Nipissing students host paint night social to uplift first Suswin Village tenants
By Kelly Anne Smith
NORTH BAY— Guest artist Jules Armstrong will lead a Paint Night Social fundraiser via Zoom at Nipissing University on Friday, March 25. The aim is to raise funds and supplies to provide the first tenants at the new Suswin Village of the North Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre with a welcoming gift basket in each room.
Over 100 Indigenous people in North Bay do not have a place to go home to, thus the significance of Suswin Village. To be operated by the North Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre, transitional housing in the new building will be ready this summer. There will be 30 private units with a bed, desk, closet, and a private bathroom. The building features space for traditional activities and is right across the street from the Friendship Centre for ease of attending the centre’s programming.
Suswin is the Anishinaabemowin word for ‘nest’; the project started moving forward in 2018, with the groundbreaking ceremony in April of 2020.
Co-chair of Indigenous Studies and an assistant professor at Nipissing University, Nancy Stevens teaches Land as Home and Indigenous Well-Being. Stevens uses Indigenous pedagogy in her classes, raising awareness and motivating students to action. She credits the students for coming up with the Paint Night Social idea and hosting the event.
“Experiential learning is central to Indigenous pedagogy. So, a large part of what I try to do is to reinforce that experiential learning through engaged processes like doing this fundraiser for Suswin,” says Stevens. “It also reinforces those core values that you might think about in relation to the Seven Grandfather Teachings or the Seven Sacred Teachings – teachings around love, honesty, bravery, truth, wisdom, respect, and humility. That really reinforces that idea of caring for community and the responsibilities that we have within the context of our relationships. This is a really good opportunity to build further relationships with community here in North Bay and reinforce those values within that.”
Stevens says Suswin Village will be life-changing for those without a home.
“It’s that sense of having a place within community that has so much importance for people who have experienced any form of homelessness. Just seeing the degree of homelessness here and so many Indigenous people are experiencing homelessness in this really physical way,” she explains. “It’s so important for people to feel like they have a place in society and a place that’s valued. Doing the fundraiser to help raise funds towards making those baskets is a small way to help and to say, ‘You are a human being and because of that, you are valued.'”
In the course Land is Home and Indigenous Well-being, Stevens centres much of the discussion around ‘What does it mean to be homeless when you’re Indigenous?’
“It’s not just a lack of roof over your head. It’s so many other things. It’s the cultural disruptions and the land dispossession and children being taken from parents and sent to Residential Schools or put into the foster care system and then becoming disconnected and homeless in that sense.”
Stevens says she leans on Jesse Thistle’s work, The Twelve Dimensions of Indigenous Homelessness.
“We are talking about how colonization has created this current state that we see. And so, in supporting the work of Suswin and doing the fundraising to help with that, it’s nothing huge but I hope it’s meaningful for both the students and the community that Suswin is creating in the sense that it’s connecting people who might not get a chance to connect. And just to support the overall healing of Indigenous communities.”
All proceeds go to Suswin Village to support people without homes in North Bay. There are thirty spots available for Nipissing students and staff with a $30 registration covering supplies, the donation and a raffle entry.
There are 40 online registrations available, anyone can participate for $20, covering a donation and the raffle entry. Supplies are at your own cost. The supply list will be sent out with the Zoom link.
Register by e-mail: register.paintingnightsocial@outlook.com. E-transfers can be sent to the same e-mail.
If anyone wants to drop off toiletries or packages of socks or toques, gloves, or scarves – things that are small and manageable – they will be provided to Suswin. For those interested, there is a box located at the Nipissing University Student Union office at 221 College Drive and one that is in Enji giidoyang – the Office of Indigenous Initiatives at F215.