Arctic Yearbook 2014
175
to them… listening to each other talk about what we’re doing or what someone is going
through. (#10)
Team work and solidarity is another approach when supporting each other:
Just to be understanding cause we’re all in this together… we’re searching for something
together and I think if you realize that you’re going to be open to supporting one
another. It’s always motivating to see women that have pursued something and achieved
something and they did it with sometimes very little means and not a lot of support.
(#10)
Students build relationships and share resources:
We work together and we talk amongst each other and we tell each other stuff. Like for
example one of the students that I work with had a hard time finding places to go,
places for their children to go. They wanted them to be active and so our group gave
her a list of places to go [with her children]. So it’s just confiding with somebody or
letting somebody know what’s bothering you. That person may know somebody else
that has either experienced it or you know somebody that can help in dealing with it.
(#23)
Working together on class projects was also a source of support among female students.
More group work, because when we come to school after hours we take into
consideration “okay, do you have kids?”, “are there any recreation activities that you
need to go to?”. It’s just that on the scheduling part, we find out we can’t come because
I’ve got to travel for work or my daughter has gymnastics that evening. So, when we do
work together we sometimes take a break and we ask “hey, where did you come from?”
“Do you have family here?” And we just talk. (#23)
For many of the students, family was a foundational source of support, although not all students had
family close by. A significant number of students come from northern communities in the region.
I honestly grew up thinking that I wasn’t good enough even though I was an A student
and I just always had the feeling I couldn’t do it and I learned that I can even though
we’ve overcome all of these odds or had to go through all of this… I can do anything
and I’ve got the support of my family and I think for me I also learned that getting a bad
grade on a paper is nothing compared to the other stuff that we’ve gone through. (#5)
The majority of students also described how going to school close to home made their academic
success possible. Being able to pursue a post-secondary education in northern Manitoba where
university programs included Aboriginal course content, multidisciplinary teaching and small class
sizes all contributed to reducing geographical and cultural barriers, as a participant commented,
“Being here in the north is one of the conditions that has made it [success] possible” (#6).
Attending post-secondary education in the north allows students to keep their connection with their
families and communities and continue contributing to the development of their own communities.
“We’re All in This Together”