To all members of the Carleton community,
We are pleased to announce that Carleton has added more than 40 pre-approved smudge-friendly spaces on campus, including the Architecture Building and Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre, which are the first buildings to be entirely smudge-friendly.
Smudging is a tradition common to many First Nations and Métis communities that involves the burning of one or more medicines gathered from the earth. The four sacred medicines primarily used in First Nations and Métis ceremonies are tobacco, sage, cedar and sweetgrass.
As per Calls 7, 9, 17, 24 and, more specifically, 28, from the Kinàmàgawin Report, and The Indigenous Spiritual Practices subsection of the Ontario Human Rights Code, it has been a priority for Carleton to reduce the barrier of engaging in Indigenous spirituality and ceremony on campus.
To ensure that the use of traditional medicines does not trigger smoke and heat-detecting alarms, various locations on campus have been assessed and designated by the Department of Environmental Health and Safety. This means that in these spaces, there is no longer a pre-approval process requirement for smudging. For all other spaces on campus, please continue to request approval at least one week in advance.
Yesterday, Carleton’s Senior Management Committee approved an updated policy that formally recognizes the unique relationship that many Indigenous cultures have with traditional and sacred medicine. Over the next week, Facilities and Management Planning will install signage in all smudge-friendly locations to indicate where smudging can occur without pre-approval.
If you would like to know more about the practice of smudging, please reach out to the Centre for Indigenous Support and Community Engagement.
We appreciate the collaborative work that has been undertaken to implement this important initiative.
Sincerely,
Benny MichaudDirector, Centre for Indigenous Support and Community Engagement
L. Pauline RankinProvost and Vice-President (Academic)