My photograph is of Nose Creek Park in Airdrie Alberta.

The park and the buildings

around it are on land that was traditionally used by the Blackfoot people for hunting

buffalo and there is evidence that the site on where the park sits was a common

encampment for the nomadic Blackfoot peoples. The large brick building in the photo is

St. Paul’s Catholic Church. I find this image thought provoking because the land holds

historic significance to the Blackfoot people and the Catholic Church has a history of

abuses against indigenous people, it is striking to see the two collide in such an innocuous

way. It makes me reflect on the significance that land holds for indigenous people, the

broken promises of the Canadian government, the forceful removal of indigenous peoples

from their lands, as well as the forceful removal of indigenous children from their families

by the Catholic Church to residential schools. Seeing the two institutions sitting

peacefully side-by-side reminds me that much of those injustices still have not been

reconciled. The government of Canada in conjunction with the Catholic Church led a

vigorous campaign to eliminate indigenous culture and erode indigenous traditions and

values through the guise of education in institutions known as residential schools.

Although a residential school is not in the image it is important to note the role that the

Church played in the cultural genocide.

“The imposition of a compulsory system of formalized education created [a]

generation of traumatized children and youth, [who] were inculcated with Euro-Canadian

values and regimes that, they were told, had to become part of the way they lived. [They

became] unable to fit into their culture of origin and were always outsiders in the dominant

Euro-Canadian society. When these sorts of emotional confusion are added to the loss of

traditional lands and territories, the individuals sense of self is under extreme stress.”(Schissel

& Wotherspoon, 2003. Pg. 41)

 I think that is why this image is so striking for me because of the far-reaching

consequences that both the government treaties and the residential schools have had on

the indigenous communities in Canada. As well, many of these injustices often go hand in

hand and are staring most of us in the face daily but we just don’t realize it. I have lived in

Airdrie my whole life and until now I had not been aware of the history of the land that I

live on.

This image also encouraged me to reflect on the strong connection to many of the

injustices suffered by indigenous people in Canada and the education system. Residential

schools stripped many of the traditional ways of knowing from indigenous communities

and in many ways those ways of knowing are still actively suppressed by the education

system. Many of the indigenous ways of knowing were stripped from their communities

in favour of a western approach to knowledge. Traditional indigenous ways of knowing

are centered around a holistic approach while western knowledge is atomized.

“[Indigenous] people turned to inner space. This inner space is that universe of being

within each person that is synonymous with the soul, the spirit, the self or the being.”

(Ermine, 1995. Pg.103). As a future teacher I think that it is really important for me to

reflect upon those abuses and how I will become a part of that institution and the ways I

can try to encourage the use of traditional ways of knowing into my classroom.

References

Ermine, Willie. (1995). “Aboriginal epistemology” in J. Barman, J.& M. Battiste, (Eds.),

First Nations Education in Canada: The circle unfolds. Vancouver: UBC Press.
[eBook: Full text online]
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca/lib/ucalgary-
ebooks/reader.action?ppg=122&docID=3412224&tm=1503510739016
Schissel, B. & Wotherspoon, T. (2003). Chapter 3: Legacy of Residential Schools. In The
Legacy of School for Aboriginal People. Don Mills, ON: Oxford. [eBook full text
online]
http://deslibris.ca.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca/ID/432095