A number of SFU faculty and students are available to comment on the importance of National Aboriginal Day, Friday, June 21 and share thoughts on Aboriginal issues within their area of expertise.

Jon Driver, SFU VP-Academic, can comment on how the university’s strategic plan is developing more opportunities for Aboriginal students and integrating Aboriginal issues into the university’s curriculum. He can also address why and how SFU’s new Indigenous Research Institute is fostering collaborative research that aims to remedy challenges facing indigenous populations globally, and Canadian Aboriginal people in particular.

Jon Driver, reachable through Sharon Eng, SFU VP-Academic office, 778.782.3925, vpacad@sfu.ca

John O’Neil, SFU Faculty of Health Sciences dean and professor, has published more than 120 papers and reports on a variety of Aboriginal health issues. They include self-government and health system development, cultural understandings of environmental health risks, and social determinants of health disparities. O’Neil can comment on the role of the new First Nations Health Authority in improving Aboriginal people’s health and health care.

John O’Neil, 778.782.5361, joneil@sfu.ca

Malcolm King, a member of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation (Ojibway), is an SFU Faculty of Health Sciences professor. In his role as scientific director of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Institute of Aboriginal Peoples’ Health, he leads the development of a national health research agenda aimed at improving wellness and achieving health equity for First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Peoples in Canada. His international research interests include improving Aboriginal health through workforce development and provision of culturally appropriate care, and developing Aboriginal health indicators to monitor progress in programs aimed at achieving health equity.

Malcolm King, 778.782.9589, malcolm_king@sfu.ca

Brenda Morrison, SFU associate professor of criminology, Centre for Restorative Justice director and a social psychologist, can talk about what she calls the “disproportionate representation of Aboriginal youth in our criminal justice system. Current strategies are not enough.” At the invitation of the federal Department of Fisheries (DFO), which often uses restorative justice to negotiate fisheries-related issues involving Aboriginal people, Morrison is canoeing with the DFO as part of National Aboriginal Day in Squamish. As an ambassador with Reconciliation Canada, she can discuss how restorative justice and the reconciliation processes dovetail.

Brenda Morrison, 778.782.7627, 778.668.1827 (cell), brendam@sfu.ca

Veselin Jungic, a senior lecturer in SFU’s mathematics department and the co-founder of Math Catcher: Mathematics Through Aboriginal Storytelling, can discuss the program’s phenomenal success in engaging Aboriginal elementary and high-school kids in learning. Aimed at popularizing math and scholarship in general to help Aboriginal youth ultimately qualify for higher education, the community-outreach initiative has reached more than 1,600 kids across B.C. in the last year with its animated films and workshops.

Veselin Jungic, 778.782.3340, vjungic@irmacs.sfu.ca

Mary-Ellen Kelm, an associate professor in SFU’s history department and associate dean of graduate studies-students, can discuss her research on First Nations-run health centres. She is assessing how the centres help young Aboriginal people make healthy reproductive choices and how community-based knowledge networks can be used to disseminate up-to-date information about contraceptive choices.

Mary-Ellen Kelm, 778.782.7299, kelm@sfu.ca

J.R. Welch, associate professor and Canada Research Chair, SFU Department of Archaeology/School of Resource and Environmental Management, has studied First Nations people in Arizona and New Mexico for more than 30 years. Through this lens he can address broad questions about how culture- and place-based communities define, protect, use and sustain their biophysical and cultural heritage.

John R. Welch, (on June 21, 520.991.1739, cell), 778.782.6726, welch@sfu.ca, Skype: jr.welch