Towards Reconciliation in the Classroom

Today, as I begin this last blog, I am reflecting on the change it has brought about in me. At first, the idea of a publicly published blog terrified me. I wasn't sure what voice to adopt or how academic VS personal it should be. I struggled to identify topics I wanted to share. Over time, I made some progress on these fronts, uncovering new avenues of research, which linked to yet other areas of interest. Now that this course is almost done, I am struggling to choose which one of many topics I still want to explore! This has opened an interesting door for me, one that I have embraced and that I wish I had more time to devote to, currently.  So, here we are, the last post (for now). I've decided to spotlight a few Canadian organizations who are innovating in education: they are bringing new knowledge to Canadian students and taking action to address the calls-to-action made by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015. The first is the University of Prince Edward Island, ...

If you ask any of my friends, they will tell you that I am a person with a generally positive outlook on life. My last post, and some others, were definitely more negative in tone, so I figured I'd find some positives to share with you this week, about Indigenous education in Canada. I thought I'd start local (PEI) and move on to the national level.  Locally, I'd like to share what kinds of Indigenous-focussed courses are available to high school and university students. Nationally, I'd like to share about a recently improved online resource for lessons and units built around the education of Canadians re: aboriginal knowledge and culture. I teach at the only high school in PEI that has an Indigenous studies course, Colonel Gray High School, in Charlottetown. Now, the school is named after a father of the confederation, who perhaps inadvertently helped create the nation of Canada which oppressed Indigenous Peoples, but I digress. Keeping it positive. Our school is lucky...

Continuing on my path of learning, I was reading through a new section in Learning About Walking in Beauty: Placing Aboriginal Perspectives in Canadian Classrooms, Section 2.1: Naming Oppression. All of a sudden I stumbled onto some bits of ideas that I immediately wanted to learn more about, to do a little side research on, so this post explores these more in depth: Social Darwinism and Terra Nullius. You see, I teach the History of Canada to high school students. Every year, we travel through time from pre-contact North America to present day. We stop to appreciate indigenous culture, and make all kinds of links between decisions the federal government made and their consequences on First Nations. We look at Treaties, the Indian Act, Residential Schools, Idle no More, Truth and Reconciliation, etc. Almost every year, a student will put their hand up and ask: why were the Europeans so disrespectful and controlling of First Nations peoples? I tell them I'm not sure, it was just the...

  The topic of this blog post will veer away from education for a minute, and look at something incredible. Something that never ceases to amaze me, and that I see again and again. First Nations have a desire to work together with all who live on Turtle Island. They were committed to this idea from the moment the Europeans arrived, and they continue to express this today. Let's go waayyyyy back to the 1700s, when some European explorers had made contact with First Nations and were beginning to build relationships with them. At that time, Hotinonshon:ni people created a two-row wampum which was presented to the explorers. Wampum belts took months to complete, as beads were made from bone or shells. They were used as a sort of contract, or a treaty, between nations. The two rows in is particular wampum symbolized how the Hotinonshon:ni and Europeans were to learn to live side by side, two nations working separate and equal, working together on this land, neither in each other's s...