A Settler’s Work Has Just Begun

This has been an eye-opening week. Before this week, I believed that Indigenous Education was about weaving the previously absent indigenous content into my curriculum. Each year, I teach my students a few SENĆOŦEN words, I read the occasional Indigenous story book, we participate in Orange Shirt Day, our class goes to the “Multicultural Room” to see authentic first nations artifacts and listen to our school’s Indigenous Education Teacher share some stories and some properly pronounced SENĆOŦEN language. This past year, our school enjoyed some bonuses. Our classes participated in building a canoe replica with an indigenous canoe builder. We had Canadian Geographic bring their giant Indigenous Peoples Map for classes to see and discuss. We participated Aboriginal Day activities such as The Bone Game, Storytelling, and Lacrosse. Several years ago, we had local artists design and/or carve our school logo, school sign, and a welcome figure for the front foyer. We, my colleagues and I, are really trying.

We want our aboriginal students and their families to feel welcome and included. We want our non-aboriginal students and their families to share our belief that including these cultural activities and art pieces is an important step toward reconciliation and respect for the unceded territory our building stands upon. Even with all that, we know there’s something awry. Many of our Indigenous students are still struggling academically and confining themselves to Indigenous friends. Their families rarely come into the school and seem to keep us “at arm’s length”. There are signs of growing trust with some of our Indigenous families but only, I think, because our previous Indigenous Education Teacher is an elder from the local W̱SÁNEĆ community and was leveraging her status there to build bridges. What is next for our school? What is next for me in my own practice?

After reading Meschachakanis, a Coyote Narrative: Decolonising Higher Education, I have come to see “that colonisation is not simply a historical event, but an ongoing system of oppression and advantage. A system designed to privilege the settler state at the expense of the Indigenous peoples” (Pete, 2018, p. 179). No wonder our Indigenous families do not trust us. It’s not just the horrors of residential schools prompting mistrust but also, the ongoing subjugation of the people and communities they are forced to live in. I did not put it together at the time, but I remember our Indigenous Education Teacher mentioning that she needed to know how many of my students were on the “nominal role” because she had to fill out paperwork for the federal government to fund them for a field trip we went on. I remember thinking how dumb the federal government was, wanting paperwork for a $3.50 skate rental, but now I think, how terrible and humiliating for her and those indigenous families that this is how tightly controlled they are! It makes me angry to think about it.

Shauneen Pete’s chapter is aimed at decolonizing universities but the lessons resonate at all levels of education. How do we decolonize elementary school? Our knowledge system is “rooted in Eurocentrism…a system of knowledges that reinforce colonial dominance” and “Indigenous peoples intimately understand the nature of colonialism and its effect; members of the dominant group tend to know very little” (Pete, 2018, p.181). This tells me I need to know more but I have to admit, I struggle to ask questions of our Indigenous Education Teacher because I am afraid to offend, or perhaps, afraid to give up the “luxury of ignorance” (Howard as cited by Pete, 2017). I believe it is more the former as I recall, several years ago, when our Indigenous Education Teacher was a white woman, I did ask many questions and learned a lot about our local Indigenous communities. She mentioned that some people in the community were offended when she tried and failed in her pronunciation of SENĆOŦEN words. She warned us against asking about sacred ceremonies since they once had to be conducted in secret and have since become privileged knowledge. It was also at this time, when one of my grade 4 students was engaged in inquiry about residential schools, that an elder told her mom (and she, in turn told me) that he was tired of telling his story because it was a painful one. With these things in mind, I believed my trepidation was justified and I just stopped asking. After reading and listening to the frustrated words of Shauneen Pete, I understand it is time to get to work on decolonising my practice and overcome my fears. I need to do some of my own research. I need to know more about culturally responsive pedagogy, critical multiculturalism, Tribal Critical Theory, and Red Pedagogy. Then, I can take better questions to my Indigenous Education Teacher.

What does decolonising my practise look like in Kindergarten? I have work to do in figuring out this question, I started looking at my district’s Hub for Indigenous Education Resources. I can understand why few people would make use of this resource as it is enormous, with very long lists of links. It is hard to know where to start. I turn instead to student-led inquiry. Inquiry-based learning is a natural leap for Kindergarten. The children are eager to learn. We might not get the deep questioning of older learners but we can certainly lay the foundation simply by asking, “What do you want to know about?” or “What do you want to teach us about? They almost always have an answer. They have not yet been trained to wait for information to be delivered to them in tidy little themes. They are already experimenting with inquiry at playtime. How high can I make this tower before it falls over? How can we make this fort big enough for all our friends? How can I take her idea and make it better? How can I turn this kitchen into a veterinarian’s office? How can I arrange this furniture to make a home for Barbie? Mentioning Barbie makes me cringe; I wonder what toys and materials I have that meet the needs of decolonised play. Indeed, what is available in the settler marketplace? Clearly I have much more to do.

When it comes to decolonising my kindergarten, I am now clearly in the role of researcher. I have a lot of resources to evaluate and sort; which are materials that I can use to teach and which address the manner in which I teach? The latter will require that I adopt self-study as a research method. How will I change my practice to reflect my growth toward becoming a culturally responsive, socially just educator? How will I assess and document that growth? Perhaps, I will invite Coyote (Pete, 2018). My self-study will take time and I don’t want my students to have to wait so changes in my practice will need to be thought out one at a time, assessed in practice, and then move on from there. I will be renovating my practice, rather than tearing down to rebuild. In that way, the students will become the researched alongside myself. If I am thoughtful in my application, all the changes should be positive ones. As for the reader of the research, that would be me, but also I would be compelled to share what I learn with my colleagues. I wish to encourage them to begin their own self-study, passing along Shauneen Pete’s notion that it is time for the settlers to do the work.

Other possible starting points:

SETBC

In Our Own Words: Bringing Authentic First Peoples Content to the K-3 Classroom

School District 61 Learning Team – Indigenous Education