Describe what you learned in your K-12 education about Indigenous history in Canada. Based on your learning in the course, what new understandings have you gained and what would you do for the call to action?
The Indigenous education I received during my elementary years was very scarce. We were taught the bare minimum about residential schools and colonization; everything from fifth to eighth grade was pretty much a constant reiteration, and expanded little upon what we had learned the previous year. In other words, much of the education felt forced, as though we were only mentioning it because the curriculum called for it. Indigenous education improved in my high school years because we were no longer just learning through our social studies classes. From my experience, some of the most effective means of learning about Indigenous history was by hearing first-hand accounts through mediums such as poetry and autobiography.
Based on my experience in this course, I have learned that the effects of residential schools do not stop with the Indigenous child, but spans across multiple generations. From a student that was weaned on colonial textbooks, it came as a shock that many of the effects of residential schools can still be seen today. It is hard to define a call for action at this point because I am still so early in my path towards reconciliation. However, I believe that we, as educators, need to understand that residential schools are not a thing of the past. Simply because they are no longer active does not mean the effects cannot be felt in Indigenous communities. If we want to make our reconciliation genuine, we can no longer focus on simply acknowledging the past. We need to examine how Indigenous communities are being affected in modern times, and find ways of giving them back what they have lost.
