Over the past few years, Burnaby Village Museum has taken steps to undo “the part it has played in erasing Indigenous history from the place we now call Burnaby (Vancouver is awesome, 2019). This is an important step toward reconciliation and an example that can be discussed in class.
Out of this process has come the Indigenous History in Burnaby Resource Guide. This guide is an excellent resource for grade 5 and beyond, providing local context and story to the areas in which my school is found and where the kids play and live. This guide also serves another purpose though, and that is to open up conversation about how history is written. Who funded this book? Who consulted in this book? Who received credit for this book?
Naylor, C. (2019, November 1). Burnaby museum works to undo erasure of local Indigenous history. Vancouver Is Awesome. https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/history/indigenous-history-burnaby-village-museum-1946638.
Are school trips to the museum possible? Have you taken classes before? It’d be pretty interesting to hear teacher observations of student experiences before and after the decolonization work. Thanks for sharing this!
Yes, museum trips are possible, but I haven’t taken my class before. I would be curious what the dialogue is around decolonizing the museum and whether it’s discussed openly with students.