BCIT welcomes Indigenous Storyteller in Residence

The BCIT School of Business + Media’s  Broadcast and Media Communications Department  welcomes Robert Jago as its first Indigenous Storyteller in Residence. Robert is a journalist, podcaster, educator, historian, and governance consultant. He is a member of the Kwantlen First Nation and Nooksack Indian Tribe.

In this new role, Robert will engage with students, faculty, and staff across the following diploma programs – Broadcast and Online Journalism, Radio Arts and Entertainment, and Television and Video Production. He will provide guidance on connecting and building relationships with Indigenous communities and telling Indigenous stories. He will assist in advancing Reconciliation, Indigenous awareness and increasing understanding, and sensitivity in storytelling and content creation. Robert offers valuable insight into Indigenizing curriculum, building trust, and creating connections, allowing programs to be more comprehensive in approaches to learning, equipping graduates with valuable skills and a more robust understanding of colonialism, Indigenous history, and contemporary issues affecting Indigenous people and broader society.

“My belief is to teach people from outside our communities some fundamentals before we get into the stories themselves. Those fundamentals include the difference between types of knowledge, they include our concepts of intellectual property, the history of excluding Native people from copyright and trademark protections, the difference between cultural appreciation and cultural appropriation, and the human rights situation on reserve that can make speaking to reporters dangerous,” says Robert Jago. “When people are equipped with the fundamentals, then the risk of them doing things the wrong way is minimized. And that’s part of what my work here will entail. I want to be the living breathing #AskMeAnything for student questions about telling Indigenous stories.”

BCIT Broadcast and Media Communications acknowledges its ongoing responsibility to respond to Truth and Reconciliation Commission (“TRC”) Call to Action No. 86 (“CTA 86”):

We call upon Canadian journalism programs and media schools to require education for all students on the history of Aboriginal peoples, including the history and legacy of residential schools, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaties and Aboriginal rights, Indigenous law, and Aboriginal-Crown relations.

Since the release of the TRC Report in 2015, programs in the Broadcast and Media Communications Department have adjusted curriculum and course content to broaden and deepen Indigenous knowledge, include Indigenous voices, and to engage more robustly with Indigenous issues.

“By introducing an Indigenous Storyteller in Residence, BCIT Broadcast and Media Communications is taking an important next step in forming more meaningful connections between Indigenous communities, students, and faculty, in helping to fulfill CTA 86. The department seeks to honour Indigenous cultures and to promote intercultural understanding and communication,” says Daniel Getz, Associate Dean of Broadcast and Media Communications.

Robert acknowledges, “It’s already intimidating to speak with a stranger and ask them invasive questions, to film them, or to put them on the air. Add in colonialism, cancel culture, and every stereotype you’ve unconsciously been given about Indigenous people and it’s understandable that many early career people steer away from engaging with us. But that doesn’t have to be the case. I’d like to be here to help make that easier, to let you know what approaches might be wrong, which are right, and to help steer students back on to the right path. And when I can’t do it myself, I’m also here to connect students and faculty with people who can. “

The BCIT School of Business + Media Dean Kenton Low notes, “Robert brings incredibly valuable skills, knowledge, and experience to BCIT, including a hands-on media industry background, ensuring that his engagement with Broadcast students and faculty is doubly meaningful.”

Kory Wilson, Executive Director, BCIT Indigenous Initiatives and Partnerships, who was instrumental in bringing Robert on board, says, “Indigenous people have a long history of storytelling and witnessing. It is how our history is passed down and it is integral to governance in our communities. It is important the true history of Indigenous people and our contemporary realities be told in an unbiased way and in ways that are constructive and not destructive. For far too long our stories and realities have been told by others without an accurate understanding or real reflection. With Robert in residence, BCIT will begin to truly ‘action’ Call to Action 86 and our grads will be better for it.”

The British Columbia Institute of Technology acknowledges that our campuses are located on the unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish Nations of xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh).