Indigenous grads at Red Deer Polytechnic surprised with gifts by student services staff

Samantha Schwientek · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 18, 2025 7:34 PM EDT | Last Updated: 35 minutes ago

Indigenous graduates of Red Deer Polytechnic in Alberta this twelvemonth were surprised when they were fixed gifts — including a broad featuring a achromatic buffalo — from the school's Indigenous Students Services office. 

Lloyd Desjarlais, dean of Indigenous initiatives, said it was designation from the instauration "that they are Indigenous; they are unique." 

"And I deliberation it did drawback a fewer of them disconnected defender but, you know, each pleasantly amazed and precise happy."

Desjarlais, who is from Piapot First Nation successful Saskatchewan, said Justice Soosay and Kimberly Potts, who enactment astatine the Indigenous Student Services office, were the driving unit down the idea. 

All 3 are erstwhile students of the schoolhouse who recognize the challenges that Indigenous students look — and they wanted to observe their accomplishments, helium added. 

"[None] of america received thing similar this arsenic graduates so we conscionable benignant of privation to beryllium the radical that we needed erstwhile we were students," helium said. 

"There are antithetic needs and antithetic ways that they request support, whether it's from our section oregon from the institution."

The schoolhouse has enactment enactment into its reconciliation program and Desjarlais said services for Indigenous students contiguous are acold much robust than erstwhile helium was studying. 

The schoolhouse has 63 self-identified Indigenous students graduating this year, which Desjarlais said is the largest cohort he has seen since helium began his enactment 8 years ago. 

"The fig keeps increasing each year," helium said.

Creating the design

Lisa Big Snake, co-owner of Snake Stitch, created the blankets for the grads. She said the plan of the achromatic buffalo and handprints was thing she thought astir a lot. 

Big Snake, who is simply a subordinate of the Siksika Nation successful Treaty 7, said she was inspired by the saying that acquisition is the caller buffalo. 

She said adding handprints was a awesome to the Every Child Matters run and encircling the buffalo with them represents unity. 

Receiving a broad is an honour successful galore First Nations, she added.

"Every postgraduate that convocated is going to person thing that they're going to hold with pride, and that achromatic buffalo volition springiness them the spot to transportation retired that," Big Snake said. 

The thought for the blankets came precocious truthful Big Snake lone had a mates weeks to marque them but said it wasn't a occupation for the family-run operation. 

"We got a bully crew," she said, adding that her children each enactment with her.

Knowing that her enactment is being fixed to graduates connected this important juncture is exciting, she said. 

"We ne'er cognize wherever those graduates are going to extremity up moving successful this world."

Two students successful peculiar stood retired arsenic "super grateful" for the gifts, according to Desjarlais. Those students did their full four-year degrees astatine the schoolhouse and saw the improvements the schoolhouse has made successful presumption of the services for Indigenous students, helium said. 

The school's enactment connected reconciliation has helped students woody with communal obstacles like finances, household issues or adjacent reconnecting with their cultures, according to Desjarlais. 

"They were truly grateful to person the gifts and they were thankful for [Soosay and Potts] for making the effort to deliberation astir them," Desjarlais said.