Wellness kits offered to Indigenous university students for exam stress and anxiety

Indigenous students at the University of Windsor are being offered support during exams to help with stress and anxiety management.

The university's Aboriginal Education Centre is handing out wellness packages to students as exams are underway for the next two weeks.

Kat Pasquach, Aboriginal outreach and retention co-ordinator, said  "tensions are high" and "students are definitely in disarray." Many are looking for someone to listen to them, she said.

"Time management is the biggest thing right now, juggling schedules," Pasquach said on CBC Radio's Windsor Morning.

"A lot of our Indigenous learners are mature students, older with families, and they're really trying to manage their study time and then their children's schedules in school and getting them to practices and, you know, just wanting to spend time with their parents." 

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Pasquach said distributing the wellness kits is all about making sure students are "grounded." 

Brock Pitawanakwat, co-ordinator of the Indigenous program at York University, said exam season is known to be "a high stress time" for Indigenous students and everybody who works on campus.

Making 'traditional medicines' accessible to students

Pasquach said she wanted to make "traditional medicines" accessible to students, and the kits were packaged with this in mind.

• Braids of sweet grass: The wellness kits contain braids of sweet grass "that we would normally burn sort of like an incense, if people aren't familiar with the practice of smudging. But it lets off a really light floral fragrance. And smudging is a practice of cleansing. We use it to pray. It's grounding. And [sweet grass is] one of the medicines that are most locally available to this region." 

• Pouches with smudge and supplies: Also included are pouches — some made of leather and some hand-sewn by a student on campus. "So, she put together cotton pouches and inside there are sage sticks, which is another medicine that we will use to smudge. So, there's sage in there, there's matches in there, there's a little bowl in order to burn the medicine so it doesn't catch fire anywhere."

• Cedar oil: Inside the kits, students will also find cedar oil, which is also used to smudge. "The oil is actually very cleansing and very calming and it's good, and it's used in the space where you wouldn't necessarily be able to burn medicines. So, let's say you're about to walk right into your exam, you could put a little dab of oil on your wrist and then you have the scent and you have that calming essence there with you. We find that oils are very helpful — they're used in hospitals a lot in places where you can't mudge." 

• Other items: The kits also contain snacks, colouring books with Indigenous artwork, journals. The latter is included "for them to be able to take notes or jot down any stressers." 

The Aboriginal Education Centre has put together 50 kits and Pasquach said they will be available over the next two weeks for students to stop in and collect one. 

'A way to to connect'

In addition to the self-care element, Pasquach said the wellness kits are designed to help Indigenous students feel more connected to their culture.

"That's definitely the number one thing that students are looking for, especially if they're coming from their home communities, which is nowhere near Windsor region," she said.

"They're just looking for a way to connect and the cultural differences, and I would even say the culture shock that often happens when students are coming to the city and then being in an institution — every student knows it's different and it's hard and it can be very challenging to navigate post-secondary. So, when you have a little bit, a little piece of home while you're studying at the university, I think it just helps ground people and feel connected to the community."

Higher levels of anxiety, stress

Pitawanakwat said Indigenous students face higher levels of anxiety and stress, for various reasons.

He said often university students who are coming from Indigenous communities may be first generation, whose parents or grandparents did not go to post secondary institutions, and the students would be navigating the college or university experience without much guidance. 

"I think there's also this whole broader societal issue that we're reckoning with in terms of residential schools and that's not that far away,"  said Pitawanakwat.

"In some instances you're only talking about a generation or two away where the education experience was highly hostile, where kids were essentially there to have the Indigenous part of them taken away." 

Failing an exam not the end of the world

Pitawanakwat, an associate professor, is reminding students that "preparation is key." He said "getting sleep, getting outdoors, taking breaks" can also help achieve a successful exam outcome.

Pitawanakwat said while failing an exam can sometimes feel like the end of the world, it is not.

"The most important thing is to show up. That's another thing that can be a real challenge — people think, 'Oh, it's a lost cause — I'm not going to even go.' I think that that's like the worst possible course of action because even if a student writes an exam and has a failing grade, they're still learning something in the process."