What’s new, Baily Hack?

Baily Hack BSW’19 is charting a path for anti-racist education

By Gregory Beatty BA’80

When Baily Hack BSW’19 returned to the University of Regina to pursue graduate work in 2024, her decision was based as much on the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research’s reputation as for the way it held the potential to support her lifestyle. “I knew I wanted to stay in Regina as I have a family, including two children,” she says. “I had the option to apply at other universities’ online programs. However, I decided I wanted to pursue an in-person program at the U of R as it would give me the opportunity to become involved with the university and ultimately create connections and networks that I would miss in an online program.”

This past March, she joined seven other graduate students at Darke Hall as part of the Three-Minute Thesis Competition where she presented her research in a talk titled “Journey to Anti-Racist Education”.

“When I learned of the competition it seemed like a great opportunity; first to get my research out there; but also connect with other faculties and network,” she says.

Hack won that competition and moved on to represent the University of Regina in the Western regional competition in Victoria BC in May where she won the People’s Choice Award. On November 5 of this year, Hack joined some of the U of R’s most esteemed researchers for A Taste of Research, an annual public event that invites the community to hear about some of the exciting research being done at the University.

U of R alum Greg Beatty BA’80 chats with Baily about her choice to pursue grad studies at her alma mater, how we welcome new Canadians and their families, and what she has planned next.

Individual mid-speech
Baily Hack BSW'19 at the 3MT Western regional competition in Victoria BC.

What prompted you to research approaches to anti-racism in the classroom?

I was supervisor of a newcomer’s support program at Rooted Connections, so I have experience working with newcomer families in Regina and saw a lot of barriers that they faced. One was within the education system, and social isolation and struggles to communicate when English isn’t your first language. It really interested me to figure out how we can create a more anti-racist education system, and what that would look like.

There was a labour disruption in Saskatchewan recently related to classroom complexity. Is this one component of that?

For sure. There’s no blame on teachers as I think they are doing an amazing job. But if you are trying to teach a classroom of thirty children, and five or six don’t speak English, how do you navigate that?

What process did you go through to develop a fuller understanding of this area?

I took a really important class in my master’s program on anti-racist social work. That prompted me to think about anti-racist work in other areas of society, and how marginalized communities might be affected.

I did talk to some pre-service teachers, plus teachers who are taking their master’s in Education, so that helped me understand some of these needs. I’ve met teachers who are really passionate about creating an anti-racist education system. I’ve also met teachers who are really frustrated. It’s not that they don’t want the change, they just feel burned out at the lack of resources and are unsure of how to handle these new complexities in the classroom.

There is a concept around “social determinants” of health or well-being. Getting a good education when you are young would seem to be one of them.

Exactly. That came up in interviews I did with newcomer parents — just the difficulties families had accessing education, healthcare and other systems

Might a child sometimes serve as an interpreter for the parents?

That happens a lot as children usually pick up English quicker because they are younger. When parents are brought in for a discussion with the school, for example, and an interpreter isn’t provided, children can step in.

What other help do you think our school system needs?

Based on what my research is showing, the biggest issue is resources. If a child doesn’t speak English and is suddenly put in a classroom with a teacher and students who only speak English, that can be difficult. So there is a lack of ESL (English as a Second Language) teachers

Teachers receive a lot of education around Indigenous students — which is extremely important. But our classrooms involve more than that.

Language challenges aside, are there other issues such as cultural sensitivity?

You need to add that awareness to the classroom. One thing my study shows is that a lot of adolescents are facing social isolation, and a lot of that struggle comes from interacting with peers and making friends.

It is maybe asking a lot of individual teachers to be knowledgeable in a wide range of cultures. Is one answer having more people in the classroom, or at least the school system, with a broader cultural background?

Right now, we do have settlement support workers in the school system. But a recent study shows that since COVID a lot of these workers are having difficulty getting into schools. So, they are not welcomed in the same way. Better community engagement can be an answer.

Canada is a very individualistic society, and many of these cultures are community-based. More engagement with parents or grandparents can help. There are many schools with Indigenous students who bring elders into schools, so we could be doing that — or having cultural days, or bringing in social workers. Social workers can be a big part of this because they are well-trained in cultural competency and anti-racist perspectives.

Until recently anyway, a lot of governments have talked about how Indigenous youth, or newcomers, were key to growing our population and economy. But if you don’t give those families the tools to succeed, are you setting them up for failure?

You can see this in the research. There can be this “school to prison pipeline” where children who don’t get their needs met sometimes end up in prison. If students aren’t having those assessments done, aren’t having their needs met, will they end up costing society more in the future? What does that mean for them, and society?

Are there ever tensions within a newcomer community? The stereotype is that parents can have exaggerated expectations for their children. But school involves more than just academic achievement, where students are maturing as individuals.

I think that is a huge area where social work could help. How do we have these discussions with parents about children’s mental health, and navigate relationships within families? But we need more social workers within the school system.

What’s next for you?

I’m just doing the writing portion of my thesis now and hope to graduate in the spring – and then I plan to pursue a PhD program in social work focusing on the experiences of women with adult diagnoses ADHD using a critical feminist framework.

Thinking about your next chapter?
Graduate studies aren’t just about returning to school—they’re about reimagining what comes next.
Learn more about Grad Studies at the U of R.

About the Author

Gregory Beatty BA’80 is a freelance writer. He has written for Prairie Dog/Planet S magazine in Regina and Saskatoon.

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This past summer, Brenda Reynolds Cert. Indian Social Work '86, BISW '87 was awarded the United Nations Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela Prize at UN headquarters in New York. Awarded every five years since 2015, the prize is given to a female and male laureate for their services to humanity, and who exemplify Mandela's commitment to reconciliation and social transformation. A selection committee representing five member nations-South Africa, Bahrain, Poland, Egypt, Saint Kitts and Nevis and Finland-received hundreds of nominations from 66 member states.

"It's the biggest compliment I have ever received," Reynolds says. "I have admired Nelson Mandela's work and what he did for his country. There are so many parallels, and to hear from the committee members that my nomination consistently made it through the decision-making process, was absolutely heart-warming.

Reynolds is the first Canadian and the first Indigenous person to receive the Prize, awarded to her for her development of the Indian Residential School Health Support Programme in 2006 and for her work with Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Advocate in the making

Reynolds grew up on her grandparents' farm on Fishing Lake First Nation. She attended school in Wadena, fifteen minutes away. She remembers the buses that came in late summer each year to pick up children from Fishing Lake and how the community went into mourning afterward. One of only a few Indigenous kids at her school, Reynolds advocated for an after-school sports program in Wadena for kids from the reserve and was elected to student council in high school.

"I remember presenting in Grade 10 social studies about where I lived. I described the farm, the chickens and the big garden, similar to what people had in Wadena. The teacher said, 'Brenda, that isn't true'. I said, 'What do you mean that isn't true? The cows are the same cows. Our wheat on the reserve is no different than the wheat in the grainfields I see going home on the bus.' She goes, 'But you live on a reserve.' That was when I started learning about how differently Indigenous people are treated by non-Indigenous people."

It wasn't until Reynolds was a young social worker in Saskatoon, running a play-therapy after-school program at an inner-city school, that she learned about residential schools. "Every single child in my after-school program was living with an Indian Residential School Survivor," Reynolds says. "That was the first time I knew about them."

Reynolds negotiated a contract to provide counselling at Gordon's Residential School, where children from Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Manitoba attended. Across Canada, 150,000 children attended residential schools and many did not return home.
"I never attended residential school, so it was a real emotional awakening," she says.

At Gordon's, the students' shirt collars were numbered, the food was processed and within Reynolds' first and only year of work at the school, in 1988, 17 young women shared with her their experiences of abuse at the hands of a staff member. "Gordon's was the worst residential school in Canada in terms of abuse," Reynolds says.

After moving to Alberta, Reynolds worked with various levels of government before starting her own consulting service in mental health. She was asked to develop a health support program as part of the Indian Residential Settlement Agreement of 2006, which addressed the harms of residential school, and to this day, is Canada's largest class-action lawsuit settlement.

"Because we were talking about 150 years of trauma at the time, we couldn't rely on a conventional, Western model of health support, "Reynolds says. "We had to do things differently and to support the workers who would experience vicarious trauma exposure."

Reynolds says there wasn't a model to follow, so she based the program as best she could in healthy ways of dealing with trauma. "I knew that we had to include cultural interventions because in our Indigenous ways, we do have ways of managing mental health. We have the same principles as the Western way, but they are more congruent to the culture."

The health support program is funded to this day and includes cultural and emotional supports, mental health counselling and transportation for residential school survivors and their family members.

Smiling individual hugs statue. Brenda Reynolds Cert. Indian Social Work '86, BISW '87, recipient of the 2025 United Nations Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela Prize, poses with a statue of the late South African President at UN Headquarters in New York. Photo: UN News/Paulina Greer
'We're still here, Columbus'

Reynolds was asked by Murray Sinclair, the Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, to develop a similar program with cultural supports for the TRC's national events and hearings. The TRC held events were held across Canada from 2010 to 2014 and gathered statements from residential school survivors about their experiences. Since then, Reynolds has consulted with the United Nations, the state of Vermont and the European Union on psycho-social supports for their reconciliation initiatives. "I've helped so many others in different sectors who are still unravelling what the experiences are of residential schools," Reynolds says.

The reality of being a UN Nelson Mandela Prize Laureate hasn't sunk in. "When I found out in May, I cried and cried and cried for ten days," she says. "I just do the work. I always say I'm a helper. I help people try to understand what their traumas are. I've spent my whole career understanding the trauma caused by residential schools and I've come to understand it as cultural genocide. And it continues to this day. The government tried with residential schools, day schools and now it's the child welfare system, which has more kids in care now than the residential school system ever did."

In New York, the day before the award ceremony Reynolds met and spoke with a group of Indigenous youth from the United States who were advocating for better mental health supports. "It was such a great experience because here are these kids who are trying to change their lives by understanding their own mental health," she says. "It felt full-circle because my career started with kids in Saskatoon and at Gordon's."

Before the award ceremony, Reynolds invited the youth to join her in a pipe ceremony in Central Park, close to Columbus Circle, a traffic circle and intersection with a monument to Christopher Columbus, built in 1892, at the height of the residential school system in Canada. Later, the youth danced in their regalia out in front of headquarters to honour her.

"It was so good. Like, 'We're still here!'" she laughs. "The dancing was so incredible. It will always be very, very, special to me." Reynolds gave a speech at the ceremony and met the UN Secretary General. Some of her children and grandchildren were there to celebrate the day with her.  "Standing at the same podium where so many world leaders have stood and talked about hope and change, that was really amazing." she says.


Still work to do.

Looking back over her career, Reynolds has seen positive change because of how Indigenous peoples are talking openly about what happened to them. But she says there is still a long way to go. Racism and discrimination are ongoing, and attitudes still need to change. "The trauma we experience from racism and discrimination is systemic; we face it on a daily basis. It has implications for how we receive services, whether it's education, healthcare and social services. We have to change attitudes and accept people for who we are."

Hope, for Reynolds, lies in nurturing acceptance within families and communities, recognizing that Indigenous people love their kids and want to raise their kids. It also means recognizing how children encounter difference. "On a playground, most kids are going to play with each other regardless of what colour they are," she says. "That's how I met my first friend at school, a little Swedish girl, and we're still friends to this day. I didn't even know any English then. I spoke Saulteaux and yet we were friends. We played."

 

Reynolds continues to consult and is a PhD candidate at California Southern University studying cultural interventions for cultural genocide. "There's a lot of work that still needs to be done," she says. "That's what keeps me motivated."

Portrait of Brenda Reynolds at top of page by Linda Dickinson Photography

Did you know?
The University of Regina is a leader in child trauma research? The Child Trauma Research Centre conducts innovative, strength-based, and trauma-integrated research to develop policies that enhance well-being for children and youth, and the adults in their lives. The CTRC focuses on supporting children, families, and communities to bridge the gap between research and real-world impact. Learn more. [post_title] => Recognized for a career of trauma-informed care [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => recognized-for-a-career-of-trauma-informed-care [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2025-12-04 10:04:05 [post_modified_gmt] => 2025-12-04 16:04:05 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.degreesmagazine.ca/?p=9649 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 9686 [post_author] => 20 [post_date] => 2025-11-25 09:45:09 [post_date_gmt] => 2025-11-25 15:45:09 [post_content] =>

For more than 50 years, the Pit has been a cherished gathering place for our campus community. Now, it returns brighter, more accessible, and more versatile than ever before.

Guided by consultations on design, accessibility, and student-focused spaces, the revitalization reflects the needs of today's campus community and enhances the student experience. With flexible seating, improved lighting, additional power outlets, and expanded event capacity, the reimagined Pit supports everything from quiet study sessions and small classes to performances and community gatherings.

The revitalization was made possible through the generosity of donors, alumni, retirees, faculty, and friends. Among its major supporters is alumnus Greg Bamford BAdmin'00, whose contribution honours the legacy of his father, Dave Bamford-the former U of R Director of Budgets and Resource Planning who helped shape many key projects across campus.

"I'm so excited to help ensure this communal space remains for future generations to enjoy-a space that will witness many unforgettable memories being made and woven into its walls," Bamford says.

Smiling individuals. Greg Bamford BAdmin'00 and family.

As part of the University's ongoing commitment to truth and reconciliation, the revitalization also introduces a visible and lasting Indigenous presence through the artwork of Larissa Kitchemonia, an artist from The Key First Nation and a graduate of both the First Nations University of Canada and the University of Regina.

"It's important that Indigenous students see themselves reflected in the spaces where they learn and gather. When Indigenous art and stories are visible on our campuses, it sends a clear message that Indigenous people are present," says Lori Campbell, Associate Vice-President of Indigenous Engagement.

In addition to Kitchemonia's artwork, artists Sean Whalley and Grace Boyd from the Faculty of Media, Art, and Performance created Echoes Between Centre, a steel sculpture in celebration of the University's 50th anniversary.

Grace Boyd and Sean Whalley MFA'01 from the Faculty of Media, Art, and Performance. Grace Boyd and Sean Whalley MFA'01 from the Faculty of Media, Art, and Performance. Smiling individuals Cadmus Delorme BAdmin'13, MPA'16, University Chancellor; Larissa Kitchemonia BFA'19, artist; and Lori Campbell BA'95, BA'05, MAEd'16, Associate Vice-President, Indigenous Engagement

"By investing thoughtfully in the spaces that bring us together, we enhance the student experience and create vibrant places for connection and learning," says Dr. Jeff Keshen, President and Vice-Chancellor. "The revitalization of this iconic space shows both current and future students that the University of Regina is a welcoming, inclusive, and accessible place, ready to support them today and for generations to come."

With its revitalization complete, the AdHum Pit will continue to serve as a central hub for student life, learning, and community for decades to come.

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