Dear Students,

We have received complaints regarding a culturally appropriative Halloween attire (a head dress) worn by a patron at The HUB Social Club on October 26th as part of The HUB Halloween Haunt.

We apologize to anyone this incident offended or hurt.

We have a safe environment policy that prohibits racism in any form and in any of our spaces, including The HUB, and we recognize that cultural appropriation is a form of racism.

The night of the incident, the Hub management, in an attempt to follow our policy, questioned the individual as to why he was wearing the head dress and the individual explained that he is Indigenous and that the head dress was not a misappropriation of culture.

We now recognize that regardless of this fact, the costume was offensive to many people, due to the sacred nature of how feathers are traditionally earned within First Nations. However, in the moment our staff felt it was inappropriate for them as non First Nations people, to make determinations as to what is appropriate within First Nations peoples.

Regardless, we want to use this as an opportunity to increase cultural sensitivity training for our staff, and executives, to ensure we are as prepared as possible for these instances in the future.

We apologize once more to all those who were offended or hurt by the instance. We are open to working with any and all partners in the Indigenous community on campus to ensure we are doing our part towards reconciliation on our campus and in our spaces.

Sincerely,

Jakob Sanderson
President – UMSU
101 UMSU University Centre
204-474-6519

UMSU respectfully acknowledges that it is located on treaty 1 land.