In my educational experiences, I spent a number of years working overseas at a Canadian International School. As we taught students about Canada, they would learn about First Nations Communities through activities such as reading North American Aboriginal myths, and creating beautiful art inspired by their cultural background. For students who had never been to Canada, this was essentially staged authenticity. There wasn’t enough understanding of the history of Indigenous students and the abuse they endured at residential schools where the goal was to strip away their cultural beliefs and values.
There has been a lot of educational literature and resources produced for mainstream classrooms with a romanticized perspective of Indigenous communities. As we become more cognizant of the importance of creating classroom communities that recognize and acknowledge different perspectives, as educators we can develop learning engagements that focus on primary sources and more authentic literature.
An example of this are a number of children’s books written recently by Christy Jordan- Fenton & Margaret Pokiak- Fenton and give a first hand account of Margaret’s experiences of going to a residential school, far from her Arctic home. Over 60 years later, she is finally able to tell her story about the abuse she had to endure and the difficulties she had readapting when she went home. These stories could be used in conjunction in learning about children’s rights and the importance of finding ways to use your voice to stand up for your beliefs.
References
Hare, J. (2011). Learning from Indigenous knowledge in education. In D. Long and O. P. Dickenson(Eds.), Visions of the heart, 3rd Edition (pp. 91-112). Toronto, ON: Oxford University Press.
Jordan- Fenton, Christy & Pokiak- Fenton,Margaret. (2013).When I was Eight. Toronto, Ontario: Annick Press.
Jordan- Fenton, Christy & Pokiak- Fenton,Margaret. (2014). Not My Girl. Toronto, Ontario: Annick Press.
Jordan- Fenton, Christy & Pokiak- Fenton,Margaret. (2010). Fatty Legs. Toronto, Ontario: Annick Press.