UBC introduced its new Indigenous Strategic Plan in September, 2020 in the early months of the pandemic. Each unit -large and small- was called upon to implement the plan. The ISP included a self-assessment device that each unit could follow, if they wished, in implementing the ISP.
This story is part of a series of stories exploring how various units across campus are implementing the ISP.
In preparation for this story I sent an email request to my media contact Matthew Ramsey. I explained that I was working on a story on how various units on campus are implementing the Indigenous Strategic Plan in their internal workings and asked for his assistance. I further explained that I was specifically interested in whether the units have done the self-study as part of their implementation of the ISP, what aspects of the ISP are they specifically focussed on, and how they have adapted/modified their practice in light of implementing the ISP within their unit. I emphasized that I would like to talk to someone, as opposed to be sent a statement.
I received the following from Kurt Heinrich, Senior Director UBC Media Relations, in response:
“Matt sent along your request. We’ll decline the opportunity to do an interview, but if it would still be helpful for your story, happy to send along a brief statement outlining work underway in our unit to support the ISP. Let us know if you’d like a statement.”
I replied that a statement would work. Shortly thereafter I received their statement.
We recognize and take seriously the role that Communications plays in the implementation of the ISP at UBC and the fulfillment of the TRC Calls to Action, and the ways in which our work impacts not only Indigenous scholars and community at UBC, but the role it can play in the public sphere. Our work in this area is ongoing and continually evolving.
In 2020, we reviewed both the ISP (Indigenous Strategic Plan) and IAP (Inclusion Action Plan) to inform what would become MR’s own action plan. This included using both the ISP and IAP self-assessment tools to identify which areas of both plans were most relevant to our unit’s function, where we would be able to make the most impact and what was within our sphere and control. To that end, ISP goals 2 (Advocating for truth) and 7 (Providing tools for success) were identified as areas where media relations could make an impact, and specific implementation goals were incorporated into our ongoing unit-level business and strategic plans.
Some examples of how we are working on those goals include:
ISP Goal 2 (Advocating for truth):
Updating Media Relations’ strategic story selection matrix to prioritize, resource and increase the sharing of stories, work and research at UBC that facilitates public dialogue about truth, reconciliation and the recognition of Indigenous people’s human rights. This includes, but is not limited to, proactively sharing scholarly work from Indigenous faculty and students at UBC, facilitating opportunities for Indigenous scholars and experts to provide public commentary on ongoing, timely topics of relevance, and highlighting community engagement and strategic initiatives that advance the ISP at UBC.
Monthly meetings with communicators and leaders from Indigenous-focused units and community UBC including OISI, IRSI, FNHL and IRSHDC to collaborate with and share priority stories, events and initiatives from those units with the wider UBC community and general public. An example of where this connects to the implementation and advancement of the ISP at UBC includes sharing ISI-funded project outcomes.
Identification of key days of significance in collaboration with Indigenous experts at UBC to engage media through proactive outreach around truth, reconciliation and the recognition of Indigenous people’s human rights.
Incorporation of Indigenous expertise and perspective into relevant issues management work
ISP Goal 7 (Providing tools for success)
Regular, ongoing opportunities for team reflection and learning on our communications and outreach practices with Indigenous scholars at UBC at our weekly editorial meetings. Examples include learnings around respectful language and communication, images and collaborative storytelling.
This year, together with our colleagues at UBC Brand and Marketing, we have engaged an external facilitator to help us review our outreach and communications practices, with a focus on Indigenous engagement and other equity-seeking groups on campus. This will include extensive community consultation and feedback to develop strategies and approaches to improve our communications practices. Our aim is to help increase the diversity of voices in the media and public dialogue by better supporting our scholars to engage with the media in a way that is mutually beneficial. This is in recognition of historical and ongoing imbalances of representation and stories in the media, and UBC’s own storytelling.
Working closely with Indigenous subject matter experts at UBC to review any communications materials we send out, and incorporating feedback into our final materials.
Online training on truth, reconciliation and UNDRIP for various leaders on the team.
Organizing an Indigenous writing workshop in collaboration with a number of other university units to learn how to incorporate principles of UNDRIP into our writing and communications work.
Providing media training opportunities for Indigenous scholars, students and staff at UBC to share their stories and research with the general public.
In collaboration with UBC colleagues, organizing a “Telling Indigenous Stories (Indigenous Communications Workshop)” to share learnings and best practices with communicators across campus through the UBC Triple C professional development series.
I asked a series of follow up questions:
“Can you elaborate on how your work is evolving? Do you use the word ‘evolve’ to imply slow gradual cumulative change over time ? Or do you mean purposeful change oriented in a particular direction?”
“I am curious about the strategic story selection matrix and how that includes proactively sharing scholarly work from Indigenous faculty. Does this mean that since 2020 you have proactively shared more work from Indigenous faculty per annum than prior to 2020? Do you have a summary of the specific Indigenous faculty whose work you have proactively shared and links to the stories/releases written?”
“Can you provide examples of how you have incorporated Indigenous expertise and perspectives into relevant issues and management work?”
Here are the responses to my follow up questions:
“Regarding your follow ups - I think the evolving has been a bit of both – gradual accumulation as we have learned more but more recently we are also hoping to be even more focused and impactful in our efforts.”
“In terms of proactive efforts, we have actually been trying to track our activities around strategic areas of focus – reconciliation is one of these key themes - so we can track progress. We have seen quantitative progress over the past three years – at least in terms of media interactions supported by the team connecting media to our scholars on indigenous-related topics/stories and pitching said stories to media. In terms of stories, we tend to list most (though not all) stories on our news.ubc.ca website.”
“The stories we shared below tended to be ones that got some media traction but there are many others we have worked on which have included UBC Indigenous academics.”
“In terms of issues management advice, we have received a great deal of support and guidance from Senior Advisor to the President on Indigenous Affairs - her input has been invaluable and we have also gotten very helpful input at times from other Indigenous staff. … Regarding how this works, generally we invite our experts into our issues mgmt. process and they participate in issues discussions/calls and provide advice on any key messaging, appropriate channels as well as any other considerations that may be unique to Indigenous audiences we need to be thoughtful about.”
It would have been nicer to meet in person. Though the statement provides way more info than I would likely have asked for.
I agree it's a reasonable amount of information they gave you, but to me it's fairly clear that their focus is maintenance of their control. This isn't surprising, and mainstream white perspectives might be incredulous at me even pointing that out. It does reveal that they really just don't understand what's at stake though. It just seems so obvious to me to reach out to the Musqueam people whose land they acknowledge all the time to get some feedback and take it seriously, for example.