A reconciliation between Indigenous and nonIndigenous Canadians through Education

A reconciliation between Indigenous and nonIndigenous Canadians through Education

For me, Education is the most fundamental matter in a country. It gives people the ability to think by themselves, to differentiate what is right from what is wrong, what is fair from what is not, etc…Education should not be a tool aiming at destroying a culture or removing children from their families.

When I went to Edmonton in 2015, I remember visiting Fort Edmonton Park, many museums and wanting to learn more about Canadian history. I have always been very interested in native people culture and that is the reason why I decided to talk about Indigenous peoples’ education.

From the 1850s to the 1990s the Canadian government led a residential school policy which aimed at ending indigenous language. This system became officially active when the Indian Act was passed in 1876 and in 1884, when school attendance was made compulsory. Indigenous children were forced to speak English or French and were taught their language was Satan’s language in order to assimilate the dominant Canadian culture. These schools were usually far from their communities and family visits were highly restricted.

Nowadays, because of this policy, not a lot of Canadians with indigenous origins can have a conversation in their indigenous language (only 260, 00 out of 1.6 million). Most of indigenous languages are on the brink of extinction.

Not only did this policy reduce the number of Indigenous speaker but is also divided Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians.

In fact, since then, they have always been treated separately.

Many Indigenous children suffered from stigmatization at school and were put aside because of their different origins. Non-indigenous people did not know much about them, their culture, and so, most of the time, they preferred to insult them rather than getting to know them.

Even teachers could play a role in it. For example, an indigenous History and Social teacher in Edmonton explained his teacher used to call him ‘madman’ when he was young.

Many Indigenous people thought this situation would change with Trudeau’s 2015 election because one of his polars during the 2015 election was repairing the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians. Trudeau has made many promises to indigenous Canadians but nothing has really changed since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final report in December 2015. This report is a detailed account of what happened to Indigenous children in residential schools. Living conditions were very poor and children were often physically and sexually abused. By implementing 94 recommendations in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report and by publishing it Trudeau recognized Canadians’ wrongdoings and called the residential schools program: ‘a cultural genocide’. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final report allowed to raise awareness of Indigenous history in Canada and teachers started to want to teach it in their classrooms.

Canada is a federal state and Education matters are under provincial jurisdiction with curricula overhauled every decade.

These curricula are in line with the research and the evolving attitudes of the country. However educators and experts have put some efforts to change Canadian provincial history lessons in order to make Canadians know more about their country and, more recently, more about the Indigenous population. Like other subjects, Indigenous history is taught differently from a province to another. Even if the country admitted its crimes towards the Indigenous populations some provinces are still reluctant to teach everything about their history and some teachers are not confident about teaching this material (especially non-Indigenous educators). In Quebec there is still many criticisms on the actual curriculum which is said to cover enough struggles of Indigenous people and a petition has been launched in order to make it more complete. However, some provinces are really trying hard to put Indigenous history at the center of their policy. For instance, Ontario’s curriculum is very thorough in teaching Indigenous history and former residential schools system.

Lately, other initiatives have been launched in order to honor the government’s commitment to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In 2016, the Minister of Education and representatives from teacher’s organizations signed a Joint Commitment to Action in order to ensure students learn about Indigenous peoples. The Alberta government also planned to spend $4-million to consult with Indigenous people in order to ensure the courses accurately reflects their history.

Most of the residential schools were in the Prairies especially in Alberta (33). After having tried to end indigenous languages the Alberta Premier thinks preserving them is essential to reconciliation. That is the reason why she decided to invest C$1 million in a Calgary library program.

Other Prairies provinces decided to act in order to make Canadians know about their own history.

On one hand, the government of British Columbia modernized his Kindergarten to Grade 12 (K-12) education system to instate Indigenous content across curricula and grade levels. This initiative aimed at teaching students a less biased history relying on historical events. B.C.’s K-12 system also increased the number of Indigenous students across the province. The British Columbia Institute of Technology is one of the most striking example with 1,700 Indigenous students in 2019. This College has done many commitment to enrich its five campuses with Indigenous studies since the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission to continue to fulfill the promise of a richer and better education for everyone. BCIT believes education is the way out for a future reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians.

One the other hand, in Manitoba, the Mayor of Winnipeg, Brian Bowman, announced a plan to remove statues and change names of places marking Canadian colonial history as a gesture of reconciliation. Hence, a statue of John A. Macdonald was removed from in front of Victoria’s City Hall. John A. Macdonald is a very controversial person. On the one hand, he is almost singularly responsible for creating the nation Canada is today

...