There is a the purpose of teaching Treaty Ed (specifically) or First Nations, Metis, and Inuit (FNMI) Content and Perspectives (generally) where there are few or no First Nations, Metis, Inuit peoples. Dwayne Donald notes that most Canadian Canadians have a sense that they do NOT have a culture. And if they do, it is not as rich as others. He asks the question – What kind of education would you have to receive in order to believe that you do not have a culture? Wow – that’s a bit of Clavet Saskatchewan highschool truth. I certainly have a learning disability as an American/Canadian. Coming into INDG centered lectures and courses, has given me the ability to see my earlier inability to comprehend Indigenous culture/issues today. I’m paying for and receiving an education that’ll make me a teacher who encourages inquiry into citizenship and its meaning. Into Indigenous education and its meaning. Into a view of what could be a future of engagement and change between students and Indigenous peoples. We hold the balance of power – physically and financially, and populationally. We can make the difference. We can move beyond the token de-colonization education verbiage. As Donald writes, “”The way that you think about the relationship (between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples) has a distinctive bearing on how you take it up in the classroom.”
We inhabit this land, and therefore are apart of the freedoms, and confines, of the specific Treaty, which governs this area regardless whether we are direct settler descendants or not. Even those getting off a plane tomorrow, and stepping into a home anywhere in Canada – are Treaty people – because they can only do so, due to the treaty. A treaty signed with the intent of genocide and cultural destruction. In being a treaty person, a student/citizen has to ask the questions, “Identity – who am I? What is that history I must own. How did I get to be here? How do I call this home?” And what does it mean to ‘own’ a piece of history. Do most shun the idea simply because they nor their relatives were physically living here prior to 1971 (that’s when I initially crossed the CND/USA border). I think anyone living here has a responsibility to equality, sharing of resources. Through teaching our children we are too educating all people, their parents, grandparents older siblings, neighbors and friends will hear their voicing these thoughts, ideas and considerations. Discussions regarding their relationship and identity within this place, where is their individual and collective place in de-colonialism. Its important to share with non-indigenous students the clear okay sign to imagine what it is currently like to walk in Indigenous shoes, and to sit with the grief of the personal impacts of colonization. Certainly part of our job is teaching parents and explaining it in ways they understand. As Cynthia Chambers states, “The treaties certainly were, and continue to be, an invitation – an invitation to meet again.”
I like the quote by Chambers, “The countenance of the common lives on in the language, stories, dances, and songs, in clothing and art, in tools and what must be made from them.” What we have in common is our need for a curriculum that can help us to make a livelihood that does no harm. To believe and teach in a way in which students do not want to take for granted the opportunity to live differently than my parents, and grandparents.
Ken Chaplin 