Hi, and welcome to my course blog for English 470: Canadian Literary Genres.
My name is Rachel, and I am a 4th year student at the University of British Columbia, studying English and Special Education. I also currently work three days a week as a Nanny, taking care of a three year old boy. After completing my undergrad, I plan to obtain my PDP and become an Elementary school teacher. I was born and raised in British Columbia, about an hour away from UBC in Fort Langley. The picture I have included in this post is of me, enjoying my very favourite aspect of living in Canada – being able to ski in the mountains
Although I was born and raised here in Canada, I did not have a lot of knowledge growing up about Indigenous history, or about Canada’s current relationship with Indigenous groups. Since coming to UBC, my understanding has grown and I have come to appreciate what it means to live and study on traditional, ancestral and unceded Musqueam territory. That being said, living in a larger city like Vancouver, it can be easy to ignore many of the issues which affect Indigenous people in our country. For example, currently there is much controversy regarding the Trans Mountain pipeline. This pipeline crosses over 500 km of Indigenous land, and not only disrupts the lives of the communities living on that land, but also puts them at risk of potential oil spills, which can poison their water and the creatures living in it. While there is some controversy, there are many First Nations individuals who feel that consent from the communities living on that land was never given. As a Vancouverite, I live in the southern part of B.C. and am therefore not directly affected by issues such as these – it is largely Northern communities who will experience the detrimental effects of the Pipeline. This can make it easy to ignore these issues, but I understand that it is my job as a Canadian citizen to educate myself on these relevant topics.
As well, as someone who wishes to one day work in an elementary school, I feel that taking a course such as this one will be very beneficial. English 470 looks at Canadian literature from a historical perspective, and takes into consideration colonial and Indigenous experiences. I hope that I will gain from this course a new way of viewing literature, and that I will be able to use the information that I have learned from this course to ensure that, when I teach in a classroom, the students I teach will have a better understanding of Indigenous history and Canada’s current relations than I did when I grew up.
Works Cited
Barrera, Jorge. “Trudeau apologizes for First Nation consultation failures on Trans Mountain pipeline.” CBC News, CBC, 4 Dec. 2018, https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/trudeau-afn-pipeline-1.4932663
UBC Life Team. “What is a land acknowledgement?” 30 Aug. 2019, http://students.ubc.ca/ubclife/what-land-acknowledgement
Hi Rachel! I had a similar education to you in regards to Indigenous history and current issues, but like you have gained more understanding. I was wondering since you are going to become a teacher what your ideas are to better the education system to highlight Indigenous stories and history. All I really remember was a lesson on Indigenous history which only covered a brief time period.
From my (very)small pool of knowledge regarding education I was thinking it would be important to go over history, specific instances and experiences that still affect the communities today, current events such as the Trans Mountain Pipeline and first hand experiences from Indigenous writers, artists etc.
When you become a teacher how would teach these important lessons to your students? Especially at the young age of elementary students? Would you use literature such as the works we are reading for this class to teach to your students and/or ones similar to these? How would you bring up important current events such as pipelines and land consent? Sorry if this was super long, looking forward to this course! Tamara
Hi Tamara,
Great questions! I have definitely thought about how these topics should be taught to students, and I think it differs depending on the age of the students. For example, in a high school classroom, there should be a much greater emphasis on current events, compared to an elementary school classroom. In an elementary school classroom, I think I would mainly work on introducing the children to various Indigenous authors – two texts which immediately come to mind are “Lucy and Lola”, by Monique Gray Smith, and “The Marrow Thieves”, by Cherie Dimaline. I was introduced to both of these books as an adult, yet both are children/teenage literature. “Lucy and Lola” is a novella about what it means to be an intergenerational survivor, and what reconciliation should look like in Canada, written from the perspective of two 11-year olds. This would be a great text to incorporate in a grade 3/4 classroom. “The Marrow Thieves” is a fictional book written for a slightly older audience, in which Indigenous people are being hunted for their bone marrow – it is an enchanting and magical book which subtly teaches about past abuses towards Indigenous communities, such as residential schools, and it prompts its reader to ask important questions.
I think it is important to teach the more traditional Canadian history in schools, but I wish that Indigenous studies would actually extend outside the realm of a history classroom where it is “required”. For me, fictional literature, especially that written by Indigenous writers, is a great way to do that, and is more likely to peak the interest of young readers than a history textbook.
Another approach that I think I would take, is to provide varying perspectives and points-of-view. I think that typical classroom curriculum only requires teachers to cover a small area of Canadian history – for example, I definitely knew the name of explorers such as Christopher Columbus by the time I was in grade 5. Much of our history is taught from the perspective of colonialism. However, I was not even aware of what residential schools were until my first year of University. While that is a ‘harder’ topic to cover, in that it paints Canada in a less attractive light, it gives a very important different side to Canada’s history.
Honestly I think this is a huge question, and one that should be discussed at great lengths, but I hope this gives a bit of my perspective on the topic. 🙂
Hi Rachel 🙂 Welcome to the course.
I’m really glad you’re taking time to expose yourself to more Indigenous literature and ways of knowing before you become a teacher. So much of what we’re taught in elementary school history classes teaches us to view Canada in a certain way – as a peaceful country filled with good citizens, white heros are commemorated and highlighted, while Indigenous experiences are diminished or situated in the past. It’s not made clear that Canada is a product of land theft and genocide and that settler colonialism is ongoing today (Patrick Wolfe, a scholar on colonialism, describes it as settlers coming and staying. Settler colonialism is a structure, not an event, and in this regard, it has never ended, in fact, it sets the precident for how federal, provincial and municipal governments function today, as well as Canada’s justice system.)
Today, there is change, but we still have so much to learn, and so much change to make for justice to be reached.