Journey Towards Reconciliation

The project that I did symbolizes some of the nasty things the Indigenous people within Canada had to deal with in the past and still to this day. Stereotypes on boxes illustrate the hurtful stereotypes as many think the Indigenous people are just deadbeats and huge drunks and users of drugs. Racism symbolizes all the racist things they faced in the past and still today from residential schools and all the struggles and people of other color treating them very poorly for no reason. Lies and Residential schools symbolize the process of the treaty people between the Indigenous people and the Canadian government. And how the Indigenous people got taken advantage off for the land. Then got a little amount of land in return. The bloody hands and blood represents all the kids and the deaths caused by the residential schools and the wars when the treaty’s were getting made. All these disgusting things that happened to the Indigenous people and that still happen to this day.

But on the inside, it shows some of the valuable spiritual teachings that guided the Indigenous people through the tough times, like the residential schools. The seven Ojibway teachings are Beaver=Wisdom, Turtle=Truth, Bear=Courage, Buffalo=Respect, Eagle=Love, Sabe=Honesty, and Wolf=Humility. These teachings guide and help the Indigenous people through the most challenging times. The feathers represent the talking feather as they used to pass down teachings from elders to the young generation of Indigenous people. And all the essential messages passed through generations and kept passed down to this day.

I want to teach my students the seven ways of Ojibway teachings so they can use them within themselves for the future and to be able to become independent solid people to carry out with them. I think schools don’t teach you how to adapt to other religions and make everything from a white person’s point of view. We have had more power for people of race and gender to hear their voices finally. And more platforms to put pressure and shine the light on our dark history of Canada and the dark stuff that still goes on within today. Like in Tanya Talaga’s CBC video about the Indigenous kids that are dead and washed up in Thunder Bay and how the police system is completely corrupted and puts no effort into the crime because they were Indigenous. The most significant example I wrote down is at 14:33 in the video when Tesa Fiddler talked about searching for this lost child and tried to go to the police for help. The police did legit nothing and just told her that many Indigenous kids run away and turn up eventually. After searching long and hard, they found the dead kid’s body without the help of the police. And then the police took no evidence, did nothing at all, and just tried to sweep it under the rug. All the graves getting dug up and found, all these dead kids’ bodies, all these sad things hidden from the public that is finally coming to light. And how do these things affect a classroom, you might ask? Well, kids could be racist toward kids of color and leading to bullying. I want my classroom to learn the history and understand how not to spread hate instead spread positivity to one another.

I have learned a lot of valuable things that I want to incorporate within my classroom for my students in the future. I want to be able to start days off with a little talking circle and talk about the student’s night and what they did with a talking feather. And another thing I want to teach them is the seven Ojibway teachings so they can use them to guide them through their life. And to be able to become good humans. One critical thing I want to learn as a teacher is never to treat all the students the same because each has their problems, religions, and beliefs. So, this means I will have to learn from them. Like if a kid is fasting and is very tired and can’t focus during class. You can’t be mad at the kid. You have to change to help the kid learn. Let him sleep for a little or help him catch up on whatever it is during recess. I have to become flexible to help with whatever and be ready to learn, unlike many teachers nowadays who don’t like to learn from their students. And learn about others’ importance of their holidays. Not everyone celebrates the white people’s holidays like Christmas and New Year. They got their own that I need to learn about. This class has taught me a lot, and now I believe I got a good idea of how I want my classroom to look and turn out.