Educating, reflecting, seeing from other perspectives, and putting in the effort to understand is only a fragment of what needs to be done to reconcile. My journey toward reconciliation is never ending and will only grow throughout the years. To become the educator I want to be, I need to take the time to educate myself and break down the stereotypes that have been embedded in my brain about Indigenous people. I believe that in order for this country will start to heal from its horrifying heart braking history correctly, the topic of everything that happened needs to be taken a lot more seriously by everyone, especially educators, because the reality is if educators highlight the importance of the subject to little kids they will grow up understanding how serious what happened really is and how they can reconcile with it all.
“Reconciliations” the first time I heard this word was in 2014 when I first moved to Canada. I never quite understood what it really meant, all I knew is that when it was connected with the history of Indigenous people. “Truth and reconciliation” was taught to me every year since grade seven till this day. However, never once did I truly comprehend what it required of me as a student, a peer, and now a future educator. Year after year teachers taught about residential schools and the history of colonization of Indigenous people in Canada, but almost every time it felt as if they never truly cared about the subject and only taught it because they where obligated to by the government and the school bored. However, something I never understood is why are people so scared to talk about it, how come what we get taught was so vague, why do many act like it is a secret that should be kept on hush and should not be spoken about more than it needs to. I understand the shame, and the guilt that one feels behind the brutal reality even if they did not have anything to do with it; but the truth is it already happened and all we can really do is own up to the truth of what happened, learn from it and make sure that it never happened again.
European colonialism has effected many countries around the world and many of them need to reconcile with the pains of their past. I think that if many Indigenous people sat down and have conversations with new comers specifically refuges who are here escaping mass genocide, they will be able to to realize just how intertwined we all are, and in more ways than one we may find a way to help each other reconcile with our past. However, it needs to be made clear that yes many countries around the world faced genocide, they have not faces the mass genocide of their children like Indigenous people did. To go into more detail residential schools started in mid 1800s where John A. Macdonald reported that all Indigenous children ages seven to fifteen would be taken from their families to attend residential schools to “abort their culture”, this counted on till 1996 when the last residual school closed in Saskatchewan. To put it into a bigger perspective about 150,000 Indigenous children where forced by law to attend Residential schools; however that number is only an estimate, because of the thousand unmarked graves and missing children no one is certain how many children actually attended. Lets look at it from a deeper more personal perspective, look at your life right now and think back to when you where seven years old. At this point you would probably be in second grade surrounded by peers in school then going home to your family. Now imagine some strange men coming to your door one day taking you away from your family without a choice, taking you mils and mils away to go to a school where you are told that everything you know is wrong, that you no longer get to speak the only language you knew, and are not able to see your family for months. How would you feel then?
Many do not realize the privilege they have of growing up in the same city or town their whole lives, the freedom of speaking the language you have always known, the privilege of getting to see your family, and most importantly, the privilege of not living in constant fear of what might happen to you. Newcomers, especially children who have moved to Canada at a young age from different parts of the world, feel and understand how hard it is to be in a place where everything you know now means nothing. In more ways than one, newcomers understand more how Indigenous children feel when attending residential schools than anyone. However, that does not mean they understand them completely because the brutality Indigenous children face is something unimaginable. Understanding this connection when I was younger would have benefited my journey.
My journey toward reconciliation is non-ending and constantly growing. It started with building my knowledge about Indigenous history and culture, holding others and myself accountable, educating others, listening, and reflecting. This is not a journey that will only be beneficial if it is done with others trying to figure it out. This means that it includes being an educator who is not scared to talk about the hard truth, to help guide children through their journeys towards reconciliation, and to embrace the Indigenous culture. It consists of hope, respect, understanding, and belief in the good of humanity. My aesthetic represents that for everyone to reconcile with what happened, we need to help each other and reach out because we are all trying to mend our broken hearts from our brutal pasts.