Honouring the Past

I feel like it is so important to honour the people who experienced the tragedy of having to go to residential schools. Many of these people had to fight hard to keep their culture and spirit alive following this experience. Many children died during residential schools and many struggled with suicide and addiction following as a way to cope with the trauma that they endured.

I feel that it is so important to teach children what happened in residential schools and why. I feel if students know this they can see the injustices that happened. Hopefully through education about the past students can learn that this was wrong and this will not occur in society again in the future. This can also help students understand that maybe some of their family members had to go to residential schools and how important it is to have empathy for the pain they may have endured.

Promoting Strength and Understanding in the Future

Through teaching about the truth and reconciliation and treaty education students can see a great resiliency in Indigenous people and their fight to keep their culture alive following the tragedy of residential schools. I hope that teaching about these concepts can further indigenous and non-indigenous students’ understandings that they can be resilient through many different struggles in their lives.

I feel like teaching students about indigenous ways of knowing and culture helps reduce negative stereotypes, which are unfortunately in our society. I feel like teaching about indigenous people and culture in a strengths based way can help indigenous students be proud of their heritage and their identity. I hope that through educating students about different cultures they will be more understanding and see the strengths in other students differences. I hope to foster a ever active passion for learning about other cultures in my classroom.

Click here to view a impactful documentary that outlines some of the hardships residential school survivours had to endure.