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"What's the Big Idea" is a new podcast featuring University of Manitoba President and Vice-Chancellor Michael Benarroch in conversation with some of today's big thinkers. Together, they’ll unpack “the big idea” their work explores. A series featuring an exciting and diverse array of voices from the UM community contributing to the cultural, social, and economic well-being of the people of Manitoba, Canada, and the world.
University of Manitoba: “What’s the Big Idea?”
Series 2, Episode 2- Dr Niigaan Sinclair
TITLE
Climbing the mountain of reconciliation with Nigaan Sinclair
INTRODUCTION
MUSIC STARTS
Niigaan Sinclair:
…the fundamental principles of this country, democracy, multiculturalism, a free speech, healthcare, these are all indigenous inventions.
MUSIC SWELLS
Niigaan Sinclair:
The thing that really frustrates me is I often get the question, ‘when do we know reconciliation's here?’ Like, somehow it's gonna be like those little confetti guns, like it's gonna be boom, you know, it's all here. Reconciliation has arrived! Reconciliation will never be that. It will be moments…. if you wanna see reconciliation drive by any school playground on September 30th, and especially elementary. And what do you see is kids from all walks of life wearing orange shirts playing together trying to figure each other out, and then arguing, and that's reconciliation.
MUSIC FADES
MAIN MUSIC STARTS
Michael Benarroch:
Hello, I’m Michael Benarroch, President of the University of Manitoba. Welcome to season two of my podcast, “What’s the Big Idea?” I’m excited to share more conversations with big thinkers from the UM community who are contributing to the cultural, social, and economic well-being of Manitoba, Canada, and the world. Together, we’ll unpack the “big idea” their work explores. With topics ranging from health research to climate science to social justice, there’s something for everyone.
MUSIC SWELLS
You’re about to hear a fascinating and eye-opening conversation I recently had with Professor Niigaan Sinclair as part of a live event held at the university. Dr. Sinclair is the former head of the Department of Indigenous Studies and he’s one of the most sought after national voices on education, politics and reconciliation.
He has five degrees, he’s been an indigenous content consultant, and writes a regular column in the Winnipeg Free Press.
Personally, I'm so thankful to have partners like Dr. Sinclair who lead us forward in the spirit of reconciliation and collaboration. Enjoy.
MUSIC SWELLS AND THEN ENDS
MAIN INTERVIEW:
[Clapping]
Michael Benarroch:
I was just gonna invite Dr. Sinclair up, but you should know he has a very good sense of humor. And he told me what he would really like is me to play Bob Barker and say, Dr. Niigaan Sinclair, come on down.
Niigaan Sinclair:
And we all know that Bob Barker is indigenous, right? Don't you all know that? Yeah. Born on Rose Rosebud Sioux reservation. So, in honor of the late Bob Barker. So there you go. Little homage.
Michael Benarroch:
Professor Niigaan Sinclair, what a treat it is to sit down with you. You're the former head of University of Manitoba's department of Indigenous study, a position you first held nearly 10 years ago. Ovide Mercury taught the first indigenous studies course at the University of Manitoba. And that spurred the creation of your department, which is the second oldest in the country. And historically, though, our university has had an underappreciated value, even one shuttering it in 1982 for budget reasons until rightfully and thankfully, a community outroar spurred to reverse its decision and open it back up. I give this context because this story is reflective, I think of so much in our country in regards to reconciliation. We take some steps forward, then we falter. We try to push forward once again, being pushed by those willing to say and do the hard things that are necessary. And I believe you've been one of those people here in Canada, one of those voices that has helped keep us moving forward. And so I'm really excited to speak to you today. So to begin our conversation, it's the question I've been asking all the guests on this show, the central question. What's your big idea?
Niigaan Sinclair:
Well it's nice to be here. It's nice to speak the language of the territory and you know, speaking about the territory in which we live and all the different beings that are looking upon us for tonight I think that is the big idea. You know, the big idea that I have and many others that are within this room have, which is that we here at the University of Manitoba not only have an obligation to embed, integrate and then be led by indigenous knowledge, the ways in which Manitoba has always been it is indigenous peoples who took the, took people in, taught them the ways of how to live in this place, taught them where the food is taught, 'em, where the medicines are taught them, all the science and math, all the biological knowledge that goes into the very names of this place, to the principles of our relationships.
And so we have an obligation and a responsibility to embody that within our practices. And in the past, we haven't done that. In fact, we've done the opposite of that. If you think about the apology that was made by the president a number of years ago during the truth and reconciliation process of, of training educators to assimilate indigenous children. So we have an obligation of inheriting that history and doing something about it and becoming the best institution that we can to practice what I think it is to have a responsibility to create a better Manitoba. And that will involve training indigenous peoples to become stronger indigenous peoples, not to become stronger non-indigenous peoples or whatever else that society seeks indigenous peoples to become as something other than themselves. At the same time, there's the 80% of Manitoba that's non-indigenous.
And so the fact is that every single person in Manitoba lives beside works beside or is married to an indigenous person. And the fact is that going in the future on campus, we are training an entire generation of indigenous peoples who are taking place within businesses, the private, the public sphere. And as a result we have to prepare non-indigenous manitobans for what will be a future in which indigenous peoples are no longer locked onto reserves, no longer shamed into you know, becoming, going into the institutions that have have marginalized this and oppressed us, but that we have indigenous peoples now on mass, we are creating a mass of competent leaders in the indigenous community. And we need to prepare manitobans to what does that mean? What does that mean to work effectively with indigenous peoples, work effectively with indigenous communities, and then most importantly, to not harm those communities, but to help build a better Manitoba for the future for everyone.
Michael Benarroch:
Thank you. And, and, and so what do you say to Manitoba's Canadians or anybody who says, well, you know, that happened a long time ago. That wasn't me. What role do I have to play in, you know helping solve problems that were created hundreds of years ago? How do you respond to those people?
Niigaan Sinclair:
So, I mean, there's a number of approaches, and I get, because we have an indigenous credit requirement at the university now which many of our colleagues have worked very hard to get. In fact, our former department head, Carrie Miller, worked very, very hard to get that passed.
The the fact is that there's many different ways to approach that answer. But you know what I do? I do something really simple. I ask people to pull out their driver's license, and I say let's look at your driver's license. are there any indigenous principles in your life or have indigenous peoples influenced you? And a lot of people would say, no. And then I say, well, what about that word, Winnipeg on your driver's license? What about that word meant to wobble? What about that word, canata? It's clear that the, you are built by indigenous knowledge. You carry that very much in terms of your identity, the fundamental parts of your identity. If someone were to pull you over and say, who are you, you would say these words, which you have inherited from indigenous people since.
So therefore it's not about what happened yesterday. It's about what's happening right now in that every single person inherits relationships with indigenous peoples by simply being here. Which is the reason why you know, in my activist days, we would go down and welcome newcomers at the airport, or that we would remind Canadians by traffic slowdowns that that was happening in Wetʼsuwetʼen, or what's happening at pipelines, or what happening up north in Manitoba hydro, that this is impacting in downtown Winnipeg, because we, we use that electricity that's flooding out communities in the north. So this isn't about yesterday. This is about very much tomorrow. And the good, the bad, the great, the ugly, you don't get to cherry pick history. We have all inherited the violence and the genocide that's happened with indigenous peoples and non-indigenous peoples continue to benefit from that.
But they also continue to benefit from the really great things that make us all in this relationship, which is treaties, which is the words and your driver's license, which is the fact that all of us together the fundamental principles of this country, democracy, multiculturalism, a free speech, healthcare, these are all indigenous inventions. It was not English and French people who invented democracy or healthcare, or the idea that everybody gets a role, everybody gets a a word. And in fact, if we followed what Europeans had to say in 15th, the 15th century, it would look very much like the 1%, it would look very much like the only people that matter are the pope and the king. It would, would look very much like only the rich get to say and make dec decisions for everybody. It was indigenous peoples who said, we need to share, we need to take care of the disenfranchised, the elders, the children. We need to make sure that everybody is heard in the circle. And then we come to a decision collectively. It was indigenous peoples who invented all of those things. And so Canadians need to understand that yes, we inherit these brutal legacies, but at the same time, we also inherit the incredible things that everything that makes you Canadian is indigenous in its core.
Michael Benarroch:
As part of our university's commitment to reconciliation you know, we've been working to attract and support indigenous students. So 10 years ago, we had just over 2000 self-declared indigenous students representing about 7% of the student population. And now in, in 2022, we had about 2,600, which was about 9%, which is well below the proportion of within, within our province. And I imagine you'd say that not enough is being done. And, and I'd agree with that. And, and so as former head of the Department of Indigenous Studies, can you share your thoughts on how University of Manitoba might better support indigenous student success?
Niigaan Sinclair:
Well, you know, change doesn't happen overnight. So I might not say that not not enough being done, perhaps because things have happened in my lifetime that I had no belief would happen. We have an entire group of indigenous young people with PhDs who are continually and consistently forcing me to become better as a more stronger Anishinaabe in my academic work. Like these kinds of things I didn't really think would happen in my lifetime. And when I graduated from the University of British Columbia, the University of British Columbia had this crazy idea to graduate 500 indigenous PhDs in five years. And they did it in three that's right. Yeah. UBC gave a little round applause for ubc. In fact, I think we can easily do that here at the University of Manitoba if we committed to a vision and we committed to working in that.
In fact, I would like to see the numbers. I'm pretty sure were were in that neighborhood. But things that happened in my lifetime, I think about my grandfather and how much violence he experienced in his lifetime. And then I think about my father, who was literally the first of an industry, like literally the first indigenous judge in Manitoba history. So when you are the first of an entire industry, my dad's still alive. He's still here. In fact, he was speaking this past weekend of the, of the Baan event at the university here. The kind of change that's happening so quickly is very inspiring. It's also sometimes destabilizing. I think the university doesn't know how to handle that change. That happens very quickly, because the fact is that when you bring indigenous students in, you have to change the fundamental tenets of the university itself.
It can't just be about a bunch of white guys in Greece that we're worshiping all the time. It's about saying, what does that mean for our buildings? How do we build our buildings differently? How do we teach differently? How do we counsel differently? How do we lead differently? And so what I would say is that, you know, we are the second largest on-campus indigenous community in, in the country. We have an obligation to support those students in the best way possible. And I think that we've done some very significant things, and the access program and developing the Indigenous Department of Indigenous Studies. But our commitment sometimes waivers. I think sometimes what we do is we think, oh, well, that's enough, and we check the box and then we go focus on these other things. But the problem is that we have yet to scratch the surface of potential of Manitoba, of the relationships between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples.
Michael Benarroch:
And I think a lot of the issues seem to stem from the, you know, something you've said, the stories that we tell. So you have a degree in politics, a degree in education and three in English. And, and you've taught in high schools and universities, and, and you have unique insights then into how the stories we believe are helping and, and hindering reconciliation, both within the classroom and, and within society at large. And what changes are you starting to see in the narratives that are being upended?
Niigaan Sinclair:
So the most powerful story and the foundational story of Canada, has two parts. The first part is that Canadians have been taught consciously, subconsciously, overtly that they are superior to indigenous peoples. And the second part of that story is that indigenous peoples have been taught to be inferior. And the equal parts to that narrative means that we've built a country in which indigenous peoples don't matter. Indigenous rights don't matter. Indigenous governments don't matter. And therefore, we can justify to ourselves why an Indian act exists here in 2023. The challenge is that until very recently, that narrative has been almost absolutely uninterrupted. And in our lifetime, in the past eight years, like it or not, good, bad, great, ugly we have the most progressive federal government in history that's showing interest. I'm not telling you that they're successful, but they're showing interest.
But I see change happening more in the past decade which gives me encouragement. The problem with that, and the problem with that story of Canadian superiority and indigenous inferiority is every time we take a step, there is a wide scale resistance to that step. And in fact, sometimes, and I think we, we might be in a moment because we are in higher inflation Canada's economy, whenever Canada's economy is under stress you just go take more indigenous land. You go take more indigenous resources, you trample on indigenous rights. That's been the pattern of Canada in the past. And you can see that movement festering and growing and gaining political strength right now with certain segments of the federal government and the provincial government. I think the refusal to look for indigenous women at landfills is a product of that, of that belief of that indigenous peoples don't matter.
So that story's very powerful. But we have to remember that every time we take a step, there is going to be a removal or an attempt to push us back. And I see this right now this is a shameless plug of my own podcast, Niigan and the Lone Ranger, the Free Press podcast. Check it out. Lone Ranger, by the way, is Dan Lepp. He doesn't get a name in the podcast, but he's, an excellent and wonderful co podcaster is that we've been talking a little bit on the show about, in Manitoba, there is some backlash to reconciliation, particularly in certain political circles. And as a result, it's becoming politically favorable again, to be quite racist or to be to say things like I'm not gonna search landfill and get, political points with that.
. And so, there's a real moment, I think, in which, when we take a step that we really have to commit to that, and we have to then hold each other accountable to be able to do that, not just at the university, but also in our workplaces, in our family. And we have to believe in each other. We have to really believe and commit to this work.
And I'll give you just one example of that. We're about to see the largest billion dollar investment in this city's history by Manitobans, meaning in the Noa Odena Project on Route 90, just a few miles from here we're going to see the largest commercial development project. This is not done by some multi corporation from Texas or New York. We're talking about Manitobans building Manitoba,. And we're gonna see billions of dollars that will both be invested and then reap the benefits of, and stay right here. And in Manitoba will be built by who? Indigenous people. You'll also see that downtown with two buildings, the Hudson Bay Development by the Southern Chiefs. And then on the other side of that on Portage Avenue, right downtown with the B M O building, with the Manitoba Metis Federation, it is indigenous peoples who are leading the economy of this place. And therefore, we as a university, I think, have an obligation to really commit to that idea consistently and continually, and not go, okay, we've got this new program. We've got a, a cluster hire of indigenous professors. We need to go put energy elsewhere. We have to consistently commit to that and make sure that we don't just ebb and flow in our commitment to indigenous students, indigenous professors, indigenous knowledge as a whole.
Michael Benarroch:
And it comes back to your point, it is not just when economic times are good, and so we don't feel like we're maybe losing anything individually or threatened to lose anything, but at all times, right? it should become part of the narrative, which, you know, you've talked a lot about.
Niigaan Sinclair:
Yeah. I mean, we can't there's really great thing that my father said to me you know, I was really frustrated about reconciliation. And, I remember he got an honorary degree here a number of years ago. And I was a, you know, a fiery 20 something. He received it from St. John's College in the same building that we're in right now. And I remember this was way before the T R C, and I said to my father, and it was literally before he was getting the degree, which is probably not the greatest time to tell him this, but I said, dad, the fact that you're accepting this honorary PhD from a bunch of Christians is an insult to our people.
Yeah, I'm very popular . But I said that to my father, you know, and I was a fiery 20 year old, and I think rightfully angry. And then I watched my father do something really remarkable. He came out and in front of most of the Anglican leadership of Manitoba at the college hundreds of people who came to see him get an honorary degree. He made an argument for the T R C. He made an argument for an investigation into the issue of residential schools and, that this country needs to commit to survivors and listen to them and believe them.
And when he came off the stage my dad also likes to taunt a little bit.
He said, that's why I do that, right . And I realized in that moment that reconciliation is not just about the good times, it's about having the hard conversations and can we stay in the room? And nobody got up and left. I mean, they probably weren't gonna leave an honorary degree ceremony, but he said some harsh truths to an audience that was there. And a really remarkable thing happened. I think a lot of minds were changed that day. I think a lot of people had a vision of the T R C for the first time. This was way back you know, 15 years before the T R C, about 2002, 2001, 2002. And I too got a vision of change. And I like to think that he was showing me something that day that reconciliation's not just about the easy times, the easy conversations, the territorial acknowledgements and wearing orange shirts on September 30th.
It's about the hard work and the hard work really has yet to take place. How do we return all the stolen land? Or how do we change the fundamental tenets of this country, which are based on capitalism individuality, and frankly, racism that indigenous peoples and nations don't have, get to have a say in anything to do with either provinces or municipalities, or frankly, the federal government. Like, what is it that, what does that really mean? If we had an indigenous parliament, like the Royal Commission on Aboriginal peoples asked us to do right alongside the Canadian Parliament, like that's the vision of reconciliation, is that we would be partners and co-govern Canada. And you know that's, we're a bit a bit of ways from that yet. And I think we're still at the point where we're saying, you know, why are we doing territorial acknowledgements? Like, that's like step one in a billion step journey. I've often heard reconciliation, you know, being talked about as climbing a mountain, right? As, or and so how do we climb up that mountain and continue to move forward?
Michael Benarroch:
and I mean, I think it always works better if we're climbing up that mountain together and we're, pulling each other up, as we go along. And I, I think that's why you've often talked about the importance of education and the importance of truth as we take that journey.
Niigaan Sinclair:
Yeah. I mean, like, to be honest, I didn't want to be in indigenous studies. I had no idea. I had no plans on that. My plan was to go off and be a literary scholar and you know, write about poetry try to be a terrible poet myself, you know, like I was, that was my vision. And so when I left high school teaching in 2004 I went to Oklahoma with the intention to become like a fiction writer, right? And, but soon enough, what I found is a, I'm a terrible fiction writer but what I found was, is that,, the most things that fascinate me the most, the, what I realized is it wasn't really novels and poetry, although that's a really great place to spend your time as a delivery scholar.
The, most incredible stuff that inspired me, that made me a better Anishinaabe, that really convinced me of the amazing brilliance, or what we call indigenous brilliance, or the creativity of our people, the resilience of our people, is archival documents from the 19th century, the 18th century, and reading about the contact that early Anishinaabe people who were the first writers in English. They're the first indigenous peoples to write in English in this country are mostly all Ojibwe, and they're all trained by each other. So George Cowe or, or Peter Jones Kabe or John Sunday, or you know, all the different people, MDOs, George MDOs you know, all these incredible Ojibwe writers in the 19th century. And what they were writing about was love. What they were writing about was truth. What they were writing about is how do we navigate a world that we are being invaded, and yet maintain a sense of Anishinaabe as who we fundamentally are. And that has been something that's driven me as a writer for now writing in the newspaper. And how do we lead in Anishinaabe way and maintain ourselves in a world full of hatred and racism and much conflict? How do we maintain ourselves in the face of all of that, and then bring people also along that journey as well,
Michael Benarroch:
That's beautiful. And,to think off a world where we could live that way. I think, it's something we can only at this point imagine, but it does seem like in many ways we've headed in other directions recently with all the division that there is in the world.
Niigaan Sinclair:
Well,, yes, I agree. I mean, but the thing that really frustrates me is I often get the question, when do we know reconciliation's here? Right? Like, somehow, like, like it's gonna be like, you know, those like, or like with those little confetti guns, like it's gonna be boom, you know, it's all here. Reconciliation has arrived. Reconciliation will never be that. Here's what it will be. It will be moments. And we have witnessed many moments in our life that, and I wrote a column one time where I started off by saying, if you wanna see reconciliation drive by any school playground on September 30th, and especially elementary. And so what do you see is you see kids from all walks of life wearing orange shirts playing together trying to figure each other out, and then arguing, and that's reconciliation.
And it only lasts for recess, or maybe, that's the thing about reconciliation. It's just gonna be a moment, right?
My job in my lifetime is to try to make the recess the 10 minutes into 12, into 15 into maybe an hour, maybe we'll get lucky, and it will be a year, maybe we'll get lucky. And it will be a generation one day, that's all reconciliation can be because it's something that involves consistent, continual, endless work, because that's what relationships require. And we have a huge body of work behind us, and currently in front of us that are, gonna encourage us not to act in a kind and just, and equitable way to honor treaties, to honor our relationships, to see each other as human beings. So as a result, we're constantly gonna be sort of wrecked outta that moment, and then back to the same old of treating indigenous peoples, like they don't matter treating Canadians like they're the only ones that matter. And so how can we make that moment last into moments?
Michael Benarroch:
Thank you. Thank you for that. And, and, and we're almost outta time. And,, and I would be remiss to not ask you about the book that you're working on now, and if you can tell us what the title is and what ideas are you're exploring.
Niigaan Sinclair:
So says McClellan and Stewart, which is Imprint of Penguin. So this book is is based on my columns with the Winnipeg Free Press. And what I've written over the years is pieces about my experiences in Winnipeg. So, for instance a story that I've told about is about the Keanan Center. So the Keanan Center is an indigenous senior care facility that has been neglected by the W R H A. And what you have is this really weird anomaly in the city where you have all these residential school survivors who are being mistreated in the worst of ways that are reminiscent of residential school to show that the, that kind of treatment of elders is still very much endemic to the healthcare system.
Anyway, so I wrote that piece. And so the publisher in Toronto contacted me and said, we'd really like to hear about a perspective of Winnipeg in the good, the bad, the great, the ugly. But I think that, you know, when we have people parachute in the city from Toronto for 20 minutes and then make comments about us I think that is the most a it's the most Toronto thing you could possibly do.
And then two it is something that I think people have a vision of Winnipeg that is very one dimensional, and they don't see that it is Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon Edmonton, Calgary Thunder Bay. It is these places that will lead the country on the most important issue. It will never be Toronto, it will never be Montreal, it will never be auto, and that's not bashing those places. But they just don't have the proportional people. They don't have the organizations, they don't have the history that we do here in Manitoba to deal on the most pivotal issue, the issue that will deal with climate change, inflation that will deal with the issue of war and peace and, and what will be our forthcoming battle over water and resources in this country. the solutions will come from the prairies, it will come from this place from. And so that's what the, that book's about.
That's my Intro by the way, , which me, and I'll not be sold anywhere outside of the Thunder Bay. I don't think they're actually gonna sell, even try to sell it out there.
Michael Benarroch:
So I think we'll all look forward to being published and have an opportunity to read it. Many of us really enjoy your pieces in the free press all the time. And I think like those pieces today you've spoken your truth and, and you've given us a lot to think about and you've challenged us to be better and to extend those moments of reconciliation when 12 minutes to 15 to 20 and, and longer. And for that we are so grateful. Thank you.
We're gonna take some questions, okay? We're gonna open the floor.
Audience member:
Hello. Thank you for that discussion of education. I'll ask what can we do to service remote and rural First nation communities with research and education programs, community led. They don't wanna immediately come to Winnipeg and they may never wanna come to Winnipeg. They do want education and there's no opportunities for them. And because, you know, it costs a lot to come here. They have to fly out of these communities and they see the racism as well.
Niigaan Sinclair:
Right? Also I experienced this firsthand when we send students from the north here we have really wonderful supports on campus, but then they go out to their apartment or they go out to the city. And, you know, frankly, if you're coming from p Walken, if you're coming from Norway house, coming from Pless, you know there's more things to do here than and more trouble to get into than almost, you know, anything people have experienced in their life. And so for a lot of our students, you, there's a lot of stress.
And, the band funding is always stop, start not because of mismanagement by First Nation, but because Ottawa sends the money for post-secondary funding after they send the list of post-secondary students. So usually what ends up happening is that's always delayed for a lot of First Nations. 'cause They don't know who's going to university. So they get, they send in the list in late August, money's sent to fund those students in mid-September. What happens to those, two weeks? Students are sleeping in IC or they're literally the first food that we feed during that orientation week is, that's the only meal they're getting that day.
We have to face the reality that when we when we have indigenous students they bring unique challenges that are far bigger than the university. And that may mean we have to think beyond the university.
And that's not be giving indigenous peoples extra or special, or that's just re being a university that's responsible to be, you know, that's, that wasn't your question. Your question is how do we support the community ? So I think that this has been something that I've struggled with. there's a really great term that the mayor always uses. And so I'm gonna steal it from the mayor. 'cause Lately I've been thinking wraparound services, meaning that we have to think beyond just the students enrolled. And so how do we now make sure that they have the full support to be on campus that they're not on campus? And that's gonna involve partnership, that's gonna involve empowering, and it's gonna involve resources.
Michael Benarroch:
On the issue of you know, education outside the, the University of Manitoba does have funds through, fundraising to set up, five learning hubs in indigenous communities. We've set one up, we're on the process of the second one and the third and the third. So, and, the ideas on some of the things that Ngan has spoke, spoken about a place where you can actually go and take a course, and it's not just a course at U F m,, any educational institution, could use it and the students could take it from there. The technology, a staff member there. And so the idea is to really create these learning centers across different parts of the province to try to serve the community. And hopefully over the next few years we'll see quite a bit of uptake to those as a pilot.
And then, you know, our hope is always that additional resources will come forward so that, you know, I've heard from students from all parts of Manitoba that they don't mind coming to, to Winnipeg for a couple of years for the degree, but it'd be nice if they could stay at home for a year or two and do part of their degree at home. And they have strong ties to home and and their parents and their communities know that if they come here for four years, it's less likely to go back. But if those ties remain, it's more likely for that. They'll go back and contribute to their communities.
Michael Benarroch:
So I think we're out of time. I want to thank you for tonight. It was a fascinating conversation. Thank you, Dr. Sinclair.
Niigaan Sinclair:
Thanks
Michael Benarroch:
Great. Thank you so much.
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Michael Benarroch: Thank you so much for listening to another episode of “What’s the Big Idea”.
‘Reconciliation is not just about the good times, it's about having the hard conversations’ this is just one of the many powerful insights I’ll be taking away from this episode.
If you enjoyed our conversation, share it with a friend and make sure to subscribe, rate and review the series.
Next time, I’ll be joined by Nazim Cicek, a Professor in the Department of Biosystems Engineering here at the university. We’ll be exploring how research can support sustainable agriculture that addresses food shortages and climate change concerns- a vital conversation for these times.
For more information about the university and its global impact, visit umanitoba.ca. See you next time!
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