I would first like to speak to how much I enjoyed listening to Claire speak in our lecture. I was completely engrossed in her presentation; content, delivery style and all. Claire spoke the hard truth in a clear, honest, and direct manner. Especially when speaking on the teaching of Treaty Education in our Saskatchewan classrooms. I agree with Claire when she says that educators have had ten years to integrate the outcomes and indicators of Treaty Education so there is no excuse as to why they are not reaching those outcomes in their class. Claire is the first educator I have listened to who has truly made me feel even slightly confident and courageous in bringing treaty education into my future classrooms. Claire showed us genuine examples of how successfully she has been teaching treaty ed in the last few years. Seeing how possible it is to engage in these discussions with students of any age gives me confidence in being able to integrate treaty education outcomes into our everyday curriculum.
The purpose of teaching Treaty Ed or First Nations, Metis, and Inuit (FNMI) content and perspectives is to engage with the history of Canada in its truest form, no matter how many FNMI people are present in the school. Treaty Ed should be taught in our classrooms to ensure that diverse perspectives are being portrayed, especially when the teachings of First Nations history is in direct correlation with Canada’s history. It confuses me to know that educators choose not to teach the treaty ed outcomes when they are a part of the curriculum. I also do not understand how History 10, 20, 30 can be taught in our high schools, but yet the first nations peoples perspective is completely silenced. How can that be? It also should make no difference how many students represent the FNMI population in the school, it should still be taught. But when there is a presence in the school, it is especially important to offer these diverse perspectives. It is not right to continue to silent the oppressed voices, that is just repeating the white settler history.
My understanding of curriculum that “We are all treaty people” is that we all live on this land together. First nations, white settlers, immigrants, we all live on the same land now. After many years we are all here together and we need to regard our presence together instead of continuing to be separated by culture and race. We live on treaty land territory and it is important that we appreciate this right and that we share this appreciation with the peoples who gave shared their land with us. Especially when white settlers abused this sharing and took the First Nations peoples for advantage. I believe we need to stop creating this racial divide in our nation and realize that we are all Canadian citizens and we share the land. We are all treaty people because the First Nations peoples and the white settlers engaged in a treaty ceremony where they made a legal agreement in writing and in oral ceremonies. I hope more educators begin to realize this and are willing to teach the treaty ed curriculum in all of our schools. I look forward to the hopeful difference myself and my graduating class will make in the future of treaty education.
I went on a bit of a rant there, but this is exactly what I would say in response to the email from the intern student! i would especially tell them to follow Claire on twitter and perhaps get in touch with her in guidance on how to implement treaty ed into their class, no matter the resistance from veteran teachers.