Treaty Education

What is the purpose of teaching Treaty Ed (specifically) or First Nations, Metis, and Inuit (FNMI) Content and Perspectives (generally) where there are few or no First Nations, Metis, Inuit peoples?

What does it mean for your understanding of curriculum that “We are all treaty people”?

“It is our story: the one about the commons, what was shared and what was lost.  It is an elegy to what remains to be lost if we refuse to listen to each other’s stories no matter how strange they may sound, if we refuse to learn from each other’s stories, songs, and poems, from each other’s knowledge about this world and how to make our way in it” (Chambers, 2012, p. 29). 

This quote by Cynthia Chambers does a good job of answering both of these questions in itself.  To put it simply, it is important to teach Treaty education and Aboriginal perspectives when there are few or no Aboriginal people present because it is the story of our nation and the people present within it.  The treaties are a large part of how the country of Canada came to be.  You would not skip over slavery and the Civil War when discussing American history, or Hitler and the Nazis when discussing WWII, so why would it make sense to skip over an incredibly important aspect of Canadian history?  Another reason as to why it is important to teach these perspectives is highlighted in the Dwayne Donald, “On What Terms Can We Speak” lecture.  In the lecture, he says something along the lines of how we, as a nation, can not proceed into the future without looking into the past.  I think this quote is important because the relationship between “Canadians” and those of First Nations, Inuit, and Metis descent is not a great relationship right now.  Claire touches on this in the “Claire Intro” video.  In the video, she says the teaching Treaty education and Aboriginal content and perspectives is not meant for Aboriginal people.  The focus needs to be on non-indigenous students and the racism that society has gotten so good at teaching them.  We, as teachers, can be an important step in reconciliation.  That is why these teachings are important.

Everyone in Canada, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, etc., is a treaty person.  This holds true because every Canadian citizen is impacted by treaty—especially us here in Saskatchewan.  A treaty is a formal agreement between two sovereign nations, and in Canada’s case, these formal agreements took place between the European settlers and the First Nations people.  This appears to be something that most Canadian citizens have forgotten.  These agreements went both ways and they were not just intended for Aboriginal people.  The high quality of life most of us enjoy in this country can be largely attributed to the treaties.  It is important that we acknowledge and pay thanks to that.       

References:

Chambers, Cynthia. “We are All Treaty People.” Reconsidering Canadian Curriculum Studies: Provoking edited by Hicholas Ng-A-Fook and Jennifer Rottmann, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, 23-38.

Donald, Dwayne. “On What Terms Can We Speak?” Vimeo, uploaded by ULethbridge Faculty

Kreuger, Claire. “ECS210 8.2 – Claire Intro.” YouTube, uploaded by Michael Cappello, 6 Sept. 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWY_X-ikmaw&feature=youtu.be.