Category: Blog’s journey through EDUC 394 (Page 2 of 2)

As I grew up in Lillooet and have many Indigenous friends, I have shared many fire circles before. Not one has ever been the same. Whoever leads the circle always sets the intention, and the intentions you bring to that day set the whole ceremony.

The artist Clayton Gauthier who spoke and opened the ceremony that day brought to us a perspective about art and the healing it can bring us.

Later, we shared in a drumming circle. I was able to connect with so many people in the circle through music in a way that is so different than any other. Music does not need conversation yet brings emotions that are shared through the tones of the voices singing together and the drums pulsing through your heart. My best friend had just passed away, and the drummers decided to play the “Eagle song”, which is a song about healing after someone passed away. When we played it, I could not help but feel my emotions and break all my barriers. Also, the support and connection I felt through the people around me without even talking was directly healing my emotions in ways I didn’t expect.

Circles are supposed to give us all voice. Traditionally we have whoever speaks in front of us and the rest of the people listen. Whoever speaks never sees the backs of the people in front of them or that is considered rude. In a circle, everyone has an equal opportunity to talk and be listened to, there is no leader above anyone and no need to stand in front stage. You also have people around you to support you if you need it and the audience is on equal footing with everyone. A community should be heard equally, supported beside each other, and could be leaders with their people. We all have something to share and sometimes we cannot stand in front of a room because it makes us feel vulnerable and alone; in this way, a circle of sharing is superior as you will never feel alone or like you are the only person with all eyes on you but an equal member of the community with all.

Inclusive Standard 9 in education.

On September 18th I had the privilege to attend a professional development day with speaker Niigan Sinclair.

It was a great insightful day with other teacher friends and sharing space with them about community. The best lesson I took from this day was that if you want to understand a community it is as easy as being involved with that community. Openess of mind and heart, as well as investing your time with them in an honest and accepting manner are thing that would genuanly help you diversify and open your circles.

Notes about the event:

The speaker’s father is the person that put forward the “Truth & Reconciliation”.

Teaching Youth to Make a Fire:

• Be in the cold, grab the right type of wood, make sure is dry, struggle to start it, make it bigger, keep it going, etc.
• This is a metaphor to be a father, have a job, etc.
• Fire ceremonies and how they teach young people about their relationships with their bodies, biology, science, etc.
  Indigenous communities have always had education. Usually taught down through stories, experiences in ceremony, and hands on work through their parents and elders that specialized on a specific task.

“The foundation of Indigenous Education was to create healthy and sustainable relationships in every step of life”.

“Learning was a holistic, lifelong process based on primarily localized, experimental learning and formal/intentional education process”.

First Nations Holistic Lifelong Learning Model:

• Source council on learning: “Redefine how success is measured in First Nations, Inuit, and Metis learning” (Ottawa, 2007).
  Teach roots based on ancestry, community, language, etc.

We have been taught that Indigenous People don’t matter as they are not represented anywhere.

• What is our relationship with Indigenous People and how do we allow them to have representation.
• What is success in schooling?
• Where are Indigenous students in this model? Or the current educational model?
• How are Indigenous and Canadian students doing in this model?
  o Furthermore, how is the measure of this success equitable to quality of life, job opportunities, and overall health?
  o We had said in the past that grad equal success. What did this mean? Go out in the world and go make money?
  o Is our job to prepare students for employment only? How do we measure goodness? (Educated Citizen should mean to share and be kind as well).
• Creating individuals that are graded on a curve become competitive and if you do not achieve that top spot, where does that leave you in life and how you succeed? Capitalism has given us an individualistic mentality where it equals employability.
  o This model does not work with kindness and generosity.

Some Challenges to Indigenous education:

• The will to change including political, social, and emotional.
• Finding, commitments, emotional, etc.
• (Mis)Understanding
• Resources
• Fear
• Time
• Anything else?

Reconciliation cannot ever be a lesson plan:

• How do we teach to students that one group matters more than the other?
• What is learnt in the hallways?
• Creating employable Canadians that can work with Indigenous Communities.

The School as a Social System:
“Change the liveability of the culture”.

Factors in successful Indigenous programs:

1. Relationship
2. Relevance
3. Respect
4. Responsibility
   The biggest formula for Indigenous Student success is relationships.

“Indigenous education is education for all!”

The blanket exercise is set up to demonstrate how colonialism affected Indigenous communities all over Canada in an interactive manner.

The official website describes it as follows:
“The Blanket Exercise is based on using Indigenous methodologies and the goal is to build understanding about our shared history as Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada by walking through pre-contact, treaty-making, colonization and resistance. Everyone is actively involved as they step onto blankets that represent the land, and into the role of First Nations, Inuit and later Métis peoples. By engaging on an emotional and intellectual level, the Blanket Exercise effectively educates and increases empathy.”

– The official website can be accessed at the bottom of this Blog post.

This was the second time I was a part of the blanket exercise. It never gets easier but it does teach you new things. Thank you Dr Sims and Dr Ho Younghusband for facilitating the exercise.

The exercise also allows us to hear the history of colonization without needing to have an Indigenous person relive their trauma to hear the stories. The interactive nature of the exercise also gives you a realism that reading history cannot. It has taught me more empathy and to understand things I would never know or experience myself.

The sharing circle at the end always provides you with insight into how your peers process the tragedies that happened to Indigenous communities. It is a great way to get close to people and open up a hard conversation. The continuous racist and oppressive behaviour that still affects Indigenous people systemically cannot disappear if we do not understand the generational trauma that they endure. Exercises like this help us move forward toward reconciliations. There is no way we can reconcile with something we have not faced or understood.

If you ever have an opportunity to be a part of the exercise with your community members, family, coworkers, or anyone you are close with, take the opportunity immediately! It is even better if you reach out and facilitate the exercise yourself! I guarantee that it will bring you closer to the circle of people and to the Indigenous communities around you.

Blanket Exercise Workshop