Culture shock, and how Mi'kmaw students cope with leaving the reserve for university

When student Sósep Hatfield left his Nova Scotia reserve to attend Saint Mary's University, he says he found it hard to cope with city life in Halifax and figure out where his traditional culture fit into a modern education system.

He often felt isolated, and faced what is called culture shock, a phenomenon where someone struggles to adapt to a new way of living and environment.

"I think culture shock is best defined by organizational behavioural practices that you hadn't anticipated on experiencing," Hatfield said, recalling his early years in post-secondary. "And so you don't know what you don't know."

Hatfield, 28, who is from Pictou Landing First Nation, said he is among many Mi'kmaq living in Halifax, also known by its tradition name of Kjipuktuk, who have felt the same way after leaving their small communities to attend university.

Hatfield studies computing and information systems, which is part of the bachelor of commerce program at Saint Mary's University, but he said the curriculum doesn't examine modern Indigenous businesses.

That, he said, fuels feelings of isolation and neglect, and also fails to equip students with the knowledge and experience they need to effectively enter the Indigenous business sector.

"Very seldomly will you hear any curriculum inside these programs giving consideration for Indigenous business, which is a big deal because Atlantic Canada has a very thriving Indigenous business sector," he said.

Margaret Murphy, a spokesperson for the university, said the program is bringing new changes to the current curriculum to address Indigenous business perspectives.

"We actually interviewed not just our alumni and business executives who graduated from the program, but we also interviewed current students," Murphy said. 

Murphy said the school has been looking to engage more diverse groups for the program. 

"This mission to revamp certainly makes it more contemporary and more relevant to this generation of students…. This is very much based on what students told us that they wanted to see in the program."

Seven generations

Hatfield said he learned how to adapt and overcome the stress and isolation with the help of his mother, Michelle Peters, who has a bachelor in business and master in social work.

"Seven generations ago we would not be where we are today," Peters said. "We always have to remember that we carry a responsibility to our future generations, just the way that our ancestors carried that responsibility to us." 

Peters and Hatfield credit Indigenous advisors and elders-in-residence at universities for helping students transition from life on a reservation to life in a city.

Raymond Sewell, a former Indigenous advisor at Saint Mary's University, said he sees many students struggle with culture shock. He reminds them to be their "true self."

"I tell them that their traditional knowledge is just as valuable as any other knowledge," Sewell said.

Coming from the Pabineau First Nation in New Brunswick, Sewell is now a professor teaching creative writing at Saint Mary's. During his time as a student at Saint Mary's in the early 2000s he experienced extreme isolation, confusion and stress when interacting with other students. 

"Sometimes I'm the first Indigenous person they meet, it's pretty profound for them, and I'm thinking, 'Wow, they got to come to us more often.'"

Sewell said Indigenous and Mi'kmaw representation has increased in the past few decades, though he believes more work needs to be done for students facing culture shock. He also said a possible root of culture shock is the duality in education with Western and Indigenous views.

"When I was younger, we went off the reserve to get our teachings, but when we came home the elders would correct all the stuff we were taught and teach us 'the right way,'" Sewell said. 

He noted this often happens when education taught outside the reservation doesn't connect with traditional teachings, resulting in some students becoming more confused. He said new programs being developed by universities to help the transition are to be commended.

Learning is never finished

Peters acknowledged the financial stress and shock any student faces when moving to a new area.

"Indigenous students are dealing with difficult narratives, colonial violence, and ways of expression that are vastly different from what they are taught on the reservation," she said.

Peters is also a clinical therapist and current PhD student in education at Saint Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, N.S. She said her journey in learning is never finished and she does it for those who came before her who weren't given the opportunity. She encourages youth to follow their own journey and be reminded of their greater purpose.

"It's hard to decolonize an institution that was meant to colonize," she said. "The erasure and complete omitting of our traditional knowledge in curriculum, in education ... when it's not even acknowledged ... that does something to you."

Through times of struggles and lessons from his mother, Hatfield said he uses and encourages etuaptmumk, or two-eyed seeing, a Mi'kmaw philosophy where one eye views the world in a traditional lens while the other eye incorporates the Western one. 

"It's mutually beneficial to achieve an education, but at the same time there's that component of that community value that you can add to your people." Hatfield said. "Those skills you bring back are very valuable"