My journey towards reconciliation has come a long way since the beginning of this semester. With my ECS 100 class, along with most of my classes are at the First Nations University this semester, my knowledge has increased significantly about Indigenous culture and all the long-lasting trauma that has impacted Indigenous people. This deeper sense of knowledge has resulted in a greater desire on my part to step up and create relationships with Indigenous people in order to start my personal journey towards reconciliation. For me, reconciliation means to establish relationships that were broken for many years because of mistreatment that resulted from trauma in the lives of Indigenous people. It is important to build reconciliation with Indigenous groups because it shows that non-Indigenous people have not only changed, but also that they want to be more inclusive and celebrate Indigenous culture.
For the visual portion for this assignment, I have created a drawing done by pencil crayons. In my drawing, I have split the picture in half to reflect the effects of residential schools. The left side of the picture shows a young beautiful Indigenous girl. The girl has her hair done in traditional braids, with a traditional Indigenous headband. She is wearing bright colours and her colourful hair helps to show the liveliness and warmth that exists inside her. I used colours such as red to symbolize the passion and love she has for her people and her culture. I also added red to her cheeks to show how full of life she is. Orange and yellow symbolize the happiness and hope that she expresses. Brighter blue shows the peace, calmness, and harmony within her. I believe these colours represent strong symbols for Indigenous people.
The right side of the picture is much different from the left. The right side symbolizes everything that the residential schools have destroyed within Indigenous people. I used darker colours such as black to show the fear, unhappiness, sadness, anger, mourning, and death that resulted from residential schools. The colour red was used to symbolize aggression and dangers found within residential schools. It also represents the intensity of violence they witnessed in all their blood, sweat and tears. I used grey to strengthen a feeling of sadness within the young girl. I also added a bruise around the girl’s eye and a bloody nose to symbolize how the government has beaten down and taken away everything that was worth living for.
Indigenous children were stripped away from their culture and identity, leaving them disoriented and without a sense of self worth. The black box covering the mouth symbolizes how Indigenous people have lost their voice and how their voice was taken away. Even before residential schools were implemented, Indigenous people had their freedom of speech and basic human rights taken away from them because they were not seen to be fully human.
I think that in order to start one’s reconciliation it is important to know that residential schools were not the starting point for the long years of oppression Indigenous people experienced. It actually started long before, dating back to when the white settlers first came over. I debated about whether or not to leave the background blank. I came to the conclusion that a blank background would provide greater emphasis and a more meaningful message. I feel that the blank background not only draws attention to the Indigenous girl, but also symbolizes what the settlers did to Indigenous people; They ripped away their identities and culture, basically taking away everything that was important to Indigenous people, and tried to make them something they did not want to become. Once the Indigenous people were completely broken, the government never tried to help them heal from the trauma. The Indigenous people felt like they did not even know themselves, with no real sense of culture, and this left them almost as a blank slate where nothing was left. I think the blank background shows that kind of emptiness inside them. Part of the journey towards reconciliation is to listen and educate oneself, so that one can help restore that emptiness and give people the resources to heal from intergenerational trauma.
In my younger years, I was never educated about Indigenous culture or anything related to Indigenous people. It was not until I had a Métis woman as a teacher in grade five that I was opened up to Indigenous culture. This now shocks me as an adult, that the education system failed their students by not including the importance of Indigenous culture. When I began high school, my school was definitely a lot better about adding Indigenous education into our curriculum, but it still was not the best. When I was in grade twelve, one of the classes we had to take was history 30. History 30 is based on the history of Canada, however the teacher that I had “white washed” the history. She only put emphasis on all the great things that the white settlers did and what they accomplished. When she did bring up Indigenous people, she only ever mentioned the negatives or focused on their death, such as the deaths by smallpox. At my high school, they only offered a class called Native Studies in grade twelve, and this was the only time that Indigenous education was really taught to me in high school.
As a student going through this experience this has shaped me as to who I want to be as a teacher. I want to make sure that I can include Indigenous education as much as possible. I find that it is extremely important to educate students and to bring Indigenous teachers and elders into the classroom. This way students can be educated on what is an important part of their country’s history. Part of my journey towards reconciliation is to make sure that the people around me are educated and to bring in voices of Indigenous people. I can never fully educate others about Indigenous culture because I did not live through their experiences. I believe that as teachers we need to give that platform to Indigenous people themselves so that they give their point of view on history. This will help ensure that the education system does not fail again, like they failed with my education and like they have failed Indigenous people.
When watching the documentary Muffins for Granny, one part of the film that really hit me was when the one woman was talking about understanding a flower. In the documentary the girl said that we can look and appreciate a flower, but we can not understand its purpose. In other words, if we were to say we understand the flower, we would be given its purpose. She then related it to how we can not say we understand Indigenous people. This class made me think in a different light. Before, I thought the main goal of reconciliation was to understand the trauma Indigenous people have gone through. Now from watching the documentary and lecture in class I have learned that we will never be able to understand Indigenous people and what they have gone through. However, we can listen and help them get the resources to start their journey of healing.
The Truth and Reconciliation What is it About? booklet that we have received has also touched me in a different way. Reading the stories from the students and the powerful words with the following messages has touched me and helped me understand what I need to do for my journey towards reconciliation. Sentences such as “to see someone’s real emotion to how they were treated does not begin to compare” (Canadian Teachers’ Federation) made me think of the emotions of the survivors of the residential schools in Muffins for Granny and how my whole mindset changed when I could see their emotions. I started to get emotional when watching the survivor speak, because the way they were treated still affects them today in everyday life. I believe I needed to see this in order to begin my journey, so that I could see the pain that has affected them.
I find it very important to help Indigenous people so that they can have a better life. Many Indigenous people died, and others so “abused it affected them and they became an alcoholic ”(Canadian Teachers’ Federation), and in some cases even resulted in suicide. This is a result of the Canadian government not rebuilding relationships with the Indigenous people and not giving them the resources needed for them to heal. Not only have residential schools affected the person ,but they also “damage their family” (Canadian Teachers’ Federation). This is because trauma can continue through generations if help is not given for healing. The complex trauma that came to Indigenous people from colonization is repeated through generations. “For Indigenous people, the trauma of colonization is chronic because it happens across time as a result of a continual, persistent, and progressive process of loss”( Methot Ch.2). This loss is shown within the families, but with reconciliation, this can change for the better.
In my journey towards reconciliation my main goal is to reestablish relationships with Indigenous people and help them with their journey of healing. I can never say that I fully understand what Indigenous people have experienced, and if I could, I wish that I could go back in time and change everything, but unfortunately I cannot. What I can do is educate the people around me the best way possible, and I can become a teacher that is open-minded and committed for the students to know as much as they can about Indigenous education. I want to start going to Indigenous cultural events, not only to learn about their culture, but also about who they are as people, which I think is the best way to rebuild relationships. My journey towards reconciliation has just started, and I still have a long way to go, but I believe that I am on the right path.
Bibliography
Canadian Teachers’ Federation. (2016) Truth and Reconciliation, What is it about? Imagineaction
Dickason, Long, Frideres, and Burnett. First Nations University of Canada INDG 100- Intro to Indigenous Studies (Custom Edition). Chapters 2,3,8. Oxford University Press.
McLaren, Nadia. (2007) Muffins for Granny. Toronto: Mongrel Media Inc.
MuffinsMethot, Suzanne. 2019 Legacy : Trauma, Story, and Indigenous Healing. ECW Press7!