I pondered for a while on how to start this paper. I thought to myself “what do I say, and how do I say it?” I now realize that it doesn’t really matter how I start. It’s the fact that I’m starting. This idea of feeling stuck or lost in starting something reflects my journey towards reconciliation. We many not know how to start, or what we can do to contribute to this healing process, but starting somewhere is better than doing nothing and not starting at all.
Before coming to the University of Regina, I never really thought about reconciliation. In fact, I don’t even remember learning much about Residential Schools in school until my grade 12 year. Last semester I took Indigenous studies and my eyes were opened to the way the Original Peoples lived before the European settlers came to take away their land, culture, beliefs, and their identities and ways of life as a whole. I soon realized that I was in no position, especially as a future teacher, to sit back and watch the Indigenous peoples—the minoritized group—advocate for themselves and fight for their rights and equity. It is up to us as educators to share our knowledge to our students and work towards and with reconciliation.
Reconciliation is not just one thing. It is a combination of different ideologies and factors that contribute towards equity, love, and peace between all peoples. It is about unity and respect; reforming bonds; restoring the relationship between groups of people or individuals; realizing that wrong has been done and that things must be made right; healing for the families affected; creating good terms between two groups; building new relationships on a foundation of openness, dignity, understanding, and hope; restoring mutual respect; and helping to heal. “The best way for reconciliation is through education since one day the youth will become leaders of this country” so as a teacher, it is my responsibility to educate my students on the past, what we can do today, and where we are headed in the future (Canadian Teachers Federation, 2016).
This semester I have learned, and continue to learn, about the steps that I can take, not only as a teacher but also as an individual, on my journey towards reconciliation. I believe that the seven Ojibway teachings are important during our journey towards reconciliation. Each of the seven animals offer an important lesson that can guide us through our journey. The first Ojibway teaching is kichi’’inendamowin—respect—(represented by the buffalo). This is a quality that we must all have for each other and for ourselves throughout the process of reconciliation. One important takeaway that I have gotten from this class is that we are all learning, and we will forever be learning and growing. Teachers aren’t expected to know it all and have all the answers when it comes to reconciliation. It is a process that must be nourished and we cannot be expected to know it all when not all is known. We are all on our own paths in life and we must respect each other and our individual paths towards reconciliation. The second Ojibway teaching is zhawenjigewin—love—(represented by the eagle). At the end of the day, everyone just wants to be loved and treated like they matter. On our paths towards reconciliation, we must all come from a place of love in our hearts to sympathize and care for all affected by the Residential Schools whether that’s directly or indirectly. There is enough negativity in the world right now; the least we can do is spread love to one another. The third Ojibway teaching is soongatiziwin—courage—(represented by the bear). We must all have courage to stand up for what’s right through our process of reconciliation. We will come across certain times where our knowledge and what we believe in is challenged, but we have to have courage to stand our ground and not back down in fighting for what’s right and just. The fourth Ojibway teaching is tepwewin—honesty—(represented by Bigfoot). Honesty means to “learn to speak from your heart [and to] get our of your head [and] mind.” Honesty is an important factor of reconciliation as we all need to drop the colonial narratives and relearn. We need to get out of our heads what we’ve been told for so long and listen. Listen to what the Original Peoples have to say and be honest with yourself and to others. The fifth Ojibway teaching is amik—wisdom—(represented by the beaver). The wisdom teaching is that everyone has a gift and “once you know your gift you use [it] to serve the people.” I may not be certain what my gift is quite yet, but I know that helping and teaching people is a passion of mine, and I will use this passion and my ever-growing wisdom to educate my students. The sixth Ojibway teaching is tabasenimowin—humility—(represented by the wolf). Humility and humbleness are very important traits to have during reconciliation. We have to be able to recognize when we make mistakes; when we do make mistakes, we have to know that it is okay. We are all learning and growing together and we will make mistakes along the way. But to be accountable for mistakes and be willing to learn and grow from them is really what humility is all about during reconciliation. The seventh and final Ojibway teaching is kawakaatiziwin—truth—(represented by the turtle). One of the most important steps to reconciliation is telling the truth. The truth about what really happened to around 150 000 children at these schools, and how the Original Peoples were betrayed by the crown regarding treaty terms. As a teacher, it is my duty to teach the truth to my students about what happened many years ago, why the effects are still being felt today, and how to move towards reconciliation (SagkeengCFS, 2014).
On March 21, 2022, I attended ‘All Our Relations: Finding the Path Forward’ presented by Tanya Talaga. Although it was only a Zoom presentation, it carried a large effect and impact to me and, I am sure, everyone who attended as well. Tanya spoke about many of the issues today that are inequitable and unacceptable toward the Indigenous peoples in Canada. Many Indigenous communities do not have a school that the children can go to. Indigenous students have to travel for quite some time just to go get an education—something that should be granted to everyone. Not only is this a problem with the education system, but the fact that seven Indigenous students died in the span of eleven years in Thunder Bay, Ontario due to their feelings of exclusion and hate in their schools and in Canada.
Tanya spoke that the seven Ojibway teachings will help us to get through and to reconcile. The history of Canada—the proper and truthful history—needs to be taught. Before we can all restore our relations with one another, our history needs to be taught to and understood by students so it doesn’t happen again in future time. Students need to be taught what wrong happened to the Indigenous children, how it happened, and what events led up to the happening. This way, our future generations in Canada will not be reluctant to the scary and dark history we have, but rather truthful and honest about it so we can take the steps forward to reconcile. Aside from the emotional and spiritual reparations that need to be made to reconcile, there are quite obvious and necessary steps the government needs to take to enable Indigenous peoples to not only live in an equitable society, but a fair and equal one for starters. Indigenous communities still do not have clean drinking water. This is a human right. The fact that the government cannot even provide their communities with plants to clean the water, let alone clean drinking water from any source, supports the barrier that has been created between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. Indigenous peoples are also being shut out of the justice system and are given inequitable opportunities. Indigenous peoples have a harder time finding jobs, they’re presumed to be alcoholics and involved in gang activity, they have a harder time getting an education, and so on. The government needs to take the step to use their platform to inform Canada of the false discriminations. They also need to give Indigenous peoples more equitable opportunities so that they can succeed in society without any barriers, and break the discriminations and oppressive ideologies applied to them (Talaga, 2022).
Moving forward, I have been fulfilled with many different steps I can take in and out of the classroom towards reconciliation. I think that it is important to start every day, in or out of the classroom, with a land acknowledgement to recognize where we are and how we got here; whose land we are standing on. To involve the students, they can take turns doing the land acknowledgement everyday and/or before they present a presentation. I also think that bringing in elders and guest speakers to teach is a really great way for students, and myself, to learn more about the Indigenous ways of life and knowledge as they are so humble and wise. Although I am still learning each and every day how I can be a better advocate and support for Indigenous peoples, I am on my way. I am on my way towards reconciliation and I am on my way to help others get there too. Education is what got us into this mess, and it is education that is going to get us out.