Nathan Matthew

Nathan Matthew outside his TRU office.

Today I interviewed Nathan Matthew, the director of Aboriginal Education at Thompson Rivers University. He’s Simpcw, which is a Secwepemc band by the North Thompson near Barrier. He’s a former chief who led his community from 1976 to 77, 1985 to 87 and again from 1989 to 2006.

He was an administrator of the Kamloops Residential School and served as First Nations representative to the provincial Education Advisory and a political advisor and negotiator for the First Nations Education Steering Committee.

I met with him at his office at the Kamloops TRU campus. It’s tucked under the stairs of the Old Main building. The boardroom was filled with boxes and on the back wall was a huge drum with a with a medicine wheel painted on it.

Largest in the Southern Interior, I’m told by Matthew.

I sat down with him for a half hour interview that ranged from his role at TRU to his own experiences as a community leader. I asked him if I could call him an elder and he looked awkward. That comment was followed by a conversation about how people might see you as an elder, but it’s hard to know when you are old enough and experienced enough to be one.

After the half an hour, I wrapped up my microphone, but we kept talking for another 20 minutes. We talked about how First Nations people need to be proactively involved the policy and programs that affect them.  It was an interesting wide-ranging conversation.

I will go through the interview and post some of his comments on post-secondary education and on residential schools along with some audio clips from our conversation so you can hear it yourself. He’s got some interesting comments on what First Nations people need to do to gain a sense of value so stay tuned!