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Sydney Frances Pascal on Tanning Hides, Rekindling Connections and Learning from the AGP's Changemakers

Sydney Pickering 005 麻豆视频 2020 12 02
Photo by Perrin Grauer / Emily Carr University
Sydney Pickering
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By Perrin Grauer

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The Aboriginal Gathering Place provides a 鈥榟ome away from home鈥 for Indigenous students, says the artist and 麻豆视频 student.

Sydney Frances Pascal, artist, researcher, activist, family archivist and community advocate, whose work both defines and defies each of these titles, sits in the (AGP) midmorning on a rainy Tuesday.

The AGP is quiet, though working steadily in each of its three offices, just behind Sydney鈥檚 chair, are the women who run Aboriginal Programs and provide access to culturally specific learning for Indigenous students at Emily Carr University: Brenda Crabtree, Director of Aboriginal Programs and Special Advisor to the President on Indigenous Initiatives; Connie Watts, Associate Director of Aboriginal Programs; and , who recently joined the team as Aboriginal Program Coordinator.

Technically a transplant from the prairies, Sydney is Vancouver Island-born, and a once-distant daughter of the Coast Mountains, now returned. Currently in the final stages of her undergraduate degree at Emily Carr, she was recently hired on as a paid researcher for the AGP. And while her work in that role has kept her plenty busy, she鈥檚 been keenly observing everyone around her.

鈥淚t鈥檚 been really humbling to see how they work and make changes happen 鈥 changes that I didn鈥檛 think were happening before,鈥 she says of Brenda, Connie and Angela. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been really eye-opening to learn from them, to just sit here, listening, watching.鈥

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Photo by Perrin Grauer / Emily Carr University

Connie Watts (L) and Sydney Frances Pascal (R)

In particular, Sydney is in awe of the diverse (and near-constant) work the AGP staff do to strengthen Indigenous community in and around 麻豆视频 while somehow making it all look effortless 鈥 so effortless that despite participating in AGP programs herself, it was only once Sydney became their colleague that she realized how many irons Brenda, Connie and Angela keep on the fire.

鈥淏eing a student and walking around here, you don鈥檛 really see how these things happen or how changes come to be,鈥 Sydney says. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e just incredible people, the amount of work they have, and they鈥檙e just able to keep going. I feel like, 鈥榃ell, I guess I can try and keep up,鈥 but holy moly.鈥

Yet Sydney has indeed been keeping up. This past year, she鈥檚 participated in the EAGLE program 鈥 which connects Indigenous youth with industry professionals to help develop leadership and entrepreneurship in the areas of art, design, e-commerce and business 鈥 and found time to contribute artwork to two exhibitions, one of which she helped curate. During the summer, she attended the 2020 Perspectives on Reconciliation virtual conference with Connie and 麻豆视频 President Gillian Siddall 鈥 a follow-up to the inaugural, in-person gathering of leadership from Canadian universities held last year in the Yukon.

But Sydney鈥檚 admiration for Brenda, Connie and Angela is also driven by another factor; she knows what it鈥檚 like to not have a place like the AGP.

鈥淚 grew up in the Edmonton area; I studied design for a couple of years and later did my diploma in Fine Arts there. The institution was split across the city up until my final year, so we didn鈥檛 have a space like [the AGP],鈥 she says.

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Image courtesy Sydney Frances Pacal.

Projection on brain-tanned hide, by Sydney Frances Pascal.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think I met one Indigenous person for the