Carleton’s Stories North Showcase to Highlight Student Experiences

In the summer of 2017, Carleton University’s Stories North grappled with the concept of reconciliation in light of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Stories North invites students, staff, faculty and members of the public to meet the people behind an experiential learning course connecting Carleton students with the Yukon, its histories, cultures and contemporary debates.

School of Journalism and Communication Professor Kanina Holmes created and led the Stories North course as a direct response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s call for journalism schools to help build student capacity for intercultural understanding, empathy and mutual respect. Fifteen students jumped right into a series of active learning sessions upon arriving in Whitehorse. Sessions included walk-n-talk mobile lectures, a blanket exercise conducted by a member of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation, attending National Aboriginal Day celebrations, participating in a public panel on Indigenous representation in Yukon co-organized by Journalists for Human Rights, a residential schools workshop led by local Indigenous leaders, and a canoe trip down the Yukon River.

Alan Steele, director of the Discovery Centre for Undergraduate Research and Engagement and a representative from the Office of the Associate Vice-President (Teaching and Learning) will discuss experiential learning and Holmes will discuss the course before introducing the students and their work they did with Yukon First Nations and other community members.