USask graduate encourages Indigenous students to ‘keep going’

By Kristen McEwen

Indigenous University of Saskatchewan (USask) student Arin Bear has been surrounded by books and a love of reading their entire life. 

“I was always a huge reader growing up,” Bear said. “My grandmother’s a librarian, so I grew up in a library—several libraries.”

On June 3, Bear will be attending the USask Spring Convocation to receive their Bachelor of Arts degree in English. Their grandmother and mother will be cheering them on as they cross the stage at Merlis Belsher Place on Tuesday. 

From Muskoday First Nation, Bear grew up in Prince Albert and later moved with their family to Saskatoon as a teenager. In high school, they found that English was one of their favourite subjects, which made majoring in English at USask a natural decision.

Once they started English courses at the USask College of Arts and Science, Bear felt a strong connection to focus on Indigenous literature.

“I didn’t really go into university expecting to focus on Indigenous literatures, even as an Indigenous person,” they said.

Bear began to lean into learning more about Indigenous literatures. That’s when they began to discover more opportunities on campus.

In the last year of their undergraduate studies, they accepted a position as a research assistant for a project led by Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Storytelling and USask English professor Dr. Kristina Fagan Bidwell (PhD). The project, WISH “We’re Still Here,” amplifies the stories of Indigenous communities and expands public and scholarly understandings of reconciliation, Bear said.

They also had an opportunity to engage with the Mitacs Indigenous Research Award (INDRA) program. They also worked in the USask Department of History’s Co-Lab: Centre for Community Engaged and Collaborative Historical Research, led by director and USask history assistant professor Dr. Cheryl Troupe (PhD). For the project, Bear catalogued periodical publications and studied local Métis events and places.

While research opportunities were highlights of Bear’s university experience, they also had some challenges making it through academic terms.

“I’m a person who has patterns of having better terms and worse terms,” Bear said. “That was a bit of a struggle, going through those terms where I don’t feel like I'm doing the best of my ability, academically or personally, and learning how to keep going despite all of that—despite feeling that self-doubt.” 

Bear found some support through the ISAP (Indigenous Student Achievement Pathways) classes. ISAP learning communities creates cohorts of Indigenous students with shared academic goals, who gather weekly with upper-year peer mentors.

Though Bear wasn’t part of ISAP during their first few years of university, they enjoyed the classes they ended up taking through the program.

“I really enjoyed ISAP,” they said. “I wish I had known about ISAP going into university.

“These small cohorts of Indigenous peoples—being in a class that was a majority of Indigenous students was something really special. It wasn’t something I experienced before and I loved that class. I felt very comfortable in it—I felt like we all kind of knew each other on a different level.” 

Looking ahead to the future, Bear is planning on pursuing their master’s degree in English at USask. 

“I’m going to continue with (my) interest in Indigenous literatures for sure. I’m trying to zoom in on some local Indigenous literatures—(in) Saskatchewan, the Prairies—and seeing what (literature) is coming out of these places and why is it important. What does it say about the Prairies? What does it say about Saskatchewan or Saskatoon?” 

For Indigenous students currently, or planning on, attending university, Bear emphasized the importance of persistence. 

“Learning how to push through it all despite feeling kind of down—despite feeling like you can’t go through it thinking, ‘Oh my God, graduation is so far away. I can’t do it.’” Bear said. “It comes a lot sooner than you think it will. Even if you feel like it’s never going to happen, it will happen. It’s just a matter of ‘keep going.’”