Throughout my education, I have had multiple opportunities to advance my knowledge on topics like Residential Schools, Indigenous perspectives, and Truth and Reconciliation. All of my experiences and the knowledge I have gained contribute to my journey towards reconciliation. This journey has helped me to understand significant parts of history, how Indigenous people were treated, and how they are still treated today. The content presented to me in ECS 100 and ECS 110 has provided me with new perspectives. This journey will continue throughout my life, as society works as a whole and I work individually towards reconciliation by continuing to explore concepts like unearned privileges, whiteness, and knowledge construction. My understanding of these Indigenous topics is continuously developing due to these concepts and how perceptions of them differ, depending on society’s views and knowledge.
As a white woman growing up in Canada, I am aware that I do have privileges. ECS 100 content has immensely impacted my previous understanding of privilege. When I used to think of the word privilege, I did not consider myself privileged because I was comparing myself to the people around me. I now realize that I do have unearned privileges because I am a white person, but the biggest privilege of all is the fact that my culture and identity is who I am, and no one has ever threatened to take that away from me or made me feel shameful about it. After reading the Truth and Reconciliation booklet (Canadian Teacher’s Federation, 2016), I recognized that society needs to take action. This does not mean that I should steer away from reconciliation because it does not affect me. Residential Schools and Indigenous perspectives affect society as a whole. I need to be aware of the past and make myself understand that what happened in the past was wrong, and we now have the opportunity for Indigenous people to be reconciled with non-Indigenous people. I now recognize my privileges in a different way and realize that I should not be taking advantage of it, but be using it to my advantage. According to the Canadian Teacher’s Federations Truth and Reconciliation booklet, I can do a variety of things towards reconciliation. This includes researching, getting involved, being accepting and open-minded, asking questions, and spreading awareness (Canadian Teacher’s Federation, 2016, p 25). These are simple things that individuals, including myself, can do daily as we strive to make a change and reconcile.
Whiteness is a concept that I am now more familiar with. ECS 110 created a whole new understanding of whiteness for me. Whiteness is something that we see more places than we think. It is portrayed in cartoons and things that we witness when we are young. As a future teacher, I will be more aware of whiteness in the content I present to children because without intending to, we are presenting young children with the idea that white people are superior. This will not help towards reconciliation if whiteness continues to be dominant in society. Whiteness is considered ‘normal’ in society. How do we expect to work towards reconciliation if this is the truth? One of my main takeaways from ECS 110 was whitewashing in the media. This completely made me more aware of what I see in the media. People, television shows, magazines, and more are clearly whitewashed for the effect of attention. I thought that when I signed up for my Indigenous studies class with an Indigenous instructor, I would be able to learn from her point of view. However, she spent the course explaining to us how Indigenous ways and perspectives are the right ones, and that white people are their enemies. This did not allow me to understand what they went through and what they still are going through because she made me feel ashamed of my culture and identity; therefore, I did not have the desire to learn from her. Whiteness is equivalent to power in some people’s opinion. This is true in some ways because it is up to us to talk about the past and make others aware. We are where reconciliation starts.
Knowledge construction is significant because individuals generate new understandings about Residential Schools and how it has affected Indigenous people rather than receiving just a quick overview of the past. Hearing the stories from Residential School survivors in the documentary Muffins for Granny made me realize that listening to survivors vocalize their truth has a greater impact on one’s understanding, rather than just learning about what happened in Residential Schools. Throughout my schooling, I have learned about Residential Schools and Indigenous people. It was not until this year that I realized that I want to present this knowledge to my students in a different way. I want my future students to hear the stories from survivors and to visually learn the content. There is a difference between reading an article about Residential Schools and being able to look at someone’s face to see the sorrow in their eyes as they tell their story. I am grateful that there are survivors that want their story to be heard because, without them, we could not truly understand what they have gone through. I feel like I have the opportunity, as a future teacher, to make truth and reconciliation a reality. Reconciliation is now the most significant step because we have gained the knowledge about what happened in Residential Schools and now need to act towards reconciliation. The Truth and Reconciliation booklet states “To celebrate Indigenous people’s contributions to Canada and recognize the horrible things that happened in history. To make sure it never happens again” (p 18). This is why reconciliation is so important. We have heard the truth, so what are we going to do about it?
Depending on society’s differing views, my understanding of unearned privileges, whiteness, and knowledge construction continues to progress throughout my education. There were many takeaways from ECS 100 and 110 content. Certain words I heard and read in course content were significant to me because it was astonishing how a single word could impact my thoughts on a whole topic and allow me to see how I truly felt about it. There were multiple words that stuck in my mind. These words are significant to me because when I hear them, they make me think about my own views and understandings on Indigenous topics. My journey towards reconciliation became a reality since I have taken ECS 100 and ECS 110 due to my realization that I can and want to do things towards reconciliation.
