Blog #6 – Citizenship and the Connection to Treaty Education

In recent discussions, we have focused on citizenship. This has furthered my understanding of Treaty Education, and it truly brings new valid points to the conversation of Treaties and the idea of citizenship. To start my new journey, I have had to consider what my understanding of citizenship is. I also must use these understandings to question citizenship and relate it to the Treaty Education.

First, my understanding of citizenship is someone who is part of a community or country. This is most likely the general form, but this should go deeper. Of course, citizens pay taxes, take part in community events, contribute to the community, and possibly become a part of the system. There is also a discussion of different levels and types of citizens. To me, it is plain that a citizen can be seen as anyone living in a specific country. I think for the most part, the real question is, what are the forces behind citizenship that make it so valuable? A sense of pride and nationalism lingers as I think about this. People stay citizens or become a citizen because they feel something in a particular place or appreciate something related to the specific country they want to be a citizen of. Being a citizen means having a place, and not only that, with nationalism and pride, it means providing the same energy that the place did when it captivated you. So, being a citizen is much more than having a document declaring that you are a citizen. Citizenship is the feeling of belonging and gives people pride to maintain that production of belonging. That is why citizenship is important. It makes people want to keep the community positive and strong at its base. Is this good for citizenship, and will it stop social growth? Should citizenship and its meaning change?

Joel Westheimer said, “democracy is not a spectator sport” (uOttawaEducation, 2015, 0:52). This means that being a citizen is also about keeping everyone in check. We all need to participate to make the true changes we want and make the country how we want it to be. This is why it is important to be a citizen that is active and advocates for things they believe in. It is also important to think about these ideas critically, which is why education and allowing teachers to be passionate and give more effort and knowledge into their work will be important in making citizens (uOttawaEducation, 2015). We have to make citizens that can be critical of societal progress and alter it accordingly for the good of the country.

The ideas concerning citizenship are related to Indigenous Studies and Treaty Education in Canada more than ever. With the previous definition of citizenship, the Indigenous Peoples of Canada need belonging to be citizens, and if they don’t feel that they belong, they don’t have other countries to find a home in. This is due to colonizers who came here and took over, and there is no other country or place that gives belonging other than their homeland. Europeans have a home that is possible to go back to and feel some sense of belonging, Dr. Mike Cappello said this quite well: “there is a place where [those traditions are] home“ (Hurley, 2018, 15:51). He also goes on to explain this is not the same for Indigenous Peoples of Canada because of the colonial project. For the Indigenous, signing Treaties was a way to keep their citizenship to the land in Canada. This was their home and it cultivated many traditions that no longer exist due to many factors. So, how can we spread citizenship to Indigenous Peoples, or how can we shape citizenship in Canada to better involve Indigenous Peoples’ interpretation? This is a monumental task because each country has culture and each state has localism, how do you do that with so many different peoples? When we think about Italy, France, Russia, and Britain, there is something that people are drawn to that lives there. Canada just imported these ideas and tries to mush them together, claiming multiculturalism. With Canada, we need to think about what makes it special to truly find that citizenship we all need to unify as a country.

References

Hurley, Stephen (Host). (November 2018). Citizenship Education – Mike Cappello (No. 1) [Audio podcast episode]. In OHAASTA Talks. voicEd Radio. https://www.spreaker.com/user/voicedradio/ohassta-talks-citizenship-education-mike

uOttawaEducation. (2015, June 16). Joel Westheimer : What Kind of Citizen? [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9WF4uVcrlU