't," she said.

"I'm speaking at it from a point of my own feelings for the past four years, how it's felt to be a student and hear the acknowledgement over, and over, and over."

Free parking for more

Some online commenters have asked why only Secwepemc students should get free parking.

In her academic paper, Peters also argues that free parking should go beyond just Secwepemc students, she said.

"I'm also saying that if Secwepemc territory was given the rights over the land of parking, I don't think that we would ask anybody to pay for parking," she said.

If free parking were to happen at the university, Peters said she would like to see it include members of all 17 bands in the Secwepemc Nation. 

"I don't think any Indigenous people should have to pay. And then it goes further, I don't think anybody should have to pay."

In an email statement to CBC, the university said since they haven't received the petition, it's not appropriate for them to comment.

"When we do receive it, TRU will consider it at that time and communicate firstly with the requester."

Peters is meeting with her professor to learn about the proper channels to bring her petition to university administration. 

"I'd like to open up that conversation of how would that look to acknowledge the people of the territory."

At the University of Northern British Columbia, Lheidli T'enneh students who meet admission requirements receive full tuition for their undergraduate degrees. The university's Prince George campus is in Lheidli T'enneh territory.

"So I don't feel like asking for free parking is really that bad," added Peters.