This week I was placed in a grade 1/2 split class. The morning announcement, as always, started with the Treaty 4 land acknowledgement. I was surprised to hear that the kids rehearsed it with the announcements, just like singing O Canada. This had been the first classroom I was in to rehearse this, and it really seemed like the kids didn’t mind it. I guess that surprises me because I remember when I was growing up, my school didn’t even do the land acknowledgements. They only added them into the announcements when I was in 6th grade. Its great to see these kids learning about Treaties at such a young age. The walls in the classroom also had some posters up about these topics, like this one with all the different Treaties
I these things are good ways to teach and honor the history and knowledge of Indigenous peoples at such a young age. I wasn’t taught about Treaties or anything until I was a bit older, and I thing its great to see such young kids already beginning to understand them, even if it is a basic level.
Throughout the whole school I have noticed many of the posters hung on the wall also teach about Indigenous ways of education and knowledge, breaking down the medicine wheel, or the meanings of different animals in certain cultures. Even students classwork hung on the wall are often projects involving Indigenous knowledge, such as orange shirt day posters.
It goes to show how involved these topics are in these classrooms today. I think its a major improvement from my school, or at least how my school was when I was their age. Until 8th grade, our education focused on the history of the Indigenous peoples in Canada, focusing very little on their culture or knowledge as a whole. I think my school is getting on the right track now, but its sad to thing about. I honestly wish I got to learn more, I’ve been loving my Indigenous studies class this semester so far. Its good to see that schools today are doing better to honor, teach, and respect Indigenous knowledge.
I think it’s great that things like this are becoming normal and what we do now in our schools and classrooms. It changes the trajectory of the future opinions of the students and understanding of treaties. I have been asked different times about my school experience, graduating 1997, I had to think hard about anything other than the basic colonial explanation shared in my classrooms. Things are different now and I think it’s amazing.
Wow its crazy how different schools are now compared to when I was younger, I had a Cree class when I was in grade 3 or 4 but not any classes that touched on the history of the Indigenous people. I only learned most things from my family or when I got to grade 8 and 9, I learned more about Indigenous history.