Curved walls linking one circular room to another: Carleton’s new Aboriginal Centre opened Oct. 21.
The centre may expand with the increasing number of aboriginal youth, according to Irvin Hill, cultural liaison for the Centre for Aboriginal Culture and Education (CACE).
“Students come into a space where they . . . see their culture reflected in their space. Yeah, like now, the sound,” he said as drumming began.
About 130 people showed up to the new centre’s launching ceremony, leaving almost no room for legs in the main lounge.
“A larger and central centre that had a homey feeling for the students was one of the big recommendations,” Hill said. It will cater to between 500 and 700 students, he said.
“You are welcomed by the kitchen. Food is the place where you share your hospitality,” the centre’s architect Douglas Cardinal said.
He said he is now working on another aboriginal student centre at the University of Saskatchewan.
He has also drawn the plans for the new Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health in Ottawa and the Canadian Museum of Civilization.
“There’s also a private room, totally in the centre, which you can personally communicate with your family through Skype or telephone . . . because most of the aboriginal students are at quite a distance from their communities,” Cardinal said.
The centre’s function and look are based off what aboriginal students and CACE recommended to the university administration. This led to a task force for aboriginal affairs on campus in 2010, Hill said.
“It was a very good time for us to be working at this at the same time because that’s how we got this space here,” Hill said.
The centre, on the ground floor of Paterson Hall, faces the quad.
Hill said people walking into the old centre in the Tory tunnels said it looked “like a dungeon.” It had a window that looked into a tunnel classroom, he said.
The new centre’s function will change as users give feedback, and will likely expand, Hill said.
“This is not the end of it,” he said. “Our long-range goal is a purpose-built building, which will be an aboriginal building on campus.”
Cardinal said the centre is a starting point.
“I have always felt it’s very important to establish precedence to be able to change things,” he said.
Hill said architecture students have already drawn plans of buildings that could start five or 10 years down the road.
Students from the department are now curving wood to fit the centre’s ceiling to look like a dream catcher, Cardinal said.
