National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

For more than 30 years, we’ve had the privilege of working alongside First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities. Those relationships have shaped who we are as an organization and how we work.

For us, that means making sure Indigenous people are represented throughout our organization and in leadership – from our board to our front-line instructors. It means policies that recognize things like paid time for ceremony and cultural responsibilities. It means listening to our Indigenous partners and acting on what they tell us. And it means ensuring our Indigenous programming is led and designed by Indigenous people, with Elders, Knowledge Keepers and Cultural Practitioners helping guide the work.

It also means challenging the way we sometimes talk about STEM itself.

Indigenous Peoples have always been scientists, engineers, innovators and stewards of sophisticated knowledge systems. Indigenous Knowledge isn’t something we simply “add” to STEM programming. It changes and expands how we understand STEM, and there is so much we have to learn from it.

Today, Actua’s InSTEM program reaches more than 40,000 Indigenous youth each year. I’m incredibly grateful for the trust that communities place in us, but I also know that trust has to be earned and re-earned through our actions.

So on September 30, we pause and reflect. And on October 1, and every day after that, we keep listening, learning and doing the work.