AGE OF RECONCILIATION
SCHOOLS PLAY VITAL ROLE IN REDRESSING EFFECTS OF RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS
When Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) released its report in 2015, it issued a clear call to educational institutions to take responsibility for leading the way in addressing the challenge of reconciliation between Canada’s Indigenous peoples and non-Indigenous peoples.
Examples include Reconciliation Road: Join the Journey with Vancouver Island University in B.C., a series of events and activities that includes the Witness Blanket Installation. The wood-based installation is comprised of hundreds of items reclaimed from residential schools, churches, government buildings and traditional and cultural structures across Canada, including braids of hair, a Métis sash and the door to a residential school infirmary.
The TRC was established in 2009 to examine the impact of Canada’s Indian Residential School system and bear witness to the stories of survivors and those affected by these schools.
calls to action
The TRC’s final report — issued in Dec. 2015 — included several calls to action related to education. According to TRC chair Justice Murray Sinclair, education provides one of the greatest hopes for repairing cultural attitudes, redressing the legacy of Indian Residential Schools and advancing the process of reconciliation.
“Every university across the country is dealing now with indigenization — that is, how do you begin to create an Indigenous presence in academic programs and academic faculty, staff and student body?” says David Newhouse, director of the Chanie Wenjack School for Indigenous Studies and professor of Indigenous studies at Trent University in Peterborough. “How do you begin to bring Indigenous culture, traditions and knowledge into the university? How do you make the university environment amicable to Indigenous students and faculty?”
Trent’s naming of t he Chanie Wenjack School was part of a major series of recommendations that includes a new academic requirement for all undergraduate students to successfully complete at least 0.5 credits from an approved list of courses with Indigenous content.
creating indigenous spaces
Schools are also creating Indigenous spaces on campus. “Right across the country you see First Peoples houses and Indigenous student lounges, sweat lodges, teepees and some t radition structures beginning to emerge. You also see art and other sorts of culture displays,” says Newhouse, an Onondaga from the Six Nations of the Grand River community.
At a ceremony during National Aboriginal Day, York University’s Hart House was renamed Skennen’ kó: wa Gamig or the House of Great Peace. “Some of ( our) students learn about their history for the first time after coming to York U,” says Indigenous Council co- chair Ruth Koleszar- Green. “This house provides a safe and supportive place for that learning but it also allows for a space where Indigenous peoples can lead the conversation.”
Post- secondary institutions are designing access programs that allow students who don’t meet traditional entrance requirements to learn skills needed to be successful. They’re also developing academic programs that serve a need particular to the Indigenous community, such as economic development, social work and teacher education, and also working to attract Indigenous students to nontraditional programs.
education non-indigenous people
The new national Indigenous Mentorship Network Program will support students interested in pursuing a health care or research career and will be characterized by a Two- Eyed Seeing approach, which combines Western perspectives with cultural teachings and knowledge on healing and traditional medicine.
Schools are also working to increase the number of Indigenous faculty. “All of this begins to address another part of what we’re doing, which is educating non- Indigenous people about us,” says Newhouse. “Through contact, people’s ideas begin to change so you begin s ee Indigenous students and faculty as creators, as innovators, as members of your community, as contributors and not so much as a problem. That brings people together and helping people to learn together is extremely important.”
Post- secondary institutions are working with local First Nation, Innuit and Métis communities. “That link is extremely important because your work becomes relevant to your local community,” Newhouse says. “This work has all been spurred on by recommendations of the TRC, which has really created the willingness to do things differently… It’s been good to see.”