Tag Archives: truth and reconciliation

Mod 4, Post 2 – Ignored to death – Brian Sinclair

This is the second story (or might have been the first one, I can’t remember) that sparked my interest in learning more about discrimination and racism in health care and how this happens.  While I’m not an emergency room nurse, and never have been, I still find it disheartening that this still happens in today’s world. It’s disgusting and discouraging.  It wasn’t even a health care professional that discovered this man dead in the waiting room chairs, it was a visitor.

His death was so easily preventable, if only someone had actually assessed him or even spoken to him to find out why he was there, instead of just making erroneous assumptions.

It is especially discouraging to hear that this happened in an area that services a large population of Indigenous people. Is this assumption so ingrained in our system that this can happen, and continues to happen? Unfortunately, this is a story that continues to happen even today.

 

Geary, A. (2017, September 18). Ignored to death: Brian Sinclair’s death caused by racism, inquest inadequate, group says. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-brian-sinclair-report-1.4295996

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-brian-sinclair-report-1.4295996

 

Mod 3, Post 4: Nursing Education responds to the truth & reconciliation report

This article was published in the International Journal of Nursing Education Scholarship and has some insights that are directly linked to our course material. It discusses the unique needs of Indigenous nursing students. It directly links themes from pedagogy and the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to help identify the challenges and rewards of working with Indigenous nursing students to promote more Indigenous nurses into the profession. This is an excellent article that I used heavily in my paper.

The image above, I took from a CBC News report discussing the theme of my paper – to help heal the poor relationship between the health care system and Indigenous people, more Indigenous nurses and understanding of Indigenous health issues is required in health care.

 

Lane, A., & Petrovic, K. (2018). Educating aboriginal nursing students: Responding to the truth and reconciliation report. International Journal of Nursing Education Scholarship, (1) doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/ijnes-2017-0064

photo credit:  Sterritt, A. (2017, May 11). More Indigenous nurses needed to change health-care system, practitioners say. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/strength-of-indigenous-nurses-highlighted-on-national-day-1.4110129

M4 P4: The Treatment of Indigenous Peoples by the American Government

YouTube channel, Vox, takes a look at the treatment of Indigenous Peoples by the United States government and their attempts to absorb and assimilate the Indigenous Peoples for the purpose of taking over the land. Part 1 talks about boarding schools and the government program’s motto at the time was to “kill the Indian and save the man”. The story raises many comparisons and similarities to what happened in Residential Schools in Canada. Part 2 talks about The Adoption Era which was something that I have not heard of before. The stories shared are shocking and talk about how the government promoted this program to further assimilate Indigenous children. What is crazy is that the adoptive families, through the propaganda promoted by the government, thought that they were doing these children a favor and that getting adopted to their family was the best thing that could have happened to these children who were ripped away from their original families.

This would be an interesting video to watch and discuss as a class to compare the US government and the Canadian government’s treatment of the Indigenous Peoples and the systems that forced the assimilation of the Indigenous Peoples to rip them from their families and strip them of their identity and culture.

Module 4 – Post 5 – Residential School Survivors + Beyond 94

This website provides stories from residential school survivors from video interviews: Janet Longclaws, Katherine Thomas, Louise Longclaws, Debra Courchene, Wandbi Wakita, Peter Yellowquill, Louise Hall, Vivian, and Karen. These videos are from the Beyond 94: Truth and Reconciliation in Canada project. All of these videos just break my heart. You can hear the pain and horror in their voice and you can see the trauma they faced by looking at their eyes. These individuals have PTSD and cannot get these flashbacks out of their head. I just can’t even imagine why anyone would do all these horrible things to another human being. It is absolutely appalling and disgusting.

As educators, it is important that we listen to these stories so that we never forget them. The truth cannot be hidden any longer. It is time for healing and the reconciliation process to fully begin. We need to all listen to EVERY story. We need to learn the truth that has been hidden for way too long. The more we know as educators, the more that we can educate our students, colleagues, family members, and our friends.

While I was exploring more on this website, I stumbled upon a teacher guide for Beyond 94: Truth and Reconciliation in Canada. There is a lot of valuable material within this guide. Topics such as education, language and culture, health, justice, reconciliation, child welfare, and activities to do in the classroom, First nation communities support, and residential school resources. The main purpose of this guide is to allow educators and their students to explore and investigate the TRC Calls to Action and the Beyond 94 site. I appreciate how this guide has follow-up questions from the residential school survivor video interviews. This could allow educators to have a class discussion about what they watched and to see if the students understood the content. It may be too challenging to comprehend for Kindergarten students but the questions could be adapted and could work for upper primary to intermediate grades.

The 7 activities that are provided in this guide focus on acknowledging territory, TRC – educating others, language, residential schools, finding evidence of Indigeneity, and language/culture, exploring child welfare, and examining justice.

For more information on residential schools, there are resources on pages 35-37. Explore them all and share with everyone.

Module 3 – Post 3 – Truth and Reconciliation

I came across this article that focuses on truth and reconciliation from K-12. This article discusses how teachers can become an ally. There were a couple of things that stood out to me. Firstly, I thought it was extremely useful and helpful that there was a complete list of books from K-12 that teachers can use and read in their classrooms to teach students about reconciliation. I appreciate that there are two books for each grade, however I wish there were more than just two. Hopefully in the near future there will be tons more books available that we can use in the classroom. Below are the books for primary classes.

Another section of this article that grabbed my attention was The Sacred Circle. This circle could help educators learn how to become an ally through the spiritual, physical, emotional, and intellectual teaching. According to this article by Dr. Pamela Rose Toulouse (2018),

“The spiritual invites the educator to examine all the opportunities that their lessons, field trips and experiential learning activities offer to link students to each other, their communities and the globe. This aspect of holism in teaching/learning places emphasis on activities that develop deep and meaningful connections with a purpose “greater than the self.”
The physical refers to the classroom space/s where learning takes place and encourages differentiated practices outdoors and in the community. This aspect of holism encourages teaching/learning at sites that make connections to local events, people, places and movements
The emotional concerns the inclusion of Elders, Métis Senators, Cultural Resource People, families and non-human experiences as foundational to the classroom and school year. This aspect of holism values the knowledge that “other teachers” bring to the shared world of education.
The intellectual refers to the provincial/territorial mandated curriculum that the educator is entrusted with delivering to the students. This aspect of holism calls upon the educator to factor in inquiry, curiosity and differentiated evaluation as critical to meaningful student experiences in school” (para. 12).

The more we know, the more we can do. It starts with us, as educators, to have a role to play in this learning process and journey towards truth and reconciliation.

Module 3 – Post 2 – Spirit Bear and Children Make History: Learning Guide

The Spirit Bear and Children Make History: Learning Guide is a guide that focuses on telling the “story of a landmark human rights case for First Nations children at the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal” (para. 1). This guide was written to cater the younger crowd and engage them in learning about human rights and to establish the influential role that younger individuals have in the reconciliation movement. On page 6 of this guide, it points out all the outcomes children will have after reading this book (PDF of this storybook in Cree and in English). I wanted to share these outcomes because even though this guide is geared towards younger students, their learning potential is huge.

It states that students will:

“• have a greater understanding of inequities facing First Nations children, which compromise their health, safety, and well-being,
• develop empathy and critical thinking,
• develop citizenship and life skills such as problem-solving, decision-making, understanding of personal and social responsibility, ethics, courage, self-confidence, creativity, collaboration, and communication skills (be able to express themselves and articulate their ideas),
• be able to describe how children can help implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action,
• recognize that their voices and ideas matters and that children have the power to influence the world around them, and
• recognize that true heroes are those who are courageous enough to stand up for what is right and not give up, even when it is hard to be brave” (p. 6).

I like this resource as it provides some school-base activities that you can do with your students to learn about reconciliation through storytelling and engaging activities. This true story book is one that I would like to buy to add to my classroom collection.

M2 P4: BCIT’s Indigenous Vision

This framework is the basis for the Indigenization of the nursing program at BCIT. It is broad and ambitious, but serves as a guiding framework for the work being done by faculty to ensure Indigenous student success in the programs. It is openly available to the public on the BCIT website. This vision prioritizes three actions around inclusion, accountability and collaborative relationships. The faculty working within this framework works closely with Indigenous educators and leaders from BCIT Indigenous services.

https://www.bcit.ca/indigenous-vision/

“Truth is the foundation. Indigenization is the action. Reconciliation is the goal”.

British Columbia Institute of Technology. (n.d.-a). BCIT’s Indigenous vision. BCIT.Ca. Retrieved February 21, 2021, from https://www.bcit.ca/indigenous-vision/

Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

Module 2 – Entry 4 – Tyler Ohashi

Website: Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

I am a little disappointed in myself that I did not visit this website sooner. I say this because I finally decided to check this website out because I was curious about what the TRC report had to say. What I found was more than I expected.  There is information about:

  • TRC reports and findings
  • Info about the National Center for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) – this includes news articles and achieved reports
  • You can explore exhibits
  • There is an ENTIRE section dedicated to resources for students and teachers

This website is massive! I hunted around and discovered lessons arranged by grade that can be used to bring an Indigenous perspective to your classroom. I am excited to look through these lessons because I am interested in bringing more indigenous ways of teaching and learning into my own classroom. I want to look for evidence of pedagogical best practices and incorporate them into my classroom in the best way I can. I can only assume that these lessons and activities have been vetted by Indigenous people and are culturally accurate and appropriate.

For me, first impressions of this website are amazing! However, like I said at the beginning of this post, I am disappointed that I did not look at this website sooner.

Canada’s Impossible Acknowledgment

MODULE 1: ENTRY 5

The article “Canada’s Impossible Acknowledgement” was published in the New Yorker in 2017.  The article provides some perspective on Canadian history, inclusion in acknowledgements, and the issues that are holding back the progress of true reconciliation.

 

Reference:

Marche, Stephen. (2017, September 7). Canada’s Impossible Acknowledgement. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/canadas-impossible-acknowledgment