Indigenous Education Week with the Faculty of Education

We welcome all Education students, faculty, and staff to learn more about Truth and Reconciliation and explore the invaluable resources offered by the Office of Indigenous Education. Learn how we can collectively support Indigenous students and the broader community. 

Message from the Dean

Indigeneity is one of the core values for the Faculty of Education, and we firmly believe that each of us has a responsibility to reflect on and work toward decolonizing education and respecting Indigenous ways of knowing and being. The Faculty of Education is committed to respecting Indigenous cultures, building relevance in our curriculum, teaching and research, and ensuring reciprocal relationships that allow us to grow as an institution and support communities with their unique needs and interests. We take responsibility for shifting our culture to one in which all of us can thrive.

In advance of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, the Office of Indigenous Education will be hosting Indigenous Education Week – an opportunity to review our individual and collective commitments towards meaningful reconciliation. How are we tacitly resisting Indigenous rights in the individual actions each of us takes and in the silences we hold? As educators, are we helping students learn about Indigenous peoples and working to address centuries of colonialism? And as leaders, are we pushing for change hard enough?

The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation was a direct response to the calls to action by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Yet it is just one of the 94 calls to action, and as noted on the CBC web site, Beyond 94, work hasn’t even started on 18 of the 94 Calls to Action. The Yellowhead Institute identifies only 13 recommendations as being completed after seven years of work. Change must be more than symbolic. Relatively simple gestures are resisted, such as publishing annual reports on education funding and educational and income achievements or repealing the law allowing educators to use forceful punishment to correct the behaviour of young children. Active resistance to even basic Indigenous rights continues through court challenges at the local, provincial, and federal levels.

Indigenous Education Week is also an opportunity to come together and learn. This year, we will hear from Crystal Phillips, residential school survivor, St. Mary’s Mission, and Chas Coutlee of the Indian Residential School Survivors Society. As well, the Office of Indigenous Education is working collaboratively with the Office for Aboriginal Peoples, the Beedie School of Business, the Indigenous Student Centre and the Indigenous Student Association to organize a special event to acknowledge the work of Phyllis Webstad and the impact it has had across Canada. Her Orange Day Story, when her bright new orange shirt was taken away on her first day at residential school, inspired a special day when we wear orange to commemorate the lives lost in residential schools and honour those who have survived.

As Phyllis said in one of her videos, “Reconciliation aims to create a new legacy for Canadians that supports the healing journey and sees a respectful resurgence of cultural traditions, [and] the only way to achieve Indian Residential School Reconciliation is to acknowledge the true history and to learn from it, no matter how difficult.”

Change of this magnitude is a generational issue. Centuries of colonialism and genocide can’t be undone in a few years, but the scope of the challenge can’t be used as an excuse for the inaction and resistance we often see. Addressing the evils of the past, and the present, is a choice that we as a society decide to make or avoid making, and everyone has a part to play in this process. We hope that Indigenous Education Week will inspire more reflections but, most importantly, action.

EVENTS & WORKSHOPS

In honour of Orange Shirt Day, the Faculty of Education will have the official limited edition 2023 “Every Child Matters” Orange T-Shirt for sale.

100% of the profits from your orange shirt will be donated to the Urban Native Youth Association (UNYA).