Indigenous Core

Indigenous Core

My education in Canada began in grade five— moving forward, I was learning the English language which along with I was learning about the Western culture. During my younger grades, we learned little to nothing about the Indigenous culture. Even though my elementary school felt very diverse and had many different cultures and foreign students, there were little to no Indigenous students. Even though the Indigenous culture wasn’t completely excluded from our education in elementary, the past was. For many years I was taught about Indigenous people’s traditions rather than history. We would include Orange Shirt Day and the circle of courage group, however, I was never taught the importance of Orange Shirt Day and the history behind it, along with the circle of courage. Moving onto high school, I began to learn about Indigenous history through English and history classes. However, these classes were the only mandatory classes in my high school that touched on Indigenous history. Out of the many units for history, only one or two briefly touched on the colonization the Indigenous people experienced and my teacher touched on residential schools and how they were made to change the Indigenous people. On the contrary, this class has really helped me understand how minoritized the Indigenous people are made in our society. All the discussions and readings this class has further made me realize that I am living on indigenous land every day, and specifically Treaty four land. Along with this, meeting Joseph Naytowhow was an eye-opening experience. He was a student of residential schools and experienced trauma of physical and emotional abuse, helping me realize that it truly was not as long ago as my teachers in the past said. Going forward, my personal call to action as a future educator is to help the future generation understand the true Canadian culture and acknowledge the true effect of residential schools. In addition, after hearing the knowledge keeper Joseph share his songs and stories, it really opened my eyes to the uniqueness and beauty of their culture. Joseph is a very wise elder, and even after going through traumatizing experiences, he is still loving and caring of everyone, and teaching about the importance of equality, something I will carry on as a future educator.