Truth & Reconciliation
Core Questions: Think about what you learned in your K-12 education about Indigenous history in Canada. What have you learned as an adult through media, family, friends and other learning experiences? As you read through the TRC booklet-Truth & Reconciliation: What is it about? What messages resonate with you? What do you need and want to learn more about? What would you do for a call to action? In your field placement, describe how teachers and the school community integrated and honoured Indigenous knowledges in the learning environment.
From kindergarten to grade 12 I feel like Indigenous History became increasingly more common. From grades K-5 I don’t remember learning about Indigenous History. From grade 6 – 9 I felt often the information was repetitive. I think many of my teachers were googling Indigenous History and teaching us the first thing that came up. I believe many of my teachers got their degrees while residential schools were still open, so they were never taught about it, or taught how to teach it. Once I got to high school, I had the option every year to take Indigenous Studies or Social Studies and I chose to take Indigenous Studies every year. These classes were much better than elementary school was, and we learned so much more. My teacher had planned field trips and guest speakers however Covid cancelled most of this. In university I took INDG 100 however I went to school in BC last year, so I got a totally different view on it since history with Indigenous Peoples is very different in BC than it was in Saskatchewan. In my adult life I feel like I have learned from hearing about big events like the one that was on September 29 at mosaic this year and from social media.
The TRC document is about the journey that needs to be taken towards reconciliation. A quote that resonates with me is this, “In my opinion, Canada wanted its peaceful, developed, safe reputation to be upheld. Canada is known as the country that helps those in need and provides a high quality of life. The Indian Residential School System turned that belief on its back. Canada’s credibility has been lost.” My call to action in my future class will be land acknowledgements, flying the flag of the respective treaty land, and acknowledging the truth.
In my field placement this week I noticed lots of recognition of Indigenous History. I was in a grade 4 classroom and there were buckets for reading labeled “Indigenous History” as well as other buckets of books of other cultures. This teacher also had the respective flags hanging in her room.