Canadian Mennonite University

About: Equity Commitment

Winnipeg is located on Treaty 1 territory, the original lands of the Anishinabeeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, and Dene people, as well as the homeland of the Métis Nation. This is where we live and work. A key part of the career development process is to acknowledge and empathize with where you are right now, as you make plans for the future. And a part of that is where we find ourselves physically, on which land, and within which systems of power and oppression we are complicit. The Centre for Career and Vocation recognizes that it will never change anything if we do not acknowledge our part in the history of the colonization of the land on which we live and the systems of power from which we benefit. This acknowledgement is one way in which we can act against the erasure of the ongoing legacy of colonization and white supremacy.

At the Centre for Career and Vocation, we aim to interrupt the inequities in academic and Canadian employment contexts by creating an anti-racist, queer-positive, empowering community of support that recognizes the unique stories and calling of each person. To us, this means developing and fostering opportunities for students whose identities are systemically marginalized in academic spaces and in employment, in particular Black, Indigenous and students of Colour, LGBTQ2S+ students, and students with disabilities, recognizing the intersectional ways in which these identities impact career development and vocational discernment. We do this through partnership development, ongoing advocacy, seeking to provide funding for work-integrated learning opportunities, and consistent education and interrogation of our own practices.

Working towards equity and dismantling systems of oppression is not optional. We are not done. This is an ongoing process of (un)learning and change.

Printed from: www.cmu.ca/career-vocation/about/equity-commitment