Invitation to Share Success Stories: Decolonizing and Indigenizing

I'm working in my classroom, filing stuff, cleaning out my desk corner, making sub notes, and compiling the first submission to our student magazine. I'm also checking out comments on my blog.

"Hi folks," writes a colleague, "I finally got a chance to read this profound and articulate article." Michelle is referring to "Decolonizing Our Practice -- Indigenizing Our Teaching" by Pete, Schneider and O'Reilly.  http://www.mfnerc.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Section6_Decolonizing-Our-Practice-Indigenizing-Our-Teaching.pdf

"I am moved to see such a clear plan of what indigenizing means, and how it looks in theory, practice and the resistance. I would have liked to hear some success stories to encourage me. Often, I feel like it's an uphill battle, and am touched to know that others are doing this work elsewhere." http://www.treatywalks.blogspot.ca/2015/02/who-wants-to-read-decolonizing-our.html

So here it is, Michelle and I invite educators and beyond to leave a comment, sharing stories of  success "Decolonizing and Indigenizing" or perhaps a positive "Unsettling" experience.

I'll start.

Elder Sam Isaac of Ochapowace

Four years ago, Sandy Pinay Schindler, our Prairie Valley School Division's First Nations and Metis Education Coordinator initiated a project.

"As I drove to visit Elder Sam Isaac on Ochapowace," writes Sandy in the first edition's introduction, "the snow covered fields were gently shadowed in blues and pinks, the restful hues of winter. Elder Sam was the humble star of the Treaty 4 film project in 2010-11. The students were drawn to his quiet, dignified manner. The young people could sense a kind and compassionate heart."

Sandy was on her way to ask Elder Isaac for a name for the project.

"Surrounded by his two little dogs, Sam offers me tea as we sit and chat about many things, both real and spiritual. I describe the book, the interviews, and the project to him, offering a pouch of tobacco as a show of respect. Sam listens, accepts the tobacco, and tells me that he already has a name in mind."

"This book is about young people speaking and writing about leaders and leadership. Kitoskayiminawak Pikiskwewak -- Our Young People Speak".

Since that first edition, "The Leadership Edition", my students have also participated in "The Healing Edition" and "The Treaty Edition". This year we are working on "The Holistic Edition". Non First Nations, Settler Descendant kids and First Nations and Metis kids are privileging Indigenous knowledge and stories. I have learned much, too, like practicing protocol and community "curriculum".

Every year I have a few concerned Settler students who wonder why we are just writing about First Nations and Metis topics and people. Some years I have taken the whole class to the library to look for magazines with prominent Indigenous stories and photos. Rarely do we find even one picture; maybe we find an article or two. When asked, I also discuss the local history books which often are over 1000 pages and many only devoting less than ten pages to the First Peoples.

This magazine continues to be a success, praised by community members both Indigenous and non-Indigenous. At the Gala launch each May, all the students feel like stars. I believe it is an act of Unsettling, Decolonizing, and Indigenizing.

Michelle and I would love to hear your success story. Comment below.

100 Unsettling Things: Help Me Build a List

Help me build a list of 100 "Unsettling" things.

1. Learn your Treaty #
2. Study a Treaty Map of Canada
3. Read any Treaty between First Nations and the British Crown (Peace and Friendship and the Numbered Treaties).
4. Read the biography of Treaty Commissioner Alexander Morris http://www.otc.ca/bios/12
5. Examine the Pasqua Pictograph by Chief Ben Pasqua from Treaty 4
6. Listen to testimony (at least three) from the Truth and Reconciliation Tribunal
7. Consider your own history of coming to Canada
8. Ask your MLA his or her stand on Implementing Treaty
9. Ask your MP his or her stand on Implementing Treaty
10. Examine the symbolism on the Treaty Medallion
11. Listen to First Nations leaders discuss Treaty responsibility (Check out Chiefs' Forum on Treaty Implementation 2012 CD http://treatywalks.blogspot.ca/2012/10/dan-bellegarde-overview-of-forum.html)
12. Attend the 2015 Treaty 1-11 Gathering
13. Participate in an "Unsettling" conversation
14. Take a Treaty Walk in your home community http://treatywalks.blogspot.ca/2012/10/treaty-walks-for-kids_11.html
15. Go to a pow wow
16. Go to a ceremony when invited
17. Read a book like The Orenda, Indian Horse, Three Day Road
18. Ask a Kindergartener what it means to keep a promise, then apply that wisdom to keeping treaty promises
19. Do inventory on Treaty promises from your side of the handshake: have your Treaty rights been met?
20. Make a list of Treaty promises which you have benefitted from.
21. Consider the impact of broken Treaty on those who were cheated
22. Make a list of broken Treaty promises
23. Advocate for First Nations content within curriculum
24. Consider how you can help indigenize your school curriculum http://www.mfnerc.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Section6_Decolonizing-Our-Practice-Indigenizing-Our-Teaching.pdf
25. Walk in a march
26. Show solidarity with Treaty partners
27. Read a good article discussing racism in Canada (Winnipeg Free Press, Ottawa Citizen, Regina Leader Post, Maclean's Magazine)
28. Retweet, Facebook, become an ally with Amnesty International Stolen Sisters http://www.amnesty.ca/our-work/issues/indigenous-peoples/no-more-stolen-sisters
29. Research Idle No More
30. Read a good local Thesis: Chauntel Baudu's Anti-Oppressive Education Through English Language Arts: A Recollecting Journey or Tamara Smith's An Unsettling Journey: White Settler Women Teaching Treaty in Saskatchewan
31. Join an anti-racism coalition
32. Try "The Blanket Exercise" from Kairos http://www.kairoscanada.org/dignity-rights/indigenous-rights/blanket-exercise/
33. Contact Prairie Valley School Division and order "Kitoskayiminawak Pikiskwewak: Our Young People Speak -- The Holistic Edition"
34. Thank an Indigenous friend for sharing the land.
35. Rethink the building of Canada through the Treaty lens
36. Dream! How could Treaty be fully implemented within my lifetime
37. Contact Chief Acoose to see if you can contribute to Bringing the Treaty 4 Medal home http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/rare-treaty-four-medal-returns-to-sask-first-nations-1.2782061
38. Raise money to build memorial at Lebret Residential School
39. Attend a memorial at a Residential School Cemetery
40. Attend a feast or funeral when invited
41. Learn about the Indian Act
42. Follow activists on Twitter
43. Watch 8th Fire with Wab Kinew
44. Learn basic tipi teachings
45. Consider how Canada might change if Settler Descendants considered First Nations peoples' as relatives
46. Consider where you stand on stereotypes like Pocahontas and Indigenous Mascots http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/cowboys-and-indians-cheerleaders-photo-sparks-regina-furor-1.2574979
47. Order "100 Years of Loss: The Residential School System in Canada" free from the Legacy of Hope Foundation www.legacyofhope.ca  info@legacyofhope.ca
48. Check out Stephen Harper's apology: https://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100015644/1100100015649
49. Read "So You've Just Decided You're Not Okay with Unbalanced Treaty Implementation"
http://treatywalks.blogspot.ca/2012/11/so-youve-just-decided-youre-not-okay.html
50. Read "So You've Just Found Out You're a Treaty Person"
http://treatywalks.blogspot.ca/2012/11/so-youve-just-found-out-youre-treaty.html
51. Learn about the Royal Proclamation of 1763 http://www.ubcic.bc.ca/files/html/McKennaMcBride/royalproc1763.htm
52. Attend a SAFE conference in Saskatchewan or join this Special Subject Council  https://sites.google.com/site/sasksafe/
53. Check out UofR Education initiatives http://issuu.com/urfacultyofed/docs/fall2012winter2013finalweb
54. Read Paulette Regan's Unsettling the Settler Within: Indian Residential Schools, Truth Telling and Reconciliation in Canada

Regan (2010): "...without this unsettling, little will change" (p.19).

Unsettling the Settler Within:

Indian Residential Schools, Truth Telling, and Reconciliation in Canada  by Paulette Regan

In 2008 the Canadian government apologized to the victims of the notorious Indian residential school system, and established a Truth and Reconciliation Commission whose goal was to mend the deep rifts between Aboriginal peoples and the settler society that engineered the system.  

In Unsettling the Settler Within, Paulette Regan, a former residential-schools-claims manager, argues that in order to truly participate in the transformative possibilities of reconciliation, non-Aboriginal Canadians must undergo their own process of decolonization. They must relinquish the persistent myth of themselves as peacemakers and acknowledge the destructive legacy of a society that has stubbornly ignored and devalued Indigenous experience. With former students offering their stories as part of the truth and reconciliation processes, Regan advocates for an ethos that learns from the past, making space for an Indigenous historical counter-narrative to avoid perpetuating a colonial relationship between Aboriginal and settler peoples. http://www.ubcpress.ubc.ca/search/title_book.asp?BookID=299172936

55. Consider Settler mourning: http://astheworldburns.net/2015/01/02/death-to-settler-identity/ (Thanks Val!)
56.

Who Wants to Read "Decolonizing Our Practice -- Indigenizing Our Teaching" by Pete, Schneider and O'Reilly?

At the 2014 SAFE conference in Regina a group of teachers and professors sat in a circle and discussed, what can we do next? One of the suggestions was forming a reading group for activist educators. Thanks, Nicole!

I emailed those colleagues today with an article, "Decolonizing Our Practice -- Indigenizing Our Teaching" by Pete, Schneider and O'Reilly.

http://www.mfnerc.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Section6_Decolonizing-Our-Practice-Indigenizing-Our-Teaching.pdf

I've just started the reading, and when I finish, I'll post a short reflection in the comments at the end of this post. Feel free to do the same.

For starters, though, I'd like to reflect on the opening section, "Situating Ourselves" by Dr. Pete who says the following:

"I have unapologetically re-centered Indigenous knowledge ways, privileged Indigenous scholars in my resource selections, structured learning activities and designed courses to ensure that my students will learn to teach Indigenous children and youth more effectively. I have had the privilege of working with elders, traditional knowledge keepers, storytellers, and other Indigenous educators. They have each in turn informed, and reaffirmed the approaches that I have chosen for my professional practices." p 101

I immediately thought of our 2015 grade ten participation in the magazine project, Kitoskayiminawak Pikiskwewak: Our Young People Speak -- The Holistic Edition.  Hats off to Sandy Pinay-Schindler of Prairie Valley School Division who has spear-headed this project, now in its fourth edition. This year we had teachings from five knowledge keepers, including Elder Sharon Bear, pictured below speaking with Bert Fox Community High School students and staff. I am thankful to have experienced some "re-centering".

 

 

If I'm Going to be a Treaty Woman, I have to be Okay in My Heart

My hands are in the hot, soapy water, I can smell the orange fragrant bubbles, but my forehead is like a clenched fist and I swish each glass as fast as I can. I remember attending a mindfulness meeting and the facilitator said that washing dishes can be done mindfully. I breathe deeply, slowly into my belly. My tight temples relax. One more breath in and I see that the bubbles are white and beautiful. One more breath, seeking peace, but I just can't slow my hands down, and pretty soon I'm thinking about the turkey soup I still need to make tonight, the table tennis club paperwork, the unswept floor, the pile of papers in the corner, the brown sugar in the package that needs to go into the canister, the best way to pile the plates in the dish rack, who will be at Sunday Circle in the morning, the article I need to write for Sister Triangle by tomorrow, my blogger writer's block I'd hoped to break this New Year. Pretty soon the tight temples and clenched forehead is back.

I take my hands out of the water, dry them on a tea towel and walk down the stairs to the computer. I open my blog.

When I started writing Treaty Walks the banner said, "Join me on my year-long-journey to and from school 'every day the buses run.' As I walk I will meditate on treaties, blogging and posting pictures along the way."

I love thinking about that first year of active awakening to the Treaties signed between many of the First Nations people of Canada and the British Crown. I learned so much. But maybe the strongest lesson was realizing something I hadn't learned.

Three days from the end of that year-long journey, here is a confession, of sorts, after a marriage counselling session:

"One hundred and ninety eight days ago, I claimed the word meditate, and after today, I'm wondering if I have any idea what that word really means. I thought I was practicing mindfulness walking to and from school, and I'm sure on some level I was, but the counsellor said something to me today that nailed my heart to the back of my chest.

"I said something about these last two Treaty Walk days and Michael not knowing what is going on in my world, then later the counsellor picked up on this, and looked right at me, and said, 'If you're going to be a treaty woman, you have to be okay in here,' and he tapped his chest.

"And maybe it was right away or maybe later in a different context, but he added, 'I just spent five days at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and we encouraged people to say everything, to get it all out.'

"So here I am, near the end of my journey, with two free days tagged on, but in some ways, today is the last day. I hope I was able to give something back, to be an ally, to offer a little restitution in the name of treaty, but I also know what the counsellor said was right. If I'm going to be a treaty woman, I have to be okay in my heart, and right now I'm not. So maybe part of these walks were for me to get to this day and know I need to get serious about my own healing. And maybe it's not getting serious, maybe it's lightening up, playing, being mindful.

http://treatywalks.blogspot.ca/2012/06/day-one-hundred-eighty-treaty-walks.html

I wrote those words almost two and a half years ago, and I'm happy to report that I did start learning about and practicing meditation as an act of mindfulness. Serendipitously, I believe the Creator began putting people in my path who were practicing Sabbath. It may sound weird, but I have been practicing REST. At times I've felt like I've abandoned my activism, but I haven't, I've just learned that everyone needs to rest, and those of us who forget that for long enough, burn out.

I'm thankful that tomorrow is Sunday. Once I'm done this article/blog, I'll go upstairs and finish the soup, the dishes, and maybe even sweep the floor. Tomorrow I'll attend Sunday Circle to listen and share. I'll remember my sacred teachings and find comfort and grace. Then, I'll come home to rest, so that I'm okay in my heart for another week of the journey.

Retweeting #treatyed @ClaireKreuger

Dear Claire,

I've never met you, but I feel like I have. Yesterday I read and retweeted a bunch of your quotes #treatyed #ecs210

I wish I could have been there to hear you say that we don't have to be experts to be treaty educators. That teaching treaty is not about teaching culture. That First Nations people are diverse. That treaties call us to share the land.

I really needed to hear you say that mistakes make room for us to grow.

I love your blog banner, "We Are All Treaty People" and I celebration your mission statement:"An ongoing quest to bring treaty education to the classroom." treatypeople.edublogs.org

I teach grade nine and ten English in Fort Qu'Appelle in the heart of Treaty Four. Did you come to the September Gathering this past fall? Maybe next year our classes could meet up, or do a joint project.

Maybe your kids would like to see our blog www.thefoxattreaty4.blogspot.com. We also did a lot of tweeting @thefoxattreaty4

Hope to meet you soon!

Sincerely,
Sheena @TreatyWalks

Sunday to Sunday Treaty Walking

Today we meet at my cousins' home on Craigleith for Sunday Circle. We share our struggles, we share our hope. We laugh, we pray, we cry. We hold each other's children. We encourage one another with scripture. First Nation and Settler, we are learning to be in one another's homes. We are trying to walk humbly like Jesus.

Today our circle went as far as Pasqua First Nation and as close as a small house across the tracks where a broken brother told my husband and I, "they'll call the cops on us, they'll take our money, but they won't be our friends." 

It's time for that chapter to be over. It's time to learn to be family, brother-to-brother, like those visionary old ones spoke into Treaty. 

Every day I walk this town, teach in our community school, drive through the heart of Treaty Four to my home in the hills. Every day is an opportunity to build relationships. From Sunday to Sunday I reflect on these relationships. I consider promises and broken promises. I remember blessings and oppression. I realize the riches we have to share back and forth, First Nation and Settler, our old teachings and sacred verses guiding us. I step closer into the circle. 

So Much Hope. So Much Beauty.

My grade nine students are zipping up binders, pushing in chairs, and spilling from my new classroom. I go to the back of the room and pull a box from the lowest shelf. It's heavy, full of shiny magazines, Kitoskayiminawak Pikiskwewak: Our Young People Speak: The Treaty Edition. We sold quite a few this summer at the Treaty 1-11 Gathering in Fort Qu'Appelle, and now University of Regina Professor Michael Cappello has wiped out my supply, ordering thirty-five to use in his education class. I am delivering the magazines to Houston's because Mike and some of his education students are driving to Fort Qu'Appelle to pick them up. They have invited me out for lunch, too, to talk about Treaty Education. 

Students reading their 2014 magazine at spring Gala Book Launch 

The sun is shining, the leaves are crisping yellows and orange. It's only nine degrees, and  if it was a bit warmer, we would have met at Treaty Four Park. I lug the heavy box into Houston's, and there sit five young women and professor Mike. After quick introductions we begin our conversation. They explain the purpose of their trip, to open up a space in which they can continue their dialogue and dream to form an Anti-Oppressive Education Club at the UofR and to meet me. We order; I get a small salad, because I will be doing a lot of the talking. 

The students tell me that they've read some of my blog in one of their classes, and I ask if they notice I've stopped blogging. "I wasn't going to mention that," says Mike. 

I tell my story of growing up on a farm, teaching one year at Luther College, then living and teaching on a reserve in Black Lake First Nation, Treaty 8 Territory, then moving south, back into Treaty 4 Territory where I was born and raised, all the while, not realizing the significance of Treaty in my own history as a settler descendant. 

The meals begin appearing. "This is so much," they say about the large portions. 

"I should have warned you," I say. 

I tell of my Treaty awakening. How I started Treaty Walking. How I was tired of alienating people when I tried to talk about anti-racism. How I thought maybe blogging and doing something weird, like walking to school for 200 days, might give me opportunity to share what I'm learning in a good way. 

I take a bite of my grilled chicken. I dip it in the house salad dressing. Mmmm.

I put on another hat, President of the Dr. Stirling McDowell Foundation for Research into Teaching, and I pull handouts from my briefcase about Action Research, left over from an inservice last week. I tell them that Action Research is a way of being: questioning, acting, reflecting, and then cycling through a new question, new action, new reflections. Treaty Walks have been informal Action Research. I suggest their group might be interested in applying for a McDowell Grant. They talk amongst themselves, and I crunch on my salad. 

I start whispering, telling them about being in Italy this summer with my husband and taking a Creativity Workshop in Florence and how we used stage whispering to share our writing with our whisper partners. I tell them, I want to whisper something to you. Everyone leans in. I tell the young women and my friend the professor about conflict I have every year with a few students and a few parents when I take the students to the Treaty Four gathering. I tell them that I get my hand slapped regularly.

"They are disciplining you," says Mike. 

I confess that I often feel sorry for myself, but how I recently, finally, viewed one of the Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes sessions with Jane Elliott (because my husband sat me down and said, "you need to watch this"), and how my life is very blessed and privileged, and nobody should be feeling sorry for me because of my little bit of activism and occasional figurative slaps. 

I tell them how my husband is coaching me that I need to perfect my discourse. I am great at creating awkward, uncomfortable spaces in which anti-racism conversations can take place, but I don't know how to "nail it in" as Jane Elliott would say. I tell them that I have about ten years left in me as a teacher and that maybe these will be my best years, but I have lots of learning to do. 

"See, look at her, she's been teaching a long time and she doesn't know the answers," Mike says, and smiles at me. I nod. 

"So remember that you don't need to know all the answers when you think you need to know the answers," he says.

I tell them that every day since I stopped blogging -- seriously, every day -- I have had a two hour blog topic on my mind and in my heart. I have been overwhelmed. I have been burned out. But I have taken some time for renewal and the energy is returning. This luncheon is part of my recharging. 

We are finishing our lunches, or all we can eat, and asking for doggy bags. We sip water, talk about the SAFE Conference in Regina that we will all be attending October 24th dedicated to Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppressive Education. 

I wish I had time to take them on a quick tour of Fort Qu'Appelle, but they will drive around on their own, and they really want to see the school. Mike takes the cheque and we leave.

We walk the hallways at Bert Fox Community High School, and I'm seeing my students through these young educator's eyes. So much hope. So much beauty.