Aboriginal Day offers high school students new insight
Version of history rarely found in classroom books
High school students in the Lester B. Pearson School Board say they have been enlightened on the plight of Canadian aboriginals after participating in the board’s second annual Aboriginal Day celebration.
Students from more than a dozen high schools took part in sometimes emotionally charged activities at Lindsay Place High School in Pointe-Claire last Wednesday. The one-day event was part of the board’s effort to raise awareness of aboriginal issues.
Sue Simatos, a spiritual animator with the Pearson board and coordinator of Aboriginal Day, said the event was introduced in local schools following Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which dealt with the painful subject of Indian Residential Schools, which existed in Canada from 1870-1996.
The commission heard of pain and suffering from aboriginals who were removed from their families as children and forced to attend Residential Schools. The commission heard how children suffered from neglect and physical, psychological and sexual emotional and abuse.
“Three of our schools went to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission back in 2013,” recalled Simatos.
“When I attended that commission, I realized the degree to which the human rights of aboriginal people had been neglected. So I made it a mission to educate as many people and students as I could about the human rights violations of aboriginal people in Canada. So I try to educate.
“I’m a spiritual animator so I’m animating about human rights,” Simatos said.
“The way I look at it, if I’m going to teach about human rights, why not teach it through the aboriginal person as opposed as to going to the American history?”
Simatos said students often react with surprise when they learn about the plight of aboriginals in Canada. “They’re always shocked and a little bit, ‘What else are they not teaching us?’
“We’re not blaming anyone, it’s not in the history books,” Simatos added.
Students at Lindsay Place participated in activities such as the blanket exercise and an afternoon powwow.
For Grade 9 student Esha Patel, Aboriginal Day helps teach a version of history not found in many classroom history books.
“What I’m learning from this is the history they never told us about the American Indians,” Patel said. “So we get to learn what we haven’t been told in the books... I didn’t know about residential schools. It was really sad to know.”
Patel said she enjoys learning about different cultures and religions. “It’s really eye-opening,” she said.
Michael Rice, a native studies specialist with Sir Wilfred Laurier School Board in Laval, delivered a Mohawk Thanksgiving address to the students.
Rice said one of the aims of the event is to educate students about aboriginal culture and history.
“We want to sensitize our children,” he said.
“It’s not a credit course. It’s more like a humanities. It’s to make people aware of other cultures.”