I am in my 8th course in the MET program and am an online teacher out of SD6 in BC. I have two children ages 6 and almost 5. I am an avid biker, hiker, skier, and reader. I enjoy spending time camping in the summer and skiing in the winter.
Carolyn Roberts spoke on March 20, 2018. She was a result of the 60’s scoop. Her mother still does not hug. She went to St. Mary’s residential school. Carolyn Roberts’s children are the first in more than three generations that were not taken away from her. Aboriginal people make up 4% of the population but more than 60% of the children in foster care are of First Nations descent.
She asks an important question – Why does it matter? She goes on to say that we need to have this conversation and we need to educate ourselves. To educate yourself you need a sense of decency and a sense of justice.
What can you do?
You as a Canadian can learn whose land you are on. You can learn the languages that the First Nations people speak where you work, live and play. Where is the community and how can you give back to them?
Governmental systems in place today still hold back and suppress Indigenous people. Find out about the land claims and treaty rights and what does it mean to them? Ask questions and be curious – why does the Federal Government have two white non-indigenous females leading all departments in First Nations issues.
The honourable Murray Sinclair states that education got us into this mess, and education is what will take us out of this mess.
We need to move together side by side and our decisions need to be rooted in honour and deep respect.
Cecelia Reekie on March 10, 2016, decided to tell us a story. She brought us along on her journey from her birth in Butedale, BC and the story is about being born in 1963 to a mother who was 15 and was unwed and pregnant. She talks about her journey into foster care.
I have had the chance to spend time in Butedale when I was 17 and canoeing along the west coast from Bella Coola to Prince Rupert. It was a powerful and amazing experience back in 1994.
Through Cecelia’s story of adoption and the “aunty and uncle” that were friends with her adoptive parents, Cecelia talks about meeting her mother and her father. Her father turned out to be her “aunt” growing up, it turned out to be “aunties” older brother. The purpose of this story is about family, connection and about listening to the children’s stories.
Her father was in a residential school. He spoke and testified at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings in Vancouver in 2013 where Cecelia was volunteering. Cecelia talks about going to Ottawa for 2015 and the release of the TRC report and the 94 Calls to Action.
She asks us to understand that every child has a story and to take the time to find out their stories so that no child has to walk alone. That we will be there to walk along with them.
Ginger Gosnell-Myers on June 25, 2018, tells a powerful story of her father. He is a hunter, a friend, and strong ready to help his community. When she was 17 she saw her uncle on TV talking about residential school. Her father had passed away and she never could talk to him about that time. About the mass Post-Traumatic Stress and the Intergenerational Experience where no healing and limited truths existed.
Through her conversation in this talk, Ginger Gosnell-Myers talks about the 2007 class-action lawsuit that resulted in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. She talks about one story in 2013 from the survivors who told their story where the father told his story for 10 minutes and the son said that this was the first time he ever heard this truth for the other 10 minutes. She goes on to say that hearing the stories was an awakening and that there were the 94 Calls to Action and then they were done.
She speaks about the risk of continuing as a country and not having all 80,000 stories told and the risk as a country. She compares reconciliation with Germany and the Jewish communities and how they have been using all the actions necessary.
She asks us to educate ourselves. Only 1 in 5 Canadians can name a residential school in their community. She encourages us to watch A Secret Path championed by Gord Downie and she says this is a place to start learning.
She talks about New Zealand and how they move forward with a respect for Maori culture and how the goal for all New Zealanders to have Maori pride with place names, representation in government, incorporating the Haka in sport and how everyone knows their connection to the land that they share through Indigenous knowledge.
Ginger Gosnell-Myers challenges us to look at reconciliation not as a time-defined program but rather a process that has no expiration date, and if it takes forever, then we should be ok with that.
Kevin Lamoureaux in a Tedx talk on January 3, 2020 talks about the best day of his life being on June 2, 2015 when the Truth and Reconciliation Commission released their final report. That we as Canada were given a gift with the 94 Calls to Action and that they are considered our Road Map Home “Our way back to the country we would want to leave behind for our children”
He goes on to share a story that is both powerful and poignant and speaks to the meaning of family and love.
He also asks two important questions about the 94 Calls to Action
Why is this being asked of us? – The Truth in Truth and reconciliation and that it exposes us to stories we may not have heard before. That we may feel frustrated and angry. And he states that the Federal government spends more money litigating against First Nations than supporting them. (Incidentally, I just read an article that there is a motion on the floor for the Federal government to stop litigation action. I have to explore that one further.)
Would our society, our community and our country be better or worse if this Call to Action were fulfilled? – The Reconciliation part and that if we would be a better society, then we have been given a gift and an opportunity. We get to be part of the solution which is both powerful and humbling (in my opinion).
He speaks of the Canada we want to be and because of the strength of the survivors and the elders, we can engage in a relationship. Because even though as a people the First Nations have been hurt in so many ways they still stand there and say, let’s engage in a relationship and try to accomplish something beautiful together.
I found out today that this amazing speaker is being brought in by our school district to speak to teachers during our August Professional Development days. What a powerful way to start our year of relationships, listening and accomplishing something so meaningful.
This is Lindsay Morcom. She talks about the history of indigenous languages and how to revitalize them. She spoke about residential schools and how when you build a school and then build a cemetery right beside it because you know the students will die, what do you call that? The talk is from February 2019.
She speaks about what is needed:
Policy – that there is attached funding with active policy and that on-reserve schools and off-reserve schools need equal funding. Special note that this is also a call to action
Support – that there needs to be space to carry out activities and have access to immersion education in traditional languages and that there needs to be education for the non-indigenous populations
Her statement that reconciliation that does not result in the survival of language in the people is assimilation and not reconciliation.
Under the education section in the 94 Calls to Action, #10 states:
We call on the federal government to draft new Aboriginal education legislation with the full participation and informed consent of Aboriginal peoples. The new legislation would include a commitment to sufficient funding and would incorporate the following principles: i. Providing sufficient funding to close identified educational achievement gaps within one generation. ii. Improving education attainment levels and success rates. iii. Developing culturally appropriate curricula. iv. Protecting the right to Aboriginal languages, including the teaching of Aboriginal languages as credit courses. v. Enabling parental and community responsibility, control, and accountability, similar to what parents enjoy in public school systems. vi. Enabling parents to fully participate in the education of their children. vii. Respecting and honouring Treaty relationships.
What the government website says is happening…
Based on the policy proposal for transforming the Government of Canada’s support for First Nations elementary and secondary education that was co-developed with First Nations, Indigenous Services Canada has established a new policy framework for First Nations elementary and secondary education.
I’m not sure what the policy framework is, because it was not linked to the government site. But suffice to say that I will be inquiring and investigating more about it and to see if it supports this call to action.
94 Calls to Action as a result of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Call to Action #9.
We call upon the federal government to prepare and publish annual reports comparing funding for the education of First Nations children on and off reserves, as well as educational and income attainments of Aboriginal peoples in Canada compared with nonAboriginal people.
As you can see from the repetition of parts of this call, Call #8 was to eliminate the discrepancy, and then call #9 is about reporting out. This report only speaks to 2016-2017. It’s 2021… I find it interesting that there is not clearer data even though every school year there should be a report. I did find the chart particularly interesting below. In theory, anyone attending a provincial school even on-reserve should have full funding from the government. I wonder if they are?
What is happening?
Indigenous Services Canada is continuing to produce reports on education funding. The most recent public report is from the 2016 to 2017 school year:
Use the link above to see the whole report on funding.
Of particular interest for those that are not understanding, FTE means “Full-Time Equivalent” so if a student is part-time they are not a 1.0FTE. Those schools under self-governance agreements are something I am very interested in learning more about.
Table 1: First Nations K-12 education: Number of FTE students by type of school (2016-2017)
BC
AB
SK
MB
ON
QC
Atlantic
All provinces
% of total
First Nation-operated schools
4,639
9,752
15,834
15,143
12,884
6,230
1,661
66,141.9
65%
Provincial schools
7,143
6,838
3,556
5,693
5,915
1,597
1,536
32,277.6
32%
Private/Independent schools
725
243
28
189
525
344
44
2,096.6
2%
Federal schools
70
1,398
1,468.0
1%
Total FTE students
12,472
16,902
19,418
21,024
20,722
8,171
3,240
101,984.1
100%
Note: Figures may not add up due to rounding. FTE counts do not include students under self-government agreements.
Call to Action #8 We call upon the federal government to eliminate the discrepancy in federal education funding for First Nations children being educated on reserves and those First Nations children being educated off reserves.
The Call to Action is one that is near and dear to my heart. I worked with Fort Nelson First Nations as one of their high school science and math teachers in 2006 and at the time, the band had voted to agree to pay BC teachers the same amount as we would have had worked at one of the BC School District Schools. This meant there was less money from their accounts going to elder care, and children programs, but they wanted to recruit and retain teachers at an independent school. That’s something to note, that many of the on-reserve schools are considered independent schools and are not eligible for the same funding model from the province per student in the schools. There are also stricter reporting guidelines. My goal is to see what the government says is happening in Module 1 and research what is happening in Module 2 and how to get people interested, invested and caring about Truth and Reconciliation.
The Government of Canada says that the following about what is happening with this particular Call to Action.
To help address the education attainment gap, the Government of Canada has made significant investments, totaling $2.6 billion over 5 years for primary and secondary education on reserve. This includes funding to address immediate needs and to keep pace with cost growth over the medium term, as well as investments in language and cultural programming and literacy and numeracy.
The Government of Canada has worked closely with various First Nations partners to implement an inclusive and comprehensive engagement process on First Nations kindergarten to grade 12 education on reserve, including investing $3.6 million to support community-level discussions. The engagements were led by First Nations organizations and provided community members with the opportunity to share their views on how to improve First Nations student success.
On January 21, 2019, a new co-developed policy and improved funding approach to better support the needs of First Nations students on-reserve was announced. As of April 1, 2019, the new funding approach:
replaces outdated proposal-based programs with improved access to predictable core funding
ensures base funding is comparable to provincial systems across the country while working towards additional funding agreements based on need to better account for factors such as remoteness, school size, language, and socio-economic conditions
provides First Nations schools with $1,500 per student, per year, to support language and culture programming
provides new resources which will support full-time kindergarten in every First Nations school for children aged 4 and 5
ensures special education funding is more predictable, with fewer application-based requirements
#7. We call upon the federal government to develop with Aboriginal groups a joint strategy to eliminate educational and employment gaps between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians.
Below is the exact wording of the budget and what happened. I found it interesting that students were supported by predictable and sustained base funding. I wonder if that translates into the same amount of dollars to dollars that a student going to school off-reserve would get? It is also interesting to note that many on-reserve schools are considered independent schools and therefore do not receive the same base funding usually. I will have to look into this more.
Below is a detailed account from the link above on what has been done to eliminate educational and employment gaps between Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal Canadians to date.
Budget 2016 provided new investments in primary and secondary education on reserve, totalling $2.6 billion over 5 years. This includes funding to address immediate pressures and to keep pace with rising costs in the medium term, as well as provide for additional investments in literacy and numeracy programs and special needs education.
Building on this investment, on April 1, 2019, Indigenous Services Canada began implementing a new approach to First Nations elementary and secondary education, which was co-developed with First Nations education leaders and experts from across the country. This approach includes new formula-based regional models for First Nations education that will ensure that students attending First Nations schools are supported by predictable and sustained base funding that is more directly comparable to what students enrolled in provincial systems receive. On top of this base funding, this new approach will provide additional funding to on-reserve schools for language and culture programming and full-time kindergarten for children aged 4 and 5.
Budget 2016 invested $969.4 million over 5 years for the construction, repair and maintenance of First Nations education facilities. With respect to post-secondary education, Budget 2016 provided $1.53 billion over 5 years to increase amounts of the Canada Student Grants and $329 million per year after that. Budget 2016 also announced that funding provided by the Post-Secondary Student Support Program will no longer impact eligibility for the Canada Student Loans Program’s non-repayable grants and loans support. As a result, Indigenous students can access both student funding programs as long as they meet eligibility criteria. This measure will increase the amount of non-repayable Canada Student Grants and Canada Student Loans that Indigenous students may receive.
Budget 2017 provided:
$90 million over 2 years, beginning in fiscal year 2017 to 2018, for the Post-Secondary Student Support Program
$100 million for the First Nations and Inuit Youth Employment Strategy Skills Link and Summer Work Experience program
$5 million per year for 5 years, starting in fiscal year 2017 to 2018, for Indspire, a national Indigenous-led registered charity that invests in the education of Indigenous peoples, conditional on Indspire raising $3 million per year in matching funds from the private sector
The Government of Canada undertook a comprehensive and collaborative review with Indigenous partners of all current federal programs that support Indigenous students who wish to pursue post-secondary education. The purpose of the review is to ensure that these programs provide Indigenous students with the resources and support they need to attend and complete post-secondary studies.
Building on this engagement, Budget 2019 announced $815 million over 10 years, starting in fiscal year 2019 to 2020, and $61.8 million ongoing in support of Indigenous post-secondary education. This includes:
$327.5 million over 5 years to support First Nations post-secondary students and the development of regional education strategies
$125.5 million over 10 years and $21.8 million ongoing to support an Inuit-led post-secondary strategy
$362.0 million over 10 years and $40 million ongoing to support a Métis-Nation strategy
Budgets 2016 and 2017 committed to renew and expand the Aboriginal Skills and Employment Training Strategy beyond March 31, 2018. Budget 2018 announced $2 billion over 5 years and $408.2 million per year ongoing, to support the creation of a new Indigenous Skills and Employment Training Program, which will replace the Aboriginal Skills and Employment Training Strategy. Extensive engagement took place with Indigenous partners in 2016 and 2017 to develop a proposal for future labour market programming. The Government of Canada has consulted with, and heard from, Indigenous partners on the importance of a distinctions-based approach that recognizes the unique needs of the First Nations, Inuit and the Métis Nation. To that end, the new program will provide:
$1.1 billion over 5 years and $235.7 million per year ongoing, for a First Nations stream
$325 million over 5 years and $67 million per year ongoing, for a Métis Nation stream
$161.2 million over 5 years and $32.6 million per year ongoing, for an Inuit stream
$213.4 million over 5 years and $45.2 million per year ongoing, for an urban or non-affiliated stream
Work with First Nations, Inuit and Métis organizations and service providers to ensure all Indigenous people have access to the skills development and employment training they need to fully participate in the Canadian economy will continue.”
One of my interests in Indigenous Education is around the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and their 94 Calls to Action. Under the Education umbrella, we find the #6 call to action which states: 6. We call upon the Government of Canada to repeal Section 43 of the Criminal Code of Canada. Below is a youtube video created by CanadianRootsOnline and speaks to the call to action released in June 2015. Where has this call to action gone, well the Government of Canada has updates posted. To recap, Section 43 has not been repealed but has been edited to ensure that educators cannot use force against any child. I found it interesting that the laws were not gender neutral.