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Week 1 has already finished for us, and I knew this feeling would happen. I would read a whole bunch of information regarding our historical relationship with Aboriginals and I would keep asking myself "why?!" "why?" "why?". This week we read a lot about Colonial education and the disruption it has on our Indigenous population, and I started to wonder if colonial education had this impact around the various Indigenous populations around the world as well? I said in my introduction post that I was working with a colleague on her NDW4M course, and student's final assignments was to take their newfound knowledge and apply it to different Aboriginals groups around the world to see if Aboriginal are mistreated around the world, and one of the student's did her assignment on Aboriginals in Australia and their living conditions. As she was doing more research, she learned about how education differs between Indengous people that live in remote areas and non remote areas. She also learned about the differences in mental health, and living conditions. This is an excerpt from one of the sources that she had provided to me to learn more about the Indigenous population:

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"More needs to be done to ensure that all Australian students engage in reconciliation, respect and recognition of the world’s oldest continuous living cultures. We need to educate all students to be truly respectful and value our nation’s heritage.  For all students, learning Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages provides a distinctive means of understanding the country in which they live, including the relationship between land, the environment and people. The ongoing and necessary reclamation and revitalization of these languages also contribute to reconciliation. The University of Melbourne, under the lead of prominent academic and historian Professor Marcia Langton, has been engaged to strengthen Australian school student’s knowledge about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander civilizations across Australia and how they operate.  The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Curricula Project will include an analysis of how the current curriculum is applied and aims to develop resources for teachers to effectively embed the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures cross-curriculum priority in other core curriculum areas."

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When reading this, I couldn't help but think about the readings we did this week on colonial education, and what exactly "indigenous Knowledge" entails. Is it solely respect and recognition of the culture? Learning about the culture, and learning THROUGH the culture are 2 different things. How can we move towards reconciliation, and start healing from both of our country's horrific pasts if we solely learn ABOUT the culture. Both Indigenous population groups stress the importance of reconciliation, language, persevering culture, and understanding the relationship between language, environment, and people, but how can we do that if we are learning for the sole purpose of "being respectful and valuing diversity", we should be learning FROM people to help develop empathy, and move towards reconciliation. I'm ending this reflection off with a question that I hope I can answer by the end of the course:

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How can we learn FROM our First Nations, and not solely learn ABOUT them?

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Works Cited:

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Australian Government (2018). Closing the Gap. Retrieved from: https://closingthegap.pmc.gov.au/education

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Journal Entry #2-Broken promises...

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I want to begin this journal entry with this article:

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This week's readings had me delving into a lot of different policies and frameworks from over the years, and it brought me to this promise visitation to Indigenous Rights (Section 35) from Justin Trudeau last February. Initially, it was stated last year that ""Going forward, recognition of rights will guide all government relations with Indigenous peoples," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the House of Commons on Wednesday in announcing that, 36 years after Section 35 of the Constitution protected aboriginal and treaty rights, government officials will have to accept aboriginal rights guaranteed under the Constitution as a starting point for any government decisions, actions or negotiations." (cbc article: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/liberals-to-change-how-indigenous-rights-cases-are-handled-in-courts/article37979282/). However, fast forward almost one year, and the framework has not even been drafted yet. For me, and any readers who have been following this article, the question remains: will our Indigenous population ever achieve self-governance? The conversation of self-governance is interesting, especially when it comes to the topic of colonialism, and the effects of colonialism. Historically speaking, any marginalized group that has been through colonization has always wanted to achieve self-governance, but, I don't think there are many examples from history that have actually achieved freed themselves from the chains of their colonial days-they maybe have been able to reach the level of self-governance, but the effects of colonialism still exist today. This got me thinking about one of my favourite theorists of all time, Edward Said, and his postcolonial paper on the "Occident" and the "Orient", where he explained that the "West" has always tried to control the "East"  through language, culture, etc as the "east" was seen as the "weaker", and the uncivilized-thus needed to be taught from the "West". The same could be said about our approach to our indigenous population years ago, it was almost as if we thought that they are incapable of seizing control, so we must do it for them. Years later, and our First Nations are still living with the effects of colonialism: horrible mental health status, lack of employment, bad physical health status, alcoholism/drug abuse, etc. After reading this article, it got me thinking about the whole idea of self-governance, why is it that we cannot grant control to our Indigenous population over their own lives? Why must they have to prove again and again, that their rights need to be implemented? Is it because as a government we value oil and monetary goods over the rights of our citizens?

 

Let's take a look at one of the most talked about issues regarding our First Nations recently: The Trans Mountain Pipeline.

 

Our Indigenous population have the right to be consulted when working on their traditional lands, and my question is, did Trudeau's government actually consent the First Nations appropriately before considering the Trans Mountain Pipeline that has sparked so much controversy over the past few months? What I find ironic is that on one hand we are talking about creating a framework that essentially allows Indigenous population to have more of a voice, and on the other hand, we are not listening tho their voice when they are being vocal about something that directly impacts their land, and their lives.

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I am not sure if I will have an answer to this by the end of course or not, but can two different minded groups actually work together to support and govern all people in Canada?

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Journal Entry #3-"Funding does not equal reform"

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Funding does not equal reform, but of course if one is cutting costs, why are the important programs such as rewriting curriculum content to include indigenous content the one being cancelled? This week's readings touched bases on policies and the tensions between the government and our Indigenous groups that were formed to help facilitate change. I thought it was interesting that often we have all of these policies in place, but when it comes to the execution, the idea is halted, like in this case with the curriculum writing project- a much needed step to works towards achieving Reconciliation. I think besides activism from the actual marginalized group here (indigenous population), how come there wasn't much argument against this move? While reading this article, it is clear that different political parties like the NDP have issues with this, and even our OSSTF president had made a comment, but besides that, how come this topic was dropped? I remember overhearing a conversation early last year when a colleague had a made a point stating that if the oppressed does not care for change, who are we to improve change. This comment (besides making me roll my eyes and shake my head at the level of sheer ignorance) made me start thinking about change and how it can happen. Change does not solely happen when marginalized groups come together to protest an issue, it's when someone in already existing positions of power actually listens. Either that, or we redefine who obtains power, and who does not. Like always, this reminded me of Edward Said, and his work on the effects of postcolonialism:

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"To obtain power does not necessarily mean to take over a certain place or person, but obtaining power lies in how one feels they have taken over another (Said 211)."

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Essentially, by cutting funding to this project we are sending 2 messages to our Indigenous population:

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1) They have no say in our education system

2) There is no such thing as "Indian Control over Indian Education"

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I think that by halting this project, our government feels they are cutting costs in areas that don't matter, such as Reconciliation, which to me, leaves me to understand that funding alone doesn't lead to reform, but funding is NEEDED to initiate the steps needed towards reform.

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Works Cited

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Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York: Pantheon Books, 1978.

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Journal Entry #4- Ahh, but first, philosophy!

"What matters to Indigenous peoples in education is that children, youth, adults and Elders have the opportunity to develop their gifts in a respectful space. It means that all community members are able to contribute to society (Indigenous and non-Indigenous) and are physically, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually balanced (Iseke, 2010; Marule, 2012). This ability to give and ability to be well comes directly from the joining of the sacred and the secular. It is about fostering identity, facilitating well-being, connecting to land, honouring language, infusing with teachings and recognizing the inherent right to self-determination (Lee, 2015). Living a good life is what matters, and these thoughts are reflected in Figure 1.0. The physical refers to the body and comprehensive health of a being. The emotional is concerned with relationships to self, others (including nonhumans) and the earth. The intellectual is based in natural curiosity and love for learning. The spiritual is the lived conscientiousness and footprint that a being leaves in this world."

I found this great PDF when I was researching "Indigenous curriculum" for my final policy assignment. What I am really enjoying about this course so far, is that I am coming across knowledge that I have never heard of before, and, simultaneously,  coming across pedagogical/instructional tools that I could embed in my classroom. This document helped me understand how to provide the suggestions for the already existing NAC20 curriculum. It helped me understand what matters to our First Nations,but more importantly, their philosophy of life. As we are halfway done the course, I cannot help but think about all the documents we keep visiting regarding what should be done, and what has not been done, and I have realized that yes we can embed Indigenous content into our curriculum, but if we don't understand Indigenous philosophy, how is anything we are going to do be authentic? In this document I came across this "Holistic model of balance in living a good life"

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