Background:
I arrived in Canada after living in the Philippines for 13 years. My classmates in the Philippines, including myself, would always ask:
“Why do we always learn about the U.S. history but not Canada’s?”
And ignorant statements such as
“Canada is so boring. Literally, nothing interesting happened in that country”
When I arrived in Canada and had to take history classes, I thought to myself:
“History subject should be very easy since Canadian history is not interesting.”
I have said these statements since the Philippines’ history consists of three countries colonizing my country and forcing their cultures into us. First, Spain colonized us for 333 years. As a result, our “Tagalog” language is mixed with Spanish words; additionally, since America (U.S. specifically) colonized us, schools have taught us about U.S. history and nothing about Canada. To summarize, we Filipinos feel our history is way harsher than Canada’s since we have no prior knowledge of Canadian history.
Insight:
With my continuous learning about Indigenous history, my ignorance has faded from eighth grade until now. Now, I am committed to implementing treaty education in my subject of focus, such as mathematics.
Now, my ignorance turned into curiosity and asking questions such as:
“If this is such a huge problem, why is it not acknowledged so much?”
“Why was Treaty Education not taught sooner?”
Regarding the student’s email, it is saddening that Treaty Education is not taken seriously by the students. I believe the students are just mimicking the actions of those older than them, like the teachers. The students’ Coop teacher does not see the purpose of teaching Treaty Education because of the lack of First Nation students. Since the teachers do not know the purpose of teaching Treaty Education, why should the students (in this school)? It seems that many people miss the fact that the meaning of a Treaty is that it is an agreement between parties (The government of Canada, participating provinces and territories and Indigenous groups). By parties, it means even those who are not Indigenous must participate and recognize the treaties. As for the purpose of teaching Treaty Education or First Nations, Metis, and Inuit (FNMI) Content and Perspectives, I believe Cynthia Chamber’s statement answers this fully:
“[…] the treaties would be my story, and my family’s story. 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, poems, from each other’s knowledge about this world and how to make our way in it” (Chambers, n.d., pg. 29).
It does not matter whether a classroom has any Indigenous people or not. Learning Treaty Education is an honour for us people living in Canada. Treaty Education teaches us to respect the land Indigenous people share with us. Dwayne Donald stated that teachers are in a situation where they have to teach Indigenous perspectives when they do not know what those are. Claire then said that teachers would make mistakes one way or another when teaching Treaty Education. It is best to recognize this mistake and share it with the class, so everyone can correct it while learning more. Overall, a teacher devoted to teaching Treaty Education would be a great model for the students. If possible, I want to start my first day of class by recognizing the treaty land we are in, even if it is a mathematics subject. As a future teacher, I am obligated to educate my prospective students about the history of Canada and why we are all standing in this land. So that when they get out of school or my class, they will come out knowledgeable and not ignorant like I was before.