This year, the Queen’s Native Students’ Association (QNSA) wants to get people of all backgrounds involved in Aboriginal Awareness Week. The week, which runs from March 16-21, celebrates indigenous histories and cultures with a wide array of events.

“I’ve often found that when I tell people about QNSA and the work we do, they feel like they can’t take part because they aren’t of indigenous ancestry, or if they are, because they don’t feel connected to that part of themselves,” says Leah Combs (Artsci’16), President of QNSA. “We want our events to be spaces where anyone can learn about these issues and not feel like they’re stepping out of their place.”

Among the week’s events are a bannock sale at University Avenue and Union Street, a medicine shield-making workshop at Four Directions Aboriginal Student Centre and a panel discussion in Grant Hall about missing and murdered aboriginal women. The panel discussion, which concludes the Our Stolen Sisters radio series by CFRC, will feature Queen’s professors Robert Lovelace (Global Development Studies), Sam McKegney (English Language and Literature), as well as Dr. Dawn Harvard, President of the Native Women’s Association of Canada.

Capping off the week will be the Indigenous Celebration of Arts, Culture and Dance, held for the first time at the newly-opened Tett Centre. Along with crafts and traditional food vendors, the celebration will have a performance by a Haudenosaunee water drummer, Metis jigging, and performance by the Red Spirit Singers and Dancers.

Throughout Aboriginal Awareness Week, QNSA will have a history exhibit in the lower ceilidh of the John Deutsch University Centre. They’ve worked with the City of Kingston to create a visual presentation of Kingston’s indigenous peoples throughout history.

“We’re trying to tie in histories of indigenous groups in Kingston to groups that are here now — we want to bring the past to the present and look towards the future.”

Along with raising awareness about indigenous issues, many of the week’s events will raise funds to support a new initiative started by QNSA. With the Northern Food Security Initiative, the QNSA is sponsoring an impoverished Inuit family who live in Taloyoak, Nunavut. Each month, the group is sending the family traditionally hunted foods, such as musk ox and caribou, or supplies of their choosing. Donation boxes will be present at each of the week’s events for those looking to make a contribution.

“It’s important to understand that the issues indigenous peoples in Canada face are the responsibilities of all Canadians, not just those with indigenous ancestry,” says Ms. Combs.

View the full schedule of Aboriginal Awareness Week events.

While the Ebola crisis in West Africa has primarily disappeared from the headlines, the ravages of the deadly virus continue.

Mainstream media attention has moved on, yet the international effort to contain the outbreak continues and a Queen’s University professor is in Sierra Leone and Liberia working to improve the response to the disease.

Udo Schuklenk (Philosophy) traveled to the affected areas to produce a report on expanded access to experimental drugs for Ebola patients for Medecins Sans Frontieres. Dr. Schuklenk has done continuing research on the issue of access to experimental drugs for catastrophically-ill patients ever since he undertook his doctoral research in the 1990s.

It’s been an eye-opening experience he says. Hearing the stories from survivors first-hand and seeing the effects of the virus will certainly have a lasting impact.

“As part of the consultancy work I am undertaking I had to talk to a number of Ebola survivors. The harrowing stories of whole families being wiped out one after another is not something that I will forget for quite some time to come. Truly devastating experiences,” he says. “It will take a long time for those survivors’ wounds to heal, if they ever will.”

Those who enter the outbreak zone are walking into another world, one where nobody is allowed to touch another person. Dr. Schuklenk says the no-contact policy takes some getting used and affects daily interactions.

Also, to prevent further spread of the virus there are “endless disinfection rituals,” involving chlorine solutions of various strengths. Hand washing is so regimented and rigorous that it takes up a significant portion of the day. Even shoes are sprayed pretty much continuously, he says.

There are reminders that the crisis is far from over.

A day after Dr. Schuklenk sent his replies to the Gazette’s questions Sierra Leone’s vice president was put into quarantine after his bodyguard died of Ebola. On the same day in the capital city Freetown all public transportation was halted at 6 pm and parts of city were quarantined.

As he has traveled through the country he has also gained a better understanding of its people’s plight, even without the virus. Sierra Leone was devastated by a civil war and average life expectancy is around 40 years while basic necessities of life like reliable electricity or water supply do not exist in many parts of the country.

“One village we visited had neither electricity nor access to clean water,” he says. “People fetched their water from a nearby swamp. In that same small village 40 people died of Ebola virus disease. I met a few of those who survived it, all complained about their infection’s continuing negative effects on their quality of life, including severe joint pain, problems with their eye sight and other issues.”

Still Dr. Schuklenk says there are positives to be seen.

Despite all Sierra Leone has been through Dr. Schuklenk says he “can't help but feel optimistic about the country.”

Roadblocks where people are checked for signs of Ebola infection are everywhere yet infrastructure work continues. Schools have been closed for about 10 months due to the outbreak but the government is considering re-opening them by the end of March, he says.

And, amazingly, there are chance encounters.

Dr. Schuklenk met a Queen’s nursing alumnus, Rebecca Ngan (NSc’07), at an emergency medical centre near the village of Makambo where she was taking care of Ebola patients, donning her protective ‘space’ gear in temperatures over 30C.