It is not the responsibility of Indigenous people to teach white teachers or students about Indigenous history. While of course it is extremely important to learn from Indigenous leaders and knowledge keepers, there is an element to Treaty Education that we as white settler descendants need to take into our own hands and seek out understandings and knowledge ourselves. It is so important for everyone in Canada to learn about Canadian and Indigenous history. White settler descendants and other non-Indigenous settlers make up the majority of the Canadian population, which gives us a bigger voice; a voice we could use to try and learn and teach others about Indigenous life and treaty education. And in general, it is a good thing to know the background and history, both the good and the bad, about the place you live, and a huge part of our history is Indigenous. 

“We are all treaty people” is something that people seem to make more complicated than it actually is. We are all treaty people because almost all land in Canada is treaty land. Incorporating this idea into curriculum and treaty education can help students (and everyone) to develop an understanding of the land we live on and the people around us. By embracing treaty education and including a place-based form of education, we can help students, both Indigenous and not, to make connections with the places they live in meaningful and truthful ways while also acknowledging the ways in which white settlers came to live on this land and the mistreatment the Indigenous peoples faced in our history.