When they don’t even visit Schools, he always asks: “How many of you have an orange shirt in your closet that you take out at least once a year?”
Consider that it progresses that almost all hands rise these days.
“I am seeing more conversations, more curricula, and probably the most important of all, the change in school culture,” said the author of indigenous studies at the University of Manitoba.
Ten years since the launch of the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), more students mark the day of Orange’s shirt every September. Also known as the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation of Canada, many spend at least part of the day learning about residential schools, where indigenous children were forced to schools led by the Church funded by the Government to strip their culture.
However, Sinclair, also former high school teacher, points out that only one day is reserved to talk about the impact of residential schools.
“Can we do it during the other 364 days?” He said from Yellowknife.
Teaching K-12 students about residential schools is just a step towards reconciliation, according to Sinclair and other educators.
Sinclair believes that many areas with a high indigenous population, in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and northwest Ontario, for example, absolutely understand working together to achieve the recommendations of the TRC, which explain ways of addressing the legacy of residential schools.
It is the students who lead conversations about truth and reconciliation, says Niigaan Sinclair, but we need more to move schools beyond a single day of conversation or a reference of the solo curriculum.
However, “in many corners of the country, we are still having a conversation about why, not how,” said Sinclair, whose father was the late Murray Sinclair, the judge and senator who presided over the commission.
“Virtually all the school districts of Canada have some way or another adopted principles of reconciliation. If they have committed to calls to action it is a bit different.”
In 2023, the Yellowhead Institute, a research and education group led by indigenous people, reported that only 13 calls to the action issued by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission had been addressed in the almost 10 years since they presented themselves. Rose Lemay, CEO of the indigenous reconciliation group, says that 94 must be addressed “within a generation.” In addition, Isabella Kulak, 14, shares the origins of the day of the tape skirt and talks about what the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation for her and her family means.
Topic of Education
The issue of education extends throughout the recommendations, from asking for federal support to eliminating educational gaps among indigenous and non -indigenous people.
For K-12, the TRC asked federal and provincial governments to collaborate with indigenous groups and educators to develop mandatory and appropriate study plans for age on residential schools, treated and indigenous contributions, in addition to teacher training.
While all provinces and territories include residential schools in their general curriculum now, exactly where it appears, how deeply and if it is even mandatory, it varies between the regions. According to the indigenous control agency of the non -profit group, which tracks the progress of calls, none of the calls related to education is completely complete.
Even so, progress advances in individual meetings and schools.
The construction of intercultural respect and understanding among K-12 students, for example, is part of Call 63 that resonates northwest of Toronto at the Peel District School Board, the second largest and one of the most diverse student populations.
Hundreds of PDSB students, staff and community members met Friday at the Maawnjide Wiigushkeng Center of the Board for indigenous excellence and land learning in Cheltenham, Ontario, for their second annual Powwow.
The students spent a glorious spring day taking dancers in vibrant royalties, battery circles and cultural pavilions that went from the narration of stories and the traditional preservation of animals to street art and indigenous DJs.
For some attendees, the cheerful event was based on what they learn every day.
In the public school of Southfields Village, indigenous perspectives are mixed in different schools and school events. Students learn about residential schools, but also about the value of outdoor time in nature and say “thanks to what nature has given us,” said Grade Student 4 Ryka Gill.
“Some people [who] They are indigenous, in the past, their culture was removed, “he said.” In this generation, I think it is important to learn about indigenous culture. “
Gill’s teacher Laura Gibson says that today’s educators must “forge spaces for voices not mine.” Finding continuous training and development means that it is more capable of bringing indigenous voices to their students and with spark connections.
She and her colleagues incorporate indigenous learning in different spaces. Attending annual Powwow is an example, but there are also school trips to a long house and indigenous speakers regularly invited to their classrooms.
Experiences like this were not available for previous generations, according to the leader of the indigenous education of PDSB, Nicole Reynolds.
“That we can share this with students from various origins and of various identities is really important … they are learning with indigenous people.”
‘An educational system that includes us’
In the School Board of the First Nation of Yukon, involving the first local nations has been a vital pillar of the new school authority, which began in 2022 after decades of indigenous leaders who denounce the “devastating” education of their children, according to Melissa Flynn, executive director of FNSB.
“When the education system has not met the needs of our children … it is not the family and children who need to change, it was the educational system and how it is being delivered,” he said from the central office of the Board in Whitehors.
“The education system is changing [from] A system that is happening to us as students and families, to an education that includes us. “
That means changes in the way children are taught, how to adopt structured literacy to learn to read, more trips on earth and develop high school courses on more resonant issues, such as food sovereignty. In just three years, Flynn rises to see an improved literacy in the 11 schools of the Board and every time a family approaches to say that their children now feel excited to attend school.
The participation of nine different governments from the first nations, as well as indigenous elders and knowledge holders, has been key, he said. They consult above all, from the school growth plans to the next steps after the latest alphabetization and arithmetic data is collected to build the sense of duty of students for the community.
“Each generation has a responsibility in the education of our children,” said Flynn, adding that taking advantage of a traditional multigenerational learning practice, tutoring and support benefits not only to students, but also teachers and staff.
“How do we bring it back to the learning system where nobody learns alone?”
Flynn has the eye to improve indigenous language programs below, but he feels safe in general to respond to what indigenous students and communities need is the right approach to address TRC calls to action in education.
“We all live in the territory of an indigenous group. What a gift would it be for everyone in all Canada to see that this is how education is seen: it is guided by people and the land in which you live.”
