The foundation of my research and resources comes from the course “Reconciliation Through Indigenous Education” through edX. This online course exposed me to a collection of teaching resources to help me use my role as an educator to be apart of reconciliation. It also allowed me to be apart of a community of educators who every week would have online discussions sharing perspectives and understandings to support one another. This taught me the value of having these difficult conversations, of professional development, and of coming together with other professionals to grow and learn. There is a quote by James Baldwin that reads “our history is each other. That is our only guide”, which (to me) humanizes our history and reminds me that the 150,000 children who were in residential schools should be our guides into our residential school history. Rather than seeing them as numbers and focussing on the statistics, we should see the survivors and victims as human beings first. These are people with a story, and this mindset generates a greater sense of empathy and humanity for the inter-generational trauma that persists today. From my research I understand that James Baldwin was an advocate for racial justice in mid-twentieth century, but I think his quotation is relevant to our current situation in Canada. As a society based on colonialism and settlement, we need to start taking responsibility for the lives we live and the colonial history we benefit from on daily basis. This course inspired me to want to use my role to support our FNMI communities. That is why I took this online course to access additional resources and new information to enhance my abilities and knowledge on the subject. This is a free course and one I would recommend to all educators. In completion of the course you will get a certificate like the one below which is a great addition to a teaching portfolio.
Final Assignment
My final assignment for the edX course was to write a proposal letter aimed at supporting the participation of Indigenous community members in your classroom, school, organization, or community. Because I didn't have my own school board to write a letter to as a pre-service teacher, I wrote a hypothetical letter based off a text I would like to teach one day, The Truth About Stories by Thomas King. This letter is a sample of how I hope to one day invite indigenous knowledge keepers into my classroom. My hope for inviting knowledge keepers into my classroom to encourage cultural awareness from our non-native students and promote a climate for healthy reconciliation amongst our students. As well, I hope having a knowledge-keeper like Leroy at the school would help our FNMI students feel represented and validated. I included this as a guide for how to write a letter to request for this, as some people may not be aware that a gift such as sweetgrass or beads should be exchanged for knowledge from an elder or knowledge-keeper.
Greetings Board of _____________ High School,
I am currently a _____________ teacher at the ____________ High School. We are studying the novel The Truth About Stories by Thomas King, an FNMI text. I am writing to you to request your support in having Indigenous knowledge-keeper Leroy Littlebear come speak to our students during this unit. It is my hope to provide the students with a local example of a First nations Elder and knowledge keeper, with whom they can ask questions and hear first accounts of residential schooling from. Through this students will have a personal learning experience and interact with a knowledgeable survivor of residential schooling and associate their learning with someone they know, rather than hearing about this impacting strangers. Furthermore, having an indigenous presenter to speak with the indigenous students will hopefully provide cultural support and awareness and show their peers why truth and reconciliation is a problem of today as much as it is a sad stain on Canadian history.
I would like to extend an invitation to Leroy Littlebear who is a scholar, elder, academic, motivational speaker, and residential school survivor. He has experience sharing stories in a classroom and university setting. As such, he is very familiar with the Lethbridge area and is comfortable sharing the knowledge he holds. He is also close friends with Thomas King, whose novel we are studying as a class. Having him share about the local area, his experiences with King, and the text, would connect the text we are studying to contemporary issues would help engage the students in the reality that is within the fiction. I would also like the students to share their projects with Leroy in hopes they could have feedback from an Indigenous person, one whom is also friends with the author of the text we are studying. The visual projects they are making will include the colours of the medicine wheel and with visually capture 3 of the major motifs found in the novel. This assignment contrasts the past with the present to show how the past impacts the present. The fee to have him speak to our school is $200, as well I would like to request extra money to be able to purchase a gift for Leroy of sweetgrass and sacred beads.
I anticipate that this visit will help the students engage with the text in a more meaningful way and see the contemporary reality that the text is advocating. I also hope for this meeting to encourage cultural awareness from our non-indigenous students and promote a climate for healthy reconciliation amongst our students. As well, I hope having Leroy at the school helps our indigenous students feel represented and validated.
Sincerely,
Sayde Evahnenko
I am currently a _____________ teacher at the ____________ High School. We are studying the novel The Truth About Stories by Thomas King, an FNMI text. I am writing to you to request your support in having Indigenous knowledge-keeper Leroy Littlebear come speak to our students during this unit. It is my hope to provide the students with a local example of a First nations Elder and knowledge keeper, with whom they can ask questions and hear first accounts of residential schooling from. Through this students will have a personal learning experience and interact with a knowledgeable survivor of residential schooling and associate their learning with someone they know, rather than hearing about this impacting strangers. Furthermore, having an indigenous presenter to speak with the indigenous students will hopefully provide cultural support and awareness and show their peers why truth and reconciliation is a problem of today as much as it is a sad stain on Canadian history.
I would like to extend an invitation to Leroy Littlebear who is a scholar, elder, academic, motivational speaker, and residential school survivor. He has experience sharing stories in a classroom and university setting. As such, he is very familiar with the Lethbridge area and is comfortable sharing the knowledge he holds. He is also close friends with Thomas King, whose novel we are studying as a class. Having him share about the local area, his experiences with King, and the text, would connect the text we are studying to contemporary issues would help engage the students in the reality that is within the fiction. I would also like the students to share their projects with Leroy in hopes they could have feedback from an Indigenous person, one whom is also friends with the author of the text we are studying. The visual projects they are making will include the colours of the medicine wheel and with visually capture 3 of the major motifs found in the novel. This assignment contrasts the past with the present to show how the past impacts the present. The fee to have him speak to our school is $200, as well I would like to request extra money to be able to purchase a gift for Leroy of sweetgrass and sacred beads.
I anticipate that this visit will help the students engage with the text in a more meaningful way and see the contemporary reality that the text is advocating. I also hope for this meeting to encourage cultural awareness from our non-indigenous students and promote a climate for healthy reconciliation amongst our students. As well, I hope having Leroy at the school helps our indigenous students feel represented and validated.
Sincerely,
Sayde Evahnenko