Marny Point, MET Alumna, offers this welcome on behalf of the Musqueam people.
Welcome to the Master of Education Technology program at the University of British Columbia! I will begin with a land acknowledgement.
Recently, I happened to be passing the Reconciliation Pole at the end of Main Mall on the UBC-V campus at just the moment when Musqueam Elder Larry Grant was speaking at a ceremonial gathering of the Musqueam community. He was speaking to the rights he, and the Musqueam People, have to their traditional territory and to have their cultural protocols recognized on their land –rights expressed by the TRC 94 Calls to Action that have been taken up by Federal and Provincial governments, rights expressed by the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) now recognized by the Federal Government and included in the laws of British Columbia. His words spoken in hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ and in English, were profoundly moving for me, a 7th generation settler on Turtle Island, uninvited, on land that was stolen from the Musqueam.
Elder Grants’ words expressed how urgent and important our efforts are to decolonize the land of Indigenous Peoples, to make space in our minds, hearts, and social relations for Indigenous story and protocol, ways of thinking and being. His words confirmed that acknowledging the traditional, ancestral, unceded territory of the Musqueam People, where the MET program is housed, or of the Indigenous People of the land where ever you are, is an act of solidarity, an act of decolonizing, an act of making space where none existed previously. For me, it is a personal commitment to enable the flourishing of the Musqueam on their land.
I began my involvement with the MET 16 years ago and across that time I have noted that the program has consistently been on the leading edge of educational innovation because of the spiralling of knowledge and practice that is generated by what students (who are educators) and faculty discover together. What was not even imagined at the start of a MET student’s program, became an exciting reality by the end. Your contributions to the learning of each other will make new learning worlds possible for your selves and especially for the students you serve. Bring your best and be prepared to go beyond the limits of your cognitive horizons. My experience is that you make the program outstanding.
This is the MET’s 20th year! You can check out what I mean in the 20 years in 20 weeks interviews that chart this extraordinary evolution.
You are at the right place at the right time to think deeply about the momentous tidal wave of change that generative AI is about to bring into the lives of every person on the planet, and consequently to lead that change. It took a decade or so for the internet to infiltrate almost every aspect of life. Generative AI appears to be doing so in a matter of months.
This is going to be an extraordinary learning journey for you and I am pleased to be able to join you on it!
Mark Edwards, MET Interim Director