The Land and the Nations – resources matter.

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The artifact.

On January 29, the Abbotsford school district had a Pro-D day. I used this Pro-D opportunity to sign up for the district’s workshop hosted by Teachers for Indigenous Success and Indigenous Support Workers. They led a discussion about the critical thinking process when considering the resources, finding ways to connect with Elders and Indigenous community members, using the land acknowledgment in the classroom, and other ideas to include authentic Indigenous worldviews and perspectives.

I found the workshop immensely useful for gathering ideas for Full Immersion. I had put lots of thought into Indigenizing my curriculum, but I found it challenging to know how to without the appropriate resources and district supports. This workshop discussed a variety of things that I am thrilled to consider in further depth as I begin my certifying practicum:

  • Land acknowledgment: The practice of land acknowledgment has been approved by Abbotsford community Elders. The purpose of these acknowledgments is to ensure this practice becomes a norm in schools and Indigenous voices are heard so that I am “working with them instead of for them.” Daily land acknowledgments!
  • When speaking about Indigenous perspectives, cultures, and practices, acknowledge the specific nations — each nation has in itself its own sovereignty, language, traditions, and values
  • Incorporate perspectives like the fact that the health of humans and the health of the land/planet are part of one whole — do this by inviting students outside to explore the natural world and consider how humans are impacting this natural place
  • Languages of each First Nation are something that could be incorporated in the classroom in a variety of ways — and this is important to keep these fading languages alive!
  • Teachers may book a session with Beatrice, the Abbotsford Elder, if they would like a guest speaker in their classes.
  • Many Indigenous resources for the Abbotsford school district can be found through their excellent Indigenous resource library.

Why it matters.

This session was very important to me because I’ve been wondering about ways to integrate more Indigenous perspectives into my classroom. I have been in touch with Yale’s Indigenous resource teacher, Jessica Richardson, to collect resources to include in my English units. While doing dissections in Biology, she suggested we sprinkle tobacco leaves on the pigs before we dispose of them with thankfulness in our hearts for the opportunity for knowledge and learning these living things provided for us. These were all tangible ways to incorporate Indigenous ideas into my classrooms — and I am so thankful for resource teachers who make these materials accessible to young teachers like me.

Incorporating land acknowledgments, specific nations’ names, perspectives on the land, languages, and many Indigenous resources are all foundational steps that educators can take to make the journey of Truth and Reconciliation more tangible in their classrooms, schools, and districts. The Lower Mainland and Abbotsford School District are still at the beginning stages of truth-telling, and many teachers feel unsure about how to integrate Indigenous perspectives in the classroom in an authentic, meaningful, and seamless way. This is why I think professional development opportunities with an Aboriginal education focus, and teachers choosing to attend such workshops, are fundamentally important in the journey of truth and reconciliation. Much of the work that still has to be done in this process starts in schools because young minds need to be shaped in these values to make a lasting impact towards reconciliation moving forward.

Each educator is responsible for their own journey of contributing towards truth, reconciliation, and healing.

Next steps.

Personally, I want to commit to diligently maintaining relationships with Indigenous resource teachers and support workers. It’s really only through these relationships that I can truly come to better understand Indigenous ways of knowing and being, and value Indigenous resources as much as they should be in my classroom.

During my first day of in-person classes on Wednesday, I will do an intentional territory announcement and talk about why I am personally thankful for the opportunity to gather on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Stó:lō people, the Semá:th and Mathxwí First Nations. I hope to make this at least a weekly tradition within my class (Monday mornings), especially since the singing of the Canadian national anthem is very much a weekly tradition at Yale.

At the bottom of my district emails, I also include the following phrase:

I acknowledge that I work, learn, and play on the Traditional, Ancestral, Unceded, and Shared territories of the Stó:lō people, the Semá:th and Mathxwí First Nations. With this, I respect the longstanding relationships that Indigenous Nations have to this land, as they are the original caretakers.

This comes from the Abbotsford School District official territory announcement publication. These words were revised and approved by Indigenous Elders of the Abbotsford region. I want every person I correspond with to know that I value the opportunity I have to be a guest on this land, even to work and play here in the way that I do.

The second English 9 unit is about Nature, but after this Professional Development experience, I feel encouraged to reconsider how I go about the unit. I would love to incorporate First People’s Learning Styles very explicitly as I get my students to write descriptively and reflect on their relationship with nature. In fact, to include a more explicitly Indigenous perspective in the unit, I will re-name it to “My relationship with the Land” — and I will have conversations with students about how our relationship with the land one and the same as our relationship with others and ourselves. For example, when we explore environmental issues, we will discuss how our health is interconnected with the health of our planet.

During the Provincial Professional Development next week, I will sign up for further Indigenous education workshops. This is an area I would love to grow more in and become more used to using in my classroom. The goal is to make Indigenous perspectives, stories, and ways of knowing and being an integral and “normalised” aspect of my classroom, so that each of my students engages with an environment that deeply respects and values the history and sovereignty of the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis in Canada.

Professional Standard #7: Educators engage in professional learning.

Professional Standard #9: Educators respect and value the history of First Nations, Inuit and Métis in Canada and the impact of the past on the present and the future. Educators contribute towards truth, reconciliation and healing. Educators foster a deeper understanding of way of knowing and being, histories and cultures of First Nations, Inuit and Métis.