Areas of convergence and contradictions in the readings

insights, provocations, or difficulties you encountered with the readings.

You are invited to demonstrate that you have read and made sense of each text as you show connections
and disconnections to the other texts.

https://medium.com/@fgarn001/anti-colonial-education-2b57d2b27fff

Framework 1: Anti-Indigenous Racism and Anti- Colonial Education

WISDOM AND GUIDANCE
• This resource is one part of our collective effort on the journey of reconciliation. This is a
journey that involves what COPA terms the cycle of positive change that features learning,
reflecting, growing and changing. Joining the Circle is designed to help ensure Indigenous
students and their families feel that they belong and are able to realize their greatest potential.
• Joining the Circle was designed by COPA in keeping with the Ministry’s commitment to
supporting equity and inclusive education
• Many people generously shared their time, knowledge and thoughts. COPA met with hundreds
of educators, family and community members, leaders and Elders, Senators and Knowledge
Holders. Together we have created a resource to help all of us nurture classrooms, schools and
boards where Indigenous students and their families will be safe, strong and free
OUR ROLE AS EDUCATORS
• All Canadians have an important role to play in the reconciliation process. We can begin by
acknowledging the legacy of residential schools and becoming better informed about the
various and complicated effects of intergenerational trauma still affecting us all today
INDIGENOUS STUDENTS
• , increasing numbers of Indigenous students are thriving at school, and indeed the drop out rate
for Indigenous students in Canada has declined significantly since 2007.7 Nevertheless there
are many who are not flourishing or even staying in school, due to the impact of informal and
systemic barriers that can be eliminated if we put our minds and hearts to it.
ABOUT THIS GUIDE
• In this guide, we share information and tools for becoming aware of creative strategies to ensure
the full inclusion of Indigenous students. It reflects the wisdom and values of Indigenous
peoples who shared with COPA and helped create this new tool. The information and tools
provided here are designed to help educators strengthen our understanding and respect for
Indigenous histories and cultures.
• Indigenous community members and leaders advised COPA to include cultural teachings. Some
of these have been chosen to highlight ways of being, learning and sharing, while recognizing
that it would be impossible to include all teachings from all Indigenous communities in Ontario.
• This guide is designed for use with the Joining the Circle short animated films, created to
nurture welcoming schools and communities. Additional resources are included in the kit to
support this initiative.
LISTENING AND LEARNING
• There are many efforts by Indigenous peoples and their allies to reclaim, revitalize and celebrate
oral traditions, writing systems, languages, literatures, arts, values and ways of understanding
the world. The heritage of Indigenous peoples in Canada emerges out of the rich and long
histories of many civilizations and cultures.
• By listening carefully and being open-hearted, those who have coordinated this project have had
precious opportunities to learn more about this rich heritage, and the diversity of First Nations,
Métis and Inuit histories, cultures and teachings. They were guided and grounded, and learned a
great deal about how to support young people—in schools and out in the bigger world. This
learning is at the very heart of this guide and the other parts of this resource.
• A wholistic perspective central to Indigenous peoples has been the inspiration for this project,
linking physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health, and the precious values of sharing,
respect, kindness and kinship bonds—the basis of forming healthy, equal relationships.

Barriers
• First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples in Canada often encounter many challenges with their
health and social wellbeing, and Indigenous students may thus face many barriers to succeeding
at school.10 This situation can be linked to the history of discriminatory policies and negative
ways they have been treated by those representing the religious and government bodies
assigned to work and live among them.
• Racism, sexism and other forms of injustice often work hand-in-hand and unfortunately are still
part of our world—sometimes taking the form of bullying and abuse. Abuse has a negative
effect on our young people, at home, at school and in the community. Discrimination and abuse
make participating in school life hard or even impossible. It may also trigger difficult and
painful memories.
• Discrimination and abuse make participating in school life hard or even impossible. It may also
trigger difficult and painful memories.
• In recent years, many efforts by Indigenous community and government leaders have been
undertaken to help change attitudes and practices, such as ensuring Indigenous students’ right to
an education and a learning environment free from discrimination—allowing each child to
reach their full potential. As educators we have an important role to play in this and a
responsibility to create a safe, healthy and welcoming atmosphere that makes room for all of us.
• As we think about the problem of bullying and discrimination experienced by Indigenous
students, we will explore the many ways that schools can support them. COPA believes that
together we can create cultures in schools where bullying and discrimination become a thing of
the past: where everyone has a chance to work together and to be the best they can be,
individually and as a whole; where each and every person’s rights are respected, and all people
are seen, heard and welcomed. COPA hopes that this guide will be helpful in overcoming
barriers and nurturing a cycle of positive change for ourselves, for our students, and for
generations to come.
It's all about the land
• For many generations we Indigenous people have been in a life and death struggle for survival,
for respect of our humanity, restoration of our nationhood, and recognition of our rights
• need for vigilant consciousness as Indigenous people is stronger than ever. Reconciliation is
recolonization because it is allowing the colonizer to hold on to his attitudes and mentality, and
does not challenge his behaviour towards our people or the land.
• There really is no way to decolonize from within the reconciliation paradigm. There is no way,
except to get out: a resurgence of authentic land-based Indigeneity

• The way to fight colonization is by reculturing yourself and by recentring yourself in your
homeland.
• In order to gain access to our territories, the British Crown enacted the Royal Proclamation of
1763 to govern the subjects.
• This Proclamation was for the subjects of the Crown to follow when trying to access our
territories. There are three important aspects of the Royal Proclamation: 1) In order to access
the lands and territories of “Indian Nations or Tribes,” there needed to be an agreement or a
treaty. 2) If the Crown’s subjects were within the territories of the Indian Nations or Tribes, the
Crown was obligated to remove them (they would be considered squatters). 3) Agreements or
treaties would be made only if the Indians “so desired.” This makes treaties a prerequisite to the
Crown’s subjects legitimately moving into the territories of Indigenous Nations.

 Colonialism has three components: dispossession, dependence and oppression. Indigenous

people live with these forces every day of their lives.
 It began with dispossession: our lands were stolen out from underneath us. The next step was to
ensure that we are made entirely dependent on the interlopers so they can control every aspect
of our lives and ensure we are not able to rise up to seize back our lands. To do this, they strip
us of our ability to provide for ourselves. This was done by trying to cut us off from access to
our land.
 Our dependency was not some accident of history. It is at the heart of the colonial system. Our
poverty is not an accident, the result of our incompetence or bad luck; it is intentional and sys-
tematic
 The dependency built into this system can be heartbreaking. I once even heard a young person
on the reserve saying that she could not wait until she was eligible to receive her own welfare
cheques. That is how bleak their future is. That is all they had to hope for in life. Their own
welfare cheque. That is what colonialism leads to: complete and utter dependency. When this is
the best they can hope for, it is not surprising that the suicide rate among our young people is
among the highest in the world.
 From the 2017 Convocation Speech Senator Murray Sinclair
 Had so many Why
o why that displacement of our people was never taught in the schools on the very land
from which our people had been removed.
o why my grandmother and my father, as well as my uncles and aunts who went to resid-
ential schools, never talked about it.
o I wanted to know if all of the things my family had experienced had happened to any
others. And that’s why I went to law school – I wanted to know why and I wanted to
know what I could do about it.
 , a piece of my heart is ripped away, and my sense of rage that this is somehow connected to our
colonial and racist past increases.
  Decolonization is taking back our power Pamela Palmater
 In general, when federal, provincial and municipal governments, mainstream media, public
commentators and even some educational institutions acknowledge the atrocities of coloniza-
tion at all, they tend to do so as if it is a legacy –
 a sad chapter of Canada’s past, one that can be collectively acknowledged and quickly forgotten
after tearful apologies. There is an urgent political desire for Indigenous peoples to “just get
over it,” despite the fact that colonization continues in equally lethal ways.
 In addition to poverty, homelessness, lack of access to education and employment, lack of ac-
cess to healthcare and clean water, and higher rates of going murdered and missing, the impact
of colonization on Indigenous children is especially acute. Statistically, Indigenous youth face a
greater chance of being incarcerated than of getting a university education.
 We must ensure that the decolonization process teaches our children to be critical thinkers and
work towards stopping the spread of the colonial infection in our nations so that we can put
more energy into our resurgence and nation-building
 Decolonization is about realizing that we have power to take back what is rightfully ours and
ensure a future for our future generations.


Indigenous peoples have an urgent political desire to "just get over it," despite the reality that
colonization continues in equally devastating ways.
Along with poverty, homelessness, a lack of access to education and job, a lack of access to healthcare
and clean water, and greater incidence of murder and missing children, the impact of colonialism on
Indigenous children is particularly severe.
Indigenous youth have a higher chance of being incarcerated than of obtaining a university education.
We must ensure that the decolonization process teaches our children to be critical thinkers and work to-
wards stopping the spread of the colonial infection in our nations so that we can put more energy into
our resurgence and nation-building
Decolonization is about realizing that we have power to take back what is rightfully ours and ensure a
future for our future generations.
TUESDAY

-come up with 3 questions

-In text citation