“Walk with Me” Open Access Curriculum

Dr. Etmanski received Research for Professional Development funds to develop online experiential curriculum to raise awareness about the Indian Residential School experience in Canada.

In October of 2018 and February of 2019, approximately 60 employees and (staff and faculty) from all parts of the University participated in a campus event titled: ‘Walk with Me: A Step on the Path to Reconciliation.’ Through a collaboration with Dr. Asma-na-hi Alphonse and team, Elder Shirley Alphonse, several members of the School of Leadership Studies, and two theatre artists, we developed an experiential curriculum to raise awareness about the Indian Residential School experience in Canada. This team has continued with several collaborations, including publications and conference presentations. We have had a longstanding desire to make the curriculum available in an open access format to share it more broadly. The revised use of these funds will enable us to (a) pay a contractor to design the website and translate the curriculum for the online environment; (b) offer an honorarium to the Indigenous theatre artist, Krystal Cook, for ongoing consultation; and (c) pay a web hosting fee for the first year. Moving this curriculum online will enable us to disseminate the results of our work more broadly.