I am a female, white – settler Canadian from Southey, Saskatchewan which is situated on Treaty 4 Territory. My ancestors come from Norway and Germany. I am a daughter, sister, partner, friend and educator. As an educator, my treaty education philosophy is consistently changing as I continue to engage, learn and share with my colleagues, students and community with living treaties.
I believe that it is my responsibility to create a positive, safe learning environment to support students learning opportunities and guide them in finding answers to their own wonders along with developing an understanding of the Treaty Education goals. It is my responsibility to empower students to be comfortable with feeling uncomfortable while developing new treaty understandings by telling and uncovering difficult and necessary truths and the historical context of Treaties. I believe it is important to support students in their journey of finding their origin stories and belonging to the land, to work towards understanding their own relationship to treaty and how they benefit. It is important to me to acknowledge the ways in which treaty benefits us each and every day; for myself, this includes having access to education, work, shelter and food. I will continue to be an engaged learner while always reflecting on my practices and continuing to better myself for my students by building and promoting the value in good relationships through this learning. I strive to provide my students with the most beneficial learning experiences through community engagement and relevant resources such as learning from Elders and stories. Though my philosophy is continuously growing, it always stems from my eagerness to learn and grow together in an open and respectful way.