Donna Metallic never thought of herself as cunning, so she was surprised at how capable she felt a length of Sweetgrass braids and creating clay art pieces this month during an intensive learning session on Earth.
Mi’kmaw’s master of Listuguj Mi’Gmaq First Nation was one of a group of aspiring educators who gathered in the French village, NB, just before the new school year for an intensive training workshop organized by the Mi’kmaq-Wolatoqey center at the University of Brunwick (UNB).
A former police officer, Metallic recalled his training in the application of the law in Mission, BC, who incorporated Coast Salish teachings, something that deeply resonated with her, since it was a culturally connected learning that he had never had before.
Now back home on the east coast and obtaining a degree in education through an indigenous lens, he is excited about children, including his own granddaughter, learning things he did not have at his age.
“Our role as an educator is very important: bringing them back to earth, to teachings, show them that this is our way,” said Metallic.
From Yukon to Labrador, the new directed programs are supporting a new harvest of indigenous teachers who learn in their communities of origin.
An advertisement from $ 8.6 million in funds from the Rideau Hall Foundation is helping to begin the last round of initiatives, with the aim of training and certifying hundreds of more indigenous teachers, supporting thousands of students and reinforcing education led by indigenous people throughout the country.
A Professor in Training at Mi’kmaw, a professor at the University of New Brunswick and an old man from Wabanaki Mi’kmaw talk about supporting a new wave of indigenous educators.
Western models for teacher training have not necessarily responded to indigenous needs and education challenges, according to Juan Rodríguez, an associate professor of UNB at the Faculty of Education that facilitated the New Brunswick workshop together with a group of elders.
The introduction of programs where teachers candidates learn online combined with some dedicated sessions in person provide flexibility, he said.
“It’s about opening options for indigenous people [teachers] Do not leave their families, their communities, their obligations. “
Address teachers’ shortage, recruitment
The hope is that these efforts relieve a shortage of teachers who work in the communities of first nations, Metis and Inuit throughout Canada, explained Marti Ford, an associate dean of indigenous education in the Faculty of Education of the University of Manitoba.
Recruiting and retaining educators has long been a problem in different regions, said Ford, a former teacher, director and superintendent of the border school division. It is the largest division in Manitoba, Geographically, and covers some communities only accessible in boat, air, rail or ice road.
Ford is empathized with applicants for teachers from remote areas, since she herself was a single mother who traveled from the north to Winnipeg to study education.
Although many years have passed since then, he still vividly remembers that he juggled with education for her and her daughter while living away from her worried family in northern Manitoba and Nunavut, feeling nostalgia, without a support community and cannot also contribute to responsibilities at home.
The Ford initiative, which includes studies for a degree in Arts and a degree in Education, will train the candidates for teachers in their home communities during autumn and winter, but will unite them for learning in person in the summer in Portage of Arriery, near the border of Manitoba with Saskatchewan. Summer sessions will also include programming for the children of the participants.
“There will be a language component … and activities for children while parents are in school and learn to become teachers,” he said.
The program is one of the last dozens of initiatives that received the funds from Rideau Hall last July, and Ford is working to obtain an inaugural intake in September 2026.
It is very different from indigenous students when a teacher belongs to their community, “understands them, understands where they come from … their life, their culture, their teachings,” he said.
“If we can provide that within our communities, those teachers will stay and those children will get adequate education.”
