The smile on Terry Fox’s face when she graduated belies the tumultuous journey she took toward earning her PhD from the University of Victoria.
Endless nights of writing and research to obtain a PhD while trying to live everyday life is hard for most people but in the seven years Fox had to complete her dissertation it was particularly challenging as she faced several losses in her family, including her only son in 2016.
“My son overdosed on alcohol ... I went into a deep depression,” Fox said.
“The dissertation gave me a reason to keep going. It gave me a reason to get up in the morning.”
But Fox’s educational journey was not a typical one – the Stoney Nakoda teenager dropped out of Springbank High School in the early ‘80s.
“I dropped out in Grade 10,” Fox said.
“When I went to Springbank High School there were very few native students. I felt isolated and like I didn’t fit in – it was a foreign place for me.”
More than three decades later the decision to leave Springbank before receiving a high school diploma is just a memory to Fox as she reflects on her 33-year journey to becoming a PhD graduate.
“Growing up I saw lots of the administration positions in Stoney Tribal Administration were occupied by non-Stoney people and I saw the managers being non-Native. I knew Stoney people were smart enough (for those positions) and if we were to truly be a self-governing Nation we needed to run our own administration,” Fox explained.
After obtaining her GED in 1984, Fox attended Mount Royal University and earned social work diploma in 1990. She then obtained a Bachelor of Arts in First Nations Studies at Vancouver Island University in 1998.
Knowing she wanted to push herself further in education, Fox enrolled in the Public Administration Masters program at Vancouver Island University graduating in 2001.
“When I first got to B.C. I got a double culture shock,” Fox explained with a laugh.
“While the underlying values and principles were the same between the First Nations cultures, the West Coast was totally different.”
Fox said when she first arrived with her son, they battled “terrible loneliness” but she was determined to finish her program. Ten years later Fox was still in B.C., working as a First Nations health executive on Vancouver Island when she made the decision to enroll in her PhD program at the University of Victoria.
The Stoney Nakoda resident knew she wanted to come back and help make a difference one day.
“I think (my graduation) is a testament to the strength of First Nations people – it shows what we can withstand and still come out on the other end,” Fox said.
With special thanks to her mother, Fox explained that it was Stoney Nakoda elder Tina Fox who pushed her to finish high school.
“My mom always encouraged education and pushed me towards getting my GED,” Terry said.
With her dissertation – Effective First Nations Governance: Navigating the Legacy of Colonization – completed, Fox is back home and ready to start collaborating with band members.
“When you are part of an oppressed society, you just want to help … and even though education was used to colonize First Nations people, we can use education to decolonize us,” Terry said.
