The reason for teaching Indigenous studies, Treaty Education, and First Nations, Metis, and Inuit Content and Perspectives is important in many ways. First of all it is important to teach indigenous perspectives in order to reflect and represent our indigenous students. To incorporate their way of knowing because it is simply valid knowledge. Our world is diverse and has many voices but our schools do not reflect everyone, only white people and that is why students of colour (indigenous, black, hispanic, etc) are not invested in their studies. Curricula influences how children interpret themselves so if they are not reflected, rather ignored, it affects their learning motivation and self-esteem. It is also important because it is a way of truth and reconciliation. It is how we as teachers can properly inform our new generation of children to understand true Canadian history. It is even more important to teach a class full of white students the importance of reconciliation and indigenous ways of knowing to form relationships and land relationships with that culture and fix the issue of inequalities starting at a young age. Teaching Treaty Education helps stop reproducing racism and colonialist views/values.
To teach our students how we should have been teaching from the beginning and to show how our world should be. Essentially fixing what we have done in the past that has gotten us to the point of inequality between races. It also helps children, importantly indigenous children, with their identity and figuring out who they are. As Claire states in her video, how students truly do listen and interpret what they have learned on a deep level, even at the age of eight. Our world is disconnected because of the split in forces between white people and indigenous people because of our past that has created this almost hierarchy of race, "historical divides" as Dwayne Donald said. Teaching indigenous ways of knowing helps everyone understand and learn to reconcile. Essentially, it is a huge step into decolonizing and end marginalization of indigenous students.
We Are Treaty People means to me that we are all living on the same land. We are all living on the land that indigenous peoples had discovered. We are all living on the land that settlers had claimed as only theirs. We are all living on the land where genocide had taken place. We are all living on the land of the indigenous peoples, of treaty, and with that it is our time to learn the beauty of indigenous culture.
Works Cited
Looks great! love that you covered how young students are when they start to reflect what they see in classrooms, as many don't realize how young it can start. The way you covered what being a treaty person is to you looks great, as it will vary person to person and it's important to have those individual definitions to create ways for people to connect
Nice work detailing the different sources in a flowing way. It was easy to read.
It would be interesting to hear how you would incorporate these themes in a classroom.
You showed significant understanding of the topic. It is a topic you seem passionate about.
Erik Lillico