Focus on wellness, healing
Students, teachers, education department staff targeted to learn about residential schools
Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services
Monday, February 1, 2016
ARVIAT
Kimberley Dymond, a teacher at John Arnalukjuak High School in Arviat, has been teaching the 25-hour Grade 10 social studies residential-school module since its first year of implementation in 2012.
Dymond says even before the students begin working on the module, she sends home a letter to explain what's happening in the classroom.
"They have the option of opting out. I've only had one parent do that," she said, adding the module doesn't focus on the negativity because "the kids have enough of that."
"But we do talk about what happened and the policies the government had at that time."
Ken Beardsall, Nunavusiutit coordinator for the Nunavut Department of Education, says the module was developed to include "a lot of work toward wellness and healing." In addition, "we include all the help numbers and the counsellors are aware of it."
Dymond explains there are 12 sections, each building on the last.
"The first section talks about education before schools. There's a video and it talks about how Inuit were educated before schools ... How parents and grandparents and aunties and uncles taught children the skills they needed to know."
A timeline, novels that take place in a residential school setting and a DVD with survivors and former students telling their stories - both negative and positive experiences - are part of the teaching module. The timeline leads students through to when children were taken from parents to be brought to residential schools.
As an example of a visual aid is a photo of Abraham Anghik Ruben's carving The Last Goodbye. The students discuss what is happening in Ruben's carving. Various types of "goodbyes" children experienced are explored.
There is a section about the formal apology from the Government of Canada in 2008.
"It talks about the apology and it gets them to think about when someone apologizes, how do you feel? Does it make you feel better? Does it change anything? Does it change everything? They get to see the reactions from the people who were there, like Piita Irniq, Phil Fontaine and a number of other highly respected aboriginal people."
The module ends on a positive note, with a talk from former premier Eva Aariak and others.
"And everything ends in a project. They can present their feelings through artwork, a story or a poem. I've had some pretty amazing art projects over the last couple of years that depict what their thoughts are on residential schools."
The resources are available in Inuktitut. In fact, as Beardsall notes "the whole thing was written in Inuktitut and English together."
"We realized that when you write something in English and translate it to Inuktitut, it can be very difficult to read in Inuktitut because it contains all the baggage that's connected to the English language. This way Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit is part of it, because it's in the language."
Beardsall says when the development team shares that methodology with Ojibway or other indigenous-language speakers "they start nodding because it makes so much sense."
To prepare teachers, an in-service was held and all teaching staff were introduced to the course.
This was vital, said Beardsall, because the residential school era "affects education in so many ways."
"I remember as a teacher, I was in Coral Harbour since the 80s, I used to wonder why some of the people didn't seem to want to go in the schools. Then someone told me: 'He went to Chester.' It took me a while to put all that together.
"But when you really start looking at the big picture of education in the North and the role residential schools played - it's so massive. When education is viewed as a tool against Inuit culture, you may not be that supportive of education."
Beardsall notes the NWT is taking steps to not only educate all their school staff on residential schools but also all their education department employees. He and deputy education minister Kathy Okpik will join the NWT staff in that training so that something similar can be done in Nunavut.
"There's a great deal that can be learned by everyone. And that's the big important goal - reconciliation. The residential school survivors all said that. The purpose of teaching this isn't to tell the students how horrible it was. The purpose is to build reconciliation."
As for incoming teachers, Beardsall says he's worried about that from the beginning.
"To be honest, they haven't gotten much. And, of course, there's a huge turnover. That's a bit of a problem. We do have a woman who's looking after orientation and I've given her that stick with the one-day in-service on it. To be honest, I think there's a bit of a gap."
Calls to action
Here are several recommendations that pinpoint the need to teach about the truth of Canada's history contained in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's 94 calls to action.
Education for reconciliation
62. We call upon the federal, provincial, and territorial governments, in consultation and collaboration with survivors, aboriginal peoples, and educators, to:
i. Make age-appropriate curriculum on residential schools, treaties, and aboriginal peoples' historical
and contemporary contributions to Canada a mandatory education requirement for Kindergarten to Grade 12 students.
Aboriginal content in education
63. We call upon the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada to maintain an annual commitment to Aboriginal education issues, including:
i. Developing and implementing Kindergarten to Grade 12 curriculum and learning resources on aboriginal peoples in Canadian history, and the history and legacy of residential schools.
ii. Sharing information and best practices on teaching curriculum related to residential schools and aboriginal history.
iii. Building student capacity for intercultural understanding, empathy, and mutual respect.
iv. Identifying teacher-training needs relating to the above.
Source: Truth and Reconciliation Commission
