A new table and benches designed by Sheridan College students in Oakville, Ont., and Thunder Bay Public Library community members will serve as a gathering place at the Brodie Resource Library in the northwestern Ontario city. The birch and stone table has Mi'kmaq elements to it, inspired by designs of quill baskets. Photo: Olivia Levesque/CBC


By Olivia Levesque · CBC News · Thunder Bay - June 25, 2021

Unique collaborations between Sheridan College students in Oakville, Ont., and Indigenous patrons and staff of the Brodie Resource Library in Thunder Bay aim to bring Indigenous voices to the table in a whole new way. 

The Thunder Bay Public Library in the northwesern Ontario city partnered 10 Indigenous patrons with students from Sheridan's furniture design school in 2019, marking the start of a nearly two-year process to design and build furniture for the Indigenous Knowledge Centre.

"All furniture and design has cultural values in it, and so what this project has done is create an alternative to what might be standard," Samantha Martin-Bird, the former community hub librarian for Indigenous relationships, said in an interview with CBC Radio. "If you think of, for instance, how an auditorium is set up, there are implicit hierarchies and power imbalances in how a traditional auditorium is set up.

"If you take the tables that get assembled into circles, that would be one example in which, of a more egalitarian flat power structure, which is an Anishinabek value."

The curved birch tables Martin-Bird is referring to now proudly stand in the Brodie Street library, where they will sit for years to come as a space for collaboration, learning, or even just as a quiet place to rest and read. 

Along with the tables, participants of the project also created book shelves, children's stools, benches and a podium — all of which incorporate Indigenous world views and values. 

To capture those values, the Thunder Bay Public Library invited students and faculty of the Sheridan College craft and design program to the northwestern Ontario city to partake in brainstorming sessions, meals, and land-based activities with the library participants nearly two years ago.

"I've learned that this has been one of the most impactful experiences that they've had to be able to meet other people, you know, with different cultural backgrounds," said Robyn Medicine, community hub librarian and Indigenous relationships supervisor.

"I think the land-based activity was really pivotal in opening that door to understanding each other," she continued, while reflecting on conversations with local participants. 

Together, the college students and faculty, library staff and participants of the project snowshoed in –30 C weather up Animikii-wajiw, or Mount McKay, in January 2020, which provided the inspiration and connection to the land most of the Sheridan students had never stepped foot on before. 

"We're working with the Indigenous community in Thunder Bay and a lot of our students have had little or no contact with Indigenous communities in Canada. So this was a really, really important project in terms of building relationships and understanding the bigger world around us," said Connie Chisholm, who led Sheridan's participation in the project through her role as principal of Codesign, a social enterprise.

"What we try to teach in design school at Sheridan is empathy because the root of good design is empathy, and empathy starts with listening. These collaborative projects are crucial in terms of developing skills as a designer because you're learning how to listen."

The students returned to Thunder Bay in February 2020 to obtain approval of the furniture's design before the pandemic hit, which significantly delayed the project as Sheridan's Oakville campus was forced to close.

Students involved in the project have since graduated, but continued to work to finish it.

David Lewis cycled through the third and fourth year of the furniture design program, even working through reading weeks and holiday breaks to fabricate the pieces.

Lewis was the only student to travel to Thunder Bay this month to install the furniture with Chisholm and educator Peter Fleming. 

"Over the span of the last year and a half, it's been really, a little trying at times, to sort of hold strong and continue creating the project on a long timeline," said Lewis as he was installing a bookshelf at the library. "But also, we were dedicated to kind of getting the job done and staying true to what we had promised to the community, especially because this is such a community-based project."

Both Martin-Bird and Medicine echoed the importance of community relationship building in this work, adding they hope the project will encourage other organizations or institutions to form partnerships that benefit indigenous community members. 

Martin-Bird said partnerships such as these will go a long way in working toward stemming issues of racism and other difficulties Indigenous people face.

Medicine said she's planning a "grand opening" for the revamped space at the library in the fall, once provincial pandemic restrictions ease. 

To read the original story and see related arts reporting, follow this link to the CBC Thunder Bay website. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/thunder-bay-library-project-indigenous-perspective-1.6080...