Braedyn Yakymyk, Dakhota Miller, Zane Grant, Latrell Cato

Canada’s Indigenous Community and

The Education System
Canada’s legacy of colonialism and the damaged relationship between Indigenous
people and Western education.

Residential Schools & the Cultural Purge

SUMMARY IMPACTS ON A REMNANTS OF A

VULNERABLE SOCIETY CULTURAL GENOCIDE
Residential Schools
Punishments issued for: Intergenerational Trauma
Existed from early 1800s – late 1900s
Speaking their native language
Last one closed in Alberta in 1996!
Failing/refusing to speak in French or
“Consequences of the resulting
English cycles of parenting deficiencies
Over 150,000+ students across multiple
generations. might have exacted a toll on whole
Disobeying rules communities by altering social
Students were stripped of all traditional norms related to parenting and by
Resisting teachings/beliefs being forced
regalia sustaining factors that promoted
onto them
Forced to wear Western uniforms these deficiencies (e.g., high rates
Punishment included: of trauma exposure, low
All “Indian” related traits were forced to Neglect Verbal abuse
educational achievement)”
become eurocentric.
Psychological abuse Physical abuse - Amy Bombay
Children cut off from their families to
eliminate any cultural influence Spiritual abuse Sexual abuse

Starvation Manual labour

Goals of the Government & Church
“Kill the Indian in the child.”
Assimilate them into European
Christian/Catholic ways
Force English (and French) language onto
them
Completely assimilate them into Western
society
Effects of corrupt education
Mental and emotional health issues
Mass graves: The Hidden Secret
Increased rates of suicide & suicidal 139 residential schools created 2000
behaviours unmarked mass graves, currently
discovered
Lack of coping mechanisms and parenting
skills (RS’s created a cycle of abuse, There were 3 schools in Calgary and the
surrounding area. Including High River,
Indigenous parents would often use repeat
Morley and Sarcee Junction.
learned punishments)

Importance of Awareness Increased risk of health issues & addictions. All locations are shown on the following
For many years, the truth about these map
schools was hidden from the general Substance abuse became a common
public coping mechanism

They were misinformed about what Lack of basic reading and writing skills
exactly occurred in these schools until according to a Western standard
recently.

Survivors returned home traumatized

They were left unequipped for life outside

of the schools, essentially set up to fail.

The schools created extremely negative

life conditions for the survivors and their
descendants.
● Socio-economic issues (poverty)
● Victimization
● Lack of proper education
(Monkman, 2017)
(CBC, 2022)

ON vs OFF RESERVES: DISPARITIES IN EDUCATION & FUNDING

Schools on-reserves are: “We have to cut corners on
● Federally funded kids with disabilities,
● Autonomously operated languages, food, how our
Alberta education respects jurisdiction of First Nations teachers are paid. We’ve
● In order to maintain control over their own education, on-reserve got to send these kids to
schools must remain federally funded. university, engineering &
Federal vs Provincial funding creates this gap. medical school and
● FN children on reserve receive at least 30% less funding for teachers college, and they
education as children under provincial jurisdiction haven’t even been properly
Many Indigenous people don’t want to teach because of their educated because of the
history with education funding gap.”
– Evan Taypotat

6. 7. 8.
Eliminate the
Develop with discrepancy in
We call upon the Aboriginal groups a federal education
Government of joint strategy to funding for First
Canada to repeal eliminate educational Nations children
Section 43 of the and employment gaps being educated on
Criminal Code between Aboriginal reserves and those
and non-Aboriginal First Nations
Canadians. children being
educated off
reserves.

9. 10. 12.
Prepare & publish
annual reports
comparing funding
for the education of Federal, Provincial,
CALLS TO ACTION First Nations Draft new Aboriginal Territorial and,
children on & off education legislation Aboriginal
Purpose: governments to
Address the history & atrocities of reserves, as well as with the full
Residential Schools educational and participation and develop culturally
income attainments informed consent of appropriate early
of Aboriginal Aboriginal peoples. childhood education
peoples in Canada programs for
compared with Aboriginal families.
non-Aboriginal
people.

Despite being issued in 2015,

only 13 have been completed
POST SECONDARY ENROLLMENT

Indigenous Services
Canada (ISC) We call upon the federal government to
provide adequate funding to end the CTA
Provides funding to help Indigenous backlog of First Nations students
students pay for costs of
seeking a post-secondary education. #11
post-secondary education

Administers the Post-Secondary

Student Support Program (PSSSP) and
the University and College Entrance United Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Preparation Program (UCEPP) Indigenous People (UNDRIP) states that
Indigenous people have a right to
Provides funding to eligible First Nations
education
& Inuit post-secondary students

ISC indicates that funding is limited, and

not all students will be funded.
Indigenous students face Many do not want
Indigenous communities face a racism, isolation & to continue in the
significant financial barrier to accessing
post-secondary education marginalization within Western education
post-secondary institutes system

Financial disparities, discrimination and damage to culture discourage

Indigenous people from pursuing and prospering in post-secondary education

INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE & EDUCATION

ROCKS LAND
INDIGENOUS
KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS
LINEAR THINKING rooted in respect,
Hierarchical thinking balance, harmony

Humans (“man”) superior CIRCULAR Everything has [a] spirit

to all creations and knowledge
THINKING
Humans have the right to Language transcends
exploit and control
PLANTS PEOPLE boundaries between Us &
nature other creations (plants,
rocks, insects…)

ANIMALS

DOMINANT KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS “TRADITIONAL” ≠ AN INDIGENOUS TERM

- Come from European colonizers - Comes from British institutional &
- Values individualism, greed & economic academic scholars
achievement - Used to encompass all Indigenous
cultures under one term

INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE & CULTURES

- Devalued
- Undermined } Throughout history
- Appropriated
- Diminished

CALLS TO ACTION:
EDUCATION FOR RECONCILIATION

Make a mandatory, age-appropriate curriculum for K – 12 students about

residential schools, Treaties & Aboriginal peoples’ historical & contemporary
contributions to Canada.

62 Give post-secondary institutions the necessary funding to educate instructors on

how to integrate Indigenous knowledge & teaching methods into classrooms.

Provide the necessary funding to Aboriginal schools to utilize Indigenous

knowledge & teaching methods in classrooms.

Maintain an annual commitment to Aboriginal education issues, including:

● Develop & implement K – 12 curriculum & learning resources on the
history & legacy of residential schools and Aboriginal peoples in
Canadian history
● Sharing information & best practices on teaching curriculum related to
residential schools & Aboriginal history.
● Building student capacity for intercultural understanding, empathy, and
63
mutual respect.
● Identifying teacher-training needs relating to the above.

64 65

In collaboration with Aboriginal peoples,

All levels of government that provide public
post-secondary institutions and
funds to denominational schools to require
educators, and the National Centre for
such schools to provide an education on
Truth and Reconciliation and its partner
comparative religious studies, which must
institutions, to establish a national
include a segment on Aboriginal spiritual
research program with multi-year funding
beliefs and practices developed in
to advance understanding of
collaboration with Aboriginal Elders.
reconciliation

TEACHING CRT & ANTI-RACISM

In October 2022 the Edmonton West Henday constituency association tried to change the UCP’s
education policies to prevent educators from doing lessons on Critical Race Theory, anti-racism,
intersectionality and diversity. They are quoted saying that teachers need to stop teaching students
"that by reason of their ethnic heritage they are privileged, they are inherently racist or they bear
historic guilt due to said ethnic heritage." Fortunately, the resolution did not get a majority approval.

INDIGENIZING EDUCATION INDIGENIZING EDUCATION

Indigenous pedagogies have never been held at the same level as western education. Historically, students
have been forced into a “one size fits all” education, which does not account for diversity in the classroom.
Indigenizing classrooms would not only benefit Indigenous students but all students. It would allow for
students to learn relatedness, inclusiveness, nurturance and respect.

“Education got us into

this mess and education
will get us out.”
- Justice Murray Sinclair

(Langhorne, 2016)

SECTION 43

Section 43 of the Criminal Code The Indian Penal Code. 43.

reads as follows: Every school “Illegally”, “Legally bound to “By way of correction” in
teacher, parent, or person do”. – The word “illegal” is section 43 that the use of
standing in the place of a applicable to everything force must be sober and
parent is justified in using force which is an offense or which is reasoned, address actual
by way of correction toward a prohibited by law, or which behaviour, and be
pupil or child, as the case may furnishes ground for a civil intended to restrain,
be, who is under his care, if the action; and a person is said to control or express symbolic
force does not exceed what is be “legally bound to do” approval.
reasonable under the whatever it is illegal for him to
circumstances. omit.

SUPREME COURT RULING

Six of nine Justices concluded that the provision does not violate the Canadian Charter of
Rights and Freedoms, as it does not infringe a child’s rights to security of the person
(section 7) or a child’s right to equality (section 15), and it does not constitute cruel and
unusual treatment or punishment (section 12).

OPINIONS AND PROPOSALS FOR REFORM

1984: The Law Reform Commission
of Canada recommended the
repeal of section 43 as a
defense for teachers.
The Trudeau Government, 2015:
Committed to implement the
94 Calls to Action made by the
Truth and Reconciliation
Commission of Canada, one of
which was the repeal of section
43.
Bills from the Senate, December
2015, February 2016: Bill S-206
whose sole clause (aside from
the coming-into-force
provision) repeals section 43,
was introduced in the Senate in
December 2015.
Majority: Suggested that section 43
be maintained for parents,
primarily out of concern that the
criminal law would otherwise
unduly encroach on family life
for every trivial slap or spanking
The child must have the capacity to
understand and benefit from the
correction which means that
section 43 does not justify force
against children under two or those
with particular disabilities.
May not involve objects such as
rulers or belts, and it may not be
applied to the head.
Force may NOT be applied to
teenagers, as it can induce
aggressive or antisocial behavior.
Force must be transitory and trifling
& must not harm or degrade the
child. The idea is to look at the need
for correction in the circumstances
rather than the gravity of the child’s
misbehavior.
The majority concluded, while
corporal punishment itself is not
reasonable in the school context,
teachers may use force to remove
children from classrooms or secure
compliance with instructions.
The section maintains a risk of
criminal sanction if force is used for
non-educative & non-corrective
purposes & limits the type & degree
of force that may be used.

STATISTICS ON INDIGENOUS EDUCATION

have completed high

school, compared to
had completed high school in
88% for other 2016, up from 57% in 2006.
Canadians

57%
Of Indigenous

44% youth

of First Nations
on-reserve (age 18-24)
38%
Of First Nations
people (aged 25-64)

15% 16.9% have the credentials to attend

of Indigenous Of Indigenous
institutes youth post-secondary education, but
have not attained any -
post-secondary education.
(2015)

● have dedicated study spaces.

● have off-campus housing
assistance.
● have on campus cafeterias.
● have counselling services. aged 15 to 24 years, make up
one-sixth of the entire Indigenous
population (16.9%), a larger
proportion than among the
non-Indigenous population (12%)