Throughout the semester in Educational Core Studies 101: Education for Justice: Knowledge, Schooling and Society, I began an incredible journey towards truth and reconciliation. This journey has been informative, heart wrenching, eye opening and also wonderful to go through. I feel as though my perspectives and ideas have completely changed. This journey has given me a strong foundation to build upon as I go through the next four years in the Faculty of Education as well as when I begin my career as a teacher. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (2015) states Call to Action 63 to advocate building capacity for intercultural understanding, empathy and mutual respect: learning together to understand our shared histories with Aboriginal people. To develop and implement K-12 curriculum and learning resources on Aboriginal peoples in Canadian history, and the history and legacy of residential schools (p. 11). My goal as a future teacher is to base my teaching around this call to action. Indigenous knowledge needs to be taught and recognized by all teachers and students across our country. In the article “Nourishing the Learning Spirit” it stats that the greatest needs in classrooms today are to address racism and Eurocentrism in society. Teachers must offer ‘Two eyed seeing’ this idea is meant to “normalize Indigenous knowledge in the curriculum so that both Indigenous and conventional perspectives and knowledges will be available – not just for Aboriginal peoples, who would be enriched by that effort, but for all peoples” (Battiste, 2010, p. 4). This idea is something that has really resonated with me and coincides with my “I Believe…” statements.
I have been able to make many connections to previous knowledge and learning over the course of this semester. One of my favourite activities this semester that has contributed to my journey towards reconciliation was the “Finding Common Ground – A Treaty Walk of Fort Qu’Appelle, Saskatchewan” that we completed during the Treaty 4 Gathering. It was incredibly eye opening to see how closely connected we are both physically and figuratively to the injustices of Canadas’ history surrounding our Indigenous peoples. I had the privilege in grade 12 of being able to visit the site of the former Lebret Industrial Indian Residential School which closed in 1996. I remember the overwhelming sense of shock and sadness when I had initially stepped off the school bus after a short one hour drive from the city to see the school gates still standing right infront of me. To have the opportunity to read more about this during the Treaty Walk was even more effective to my overall understanding of the fact that Residential Schools are not that far into Canadas’ past. They happened more recently than most people think and thousands of Indigenous peoples in Canada still experience the effects of them today. I also recognized that there had been so many things surrounding me that I had been ignorant for all these years. During the virtual walk through downtown Regina I experienced an “aha” moment. I knew that recently Davin School had been changed to The Crescents School, but I never knew why. It turns out, Nicholas Flood Davin who the school was previously named after, was the man responsible for creating the Davin Report. The report was a very influential report for the creation of Residential Schools. This was something that happened so close to me, I have even worked at The Crescents School a number of times and yet it never occurred to me to find out why this change happened. It is so important to take the time to learn about and recognize the things that are right around us.
During my journey towards reconciliation, I came across a video that was posted by the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. In the video, Chief Wilton Littlechild who was the commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission from 2009-2015, explains that one of the impacts of Residential Schools on children was that they never had a birthday recognized while they attended these schools. The commission decided to hold a birthday party at every one of their national events because it is so important for children to be able to commemorate their birthdays. (2020. Birthday Parties.) I was so taken back by this video as it was one aspect of Residential Schools that I had never thought about. It is all the little things that most people don’t think about, that were also taken away from these children during their time in Residential Schools. I was so moved by this short video that I decided to use it as the inspiration for my aesthetic representation. My aesthetic representation was a birthday cake that I baked and decorated. The base of the cake was covered in fondant in the colours that make up the medicine wheel. In Indigenous culture, the medicine wheel can represent many things such as the four directions, Father Sky, Mother Earth and Spirit Tree or spiritual, emotional, physical and mental health. The border around my cake was a long braid. The braid represents two things: long indigenous braided hair that is a sign of wisdom and strength for many Indigenous men and also braided sweetgrass, a sacred Indigenous plant that is used in ceremonial practices such as smudging. On the top of the cake there was a tipi. I included this because it is seen as the traditional home to Indiegnous people before colonization. I have had a few opportunities to raise tipis before and even to compete in a tipi raising contest at the University of Regina. There are many important and sacred parts to the tipi and I felt as though it was something I had built before so I could replicate it on the cake. Finally, I lit a birthday candle on the top of the tipi to connect it all back to the video I had watched to commemorate and honour all of the lost birthdays.
This semester has taught me many things. One of the most important being, that there must be truth before there can be reconciliation. It is my responsibility as a future teacher to take this into account everyday in my future career. “If the truth comes before the reconciliation, then Canadian teachers are at the forefront of this country’s future” (Freeman, 2018). We must nourish our own learning spirits. We must unlearn layers and years of oppression and critique our curriculums and look at the connections between what is being taught, who is being excluded and who is benefiting from this education (Battiste, 2010, p. 1-5). As educators, we need to be open to learning and listening everyday. The journey to reconciliation will never end. There is always more to be done and we must all do our part to contribute to the systemic change.
Works Cited
Battiste, Marie. (2010). Nourishing the Learning Spirit. Canadian Education Association, Vol 50. 1-5. https://urcourses.uregina.ca/pluginfile.php/2298534/mod_resource/content/0/Nourishing%20the%20Learning%20Spirit%20Marie%20Battiste.pdf
Bearhead, Charlene. (2016, August 31). 94 Calls to Action, 3 Ways to Get Started. Folio. https://www.folio.ca/94-calls-to-action-3-ways-to-get-started
Boutin-Maloney, Andre. (2020, November 22). Finding Common Ground. Story Maps. https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/e90dc91809a048ec95c2cfcc9a4b7492
Freeman, K., McDonald, S., Morcom, L. (2018, April 24). Truth and Reconciliation in Your Classroom. EdCan Network. https://www.edcan.ca/articles/truth-reconciliation-classroom/
Legacy of Hope Foundation. Residential School Experience – School Days. 100 Years of Loss. http://100yearsofloss.ca/en/exhibition/
National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. (2020, October 16). Birthday Parties. https://m.facebook.com/nctr.ca/videos/1015746335571475/?refsrc=https%3A%2F%2Fm.facebook.com%2Fwatch%2F
National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. (2016). Truth and Reconciliation: What is it about?. Canadian Teachers’ Federation.
Pirbhai-Illich, F. & Martin, F. (2019, October). A relational approach to decolonization education: working with the concepts of invitation and hospitality. Educational Core Studies 101. University of Regina.
Project of Heart. (2016, May 16). If These Hills Could Talk. http://projectofheart.ca/sk/2016/05/16/video-if-these-hills-could-talk/
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. (2015). Calls to Action. http://trc.ca/assets/pdf/Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf.