Aboriginal Education In Canada Essay

Superior Essays
Many Canadian citizens pride themselves on the multiculturalism, diversity, and equality their country thrives on. Since 1980, citizens as young as kindergarteners have been taught to sing of Canada’s home and native land in the national anthem, promoting the freedom and strength of their sovereign country. But, there is a lack of celebration for Indigenous peoples, and their distinct role in creating Canada. There is little recognition that the brutal colonization of Indigenous peoples, dispossession of their vast amounts of native land, and rationalization of racism in order to assimilate them into acceptable cultural norms, greatly influenced Canadians ability to proudly sing about the glory of their country. If there is no room in our national anthem to mention these peoples who now face intergenerational trauma due to European colonization, then there should be great mention of it in school curriculum. Canadian post-secondary institutions should create a mandatory Indigenous studies course in order to use education as a tool to combat racism and aid in reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. In Canadian education, from kindergarten to post-secondary schooling, it is apparent that there is an inadequate curriculum concerning Aboriginal culture offered to students. From 2008 to 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission assessed the history of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples in order to recommend appropriate steps that should be taken by federal, provincial, and municipal government to reconcile the wrongdoings against Aboriginal peoples (2015). According to part sixty-two of the TRC’s Calls for Action, a necessary measure for reconciliation is the creation of mandatory education for kindergarten to grade twelve students. The age-appropriate curriculum should be based on residential schools, Treaties, and Aboriginal peoples’ historical and contemporary contributions to Canada (p.7). In order to adhere to the commission’s advisories, teachers will be required to under go training to ensure an unbiased, informative curriculum will be introduced to educate students as young as six on the inexcusably horrific history of Aboriginal peoples. The commission also asserts that Canadian government should fund post-secondary institutions to educate teachers to properly integrate Indigenous content and teaching methods into their classrooms (p.7). Many Canadians have an ignorant perspective of Aboriginal peoples as a result of inadequate education being taught in a biased manner. Ignorance is only perpetuated through schooling and largely contributes to racism demonstrated by students. According to Anna Godlewska, Jackie Moore, and C. …show more content…
Drew Bednasek (2010), authors of Cultivating Ignorance of Aboriginal Realities, “the principal problem in Aboriginal education in Canada is the education of Canadians” (p.1). Teachers have the ability to teach students in courses, such as social studies and geography, about the history of colonialism, but do not confront historical victimization of Aboriginal peoples by church and state in their courses (Godlewska, Moore, & Bednasek, 2010). Education on the depth of European settlement is poorly executed by teachers and understates the lasting effects residential schools, cultivation of native land, and coercive treaties have had on Aboriginal peoples. Although the history of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples is not something Canadians can take pride in, recognition of the impact of colonialism must be taken in order to sufficiently teach students of European settlement. The substantial gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples is perpetuated particularly by the government, and can be evidently defined by an inability to understand intergenerational trauma; the legacy of colonization that predominates the present day lives of many Aboriginal peoples. Since the creation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2008, the Canadian government resisted to provide archival files and documents from residential schools that would allow the TRC to create its Calls to Action released in 2015 (Arsenault, 2015). The marginal acceptance of government responsibility for the gravity of the commission’s purpose is demonstrated through its reluctance to provide ample amounts of documents. The documents and archival files are also needed to integrate accurate and anecdotal curriculum in order to effectively impact students, teachers, and educational professionals on the severity of the issue. The commission’s Calls …show more content…
Higher education is a solution to combatting the developed social inequality in Canada, and can reverse the racist views a significant proportion of the population do not recognize in themselves. If Canadians had a mandatory Indigenous studies course they would be able to form a realistic understanding of the legacy of colonialism, and gain the ability to recognize stereotypical comments as inappropriate and a perpetuation of

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