1. Describe colonisation and interrogate its legacy. 2. Analyse various Indigenous ways of knowing. 3. Discuss colonisation and decolonisation. 4. Identify examples of Indigenous adult education in Canada and various regions of the world. 5. Discuss barriers Indi genous peoples face to engaging in adult and higher education. VIDEO : Following a conference held in March, 2011 by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada on institutions of memory, the UBC First Nations House of Learning (FNHL) and Indian Residential School Survivors Society (IRSSS) began discussions about an institution of memory addressing the experiences of survivors of the Indian residential schools on the west coast. Thus the INDIAN RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL HISTORY & DIALOGUE CENTRE The IRSHDC is built on Musqueam territory, The Centre will be a place for former students and survivors of the Indian residential schools and their communities to access their records, for students and the public to explore historic holdings and learn about the history and legacy of the schools through interactive technology. It will also be for university and community members to meet in focused discussions about the uses of history and other collaborative projects. Many Canadians do not know about or understand the cultural ramifications that residential schools have inflicted upon First Nations communities, largely due to the silence that has surrounded this topic for so long. But organizations like the Indian Residential School Survivors Society and records from the Truth and Reconciliation Commissionhas helped people become more informed on Indigenous culture and history. Colonialism is defined as a policy or set of policies and practices where a political power from one territory exerts control in a different territory. It involves unequal power relations. Canada experienced settler colonialism as Europeans aggressively took lands from Indigenous peoples and over time displaced and then greatly outnumbered them. Settlement by Europeans began first on the east coast of Canada. There were known encounters with the Vikings more than 1,000 years ago. Evidence also exists of Basque sailors along the coast of Labrador in the 1500s. DEFINING INDIGENOUS PEOPLES There is no rigid definition of what makes a group Indigenous, but the United Nations and the International Labour Organization have outlined a few characteristics that usually define an Indigenous group: ● they are descended from the pre-colonial/pre-invasion inhabitants of our region. ● they maintain a close tie to our land in both our cultural and economic practices. ● they suffer from economic and political marginalization as a minority group. ● A group is considered Indigenous if they define themselves that way. Interior :while I’m not allowed to show you the collection,. Here is a quick look at the inside of the building, For picture: idea of compulsory schooling took hold in Canada as well, and government officials and church leaders regarded it as their sacred duty to convert aboriginal children into loyal subjects of the Crown and have them embrace Christianity. Government officials forcibly removed thousands of young children from their families and made them wards of the Crown who were to be housed and educated in residential schools. The elite of British society paid tuition to private boarding schools that provided an education to boys beginning at the age of six. During the school term, students attending these institutions had minimal or no contact with their families. Discipline included corporal punishment. In his memoirs, Winston Churchill, who had attended a private boarding school, recalled the school nurse having to attend to students’ bleeding buttocks after they had been caned. Colonial era government officials, bureaucrats, and church officials likely regarded private British boarding schools as the ideal model for Canadian residential schools aimed at educating First Nations children. I want to talk about the Maori educational initiatives from this week’s reading, I think its very interesting while it happened in new Zealand, we can see that many indigenous groups are doing the same. The Education Revolution and "Transformation" of the 1980s In 1982 Maori elders came together for a major hui (large gathering). One of the main concerns was the imminent prospect (as described by the Benton research, 1971) of the death of the Maori language. In discussions at this gathering, the idea that Maori communities should revitalize Maori language by developing immersion preschool language nurseries was developed. As a result, Maori elders and leaders went back to their respective communities, families, and tribal groups and began to develop what has become known as the Te Kohanga Reo initiative: to take preschool children into total immersion Maori language nurseries; to surround them with "nannies" and elders who were fluent speakers of Maori language. Naming Your Own World The first understanding is the idea of naming your own world and developing change for yourself. This builds on Freire's (1971) insight that oppressed people must also participate in freeing themselves; to be "liberated by the oppressor" is considered to be a contradictory sequence of events While our government today have been trying to raise awareness, the indigenous people we can see are taking more initiatives to do more. Because there are over 5000 different indigenous groups, making up 400million people, they are learning from one another and small movements in different parts of the world are beginning to build the world’s first global human rights movement. The second critical point is that Maori adults developed critical understandings and insights to the point where they resolved to take action themselves to change their lives. Maori became increasingly aware of notions of power relations, economic disparities, and ideological persuasion and were subsequently more able to deconstruct the existing structural impediments implicit in education and to take the further step of developing their own resistance initiatives. “it not only empowers our community to see our role models go out to school, but to come back as well” The third understanding is that this initiative required a significant amount of relearning by Maori people themselves. For example, Maori needed to unshackle themselves from the hegemonies that held them blindly to support education that was often directly antagonistic to their cultural aspirations. Conclusion : So what can we take home from all this? For the same reason the IRDHCS was built, we want to not forget but learn from the mistakes we made in the past of mistreating the indegienous people. From one of the reading’s this week, I think Harry Valentine sums it up the best, The abuse of children that occurred at Canadian residential schools are the result of once well-intended government policies that were based on very flawed ideas. One key idea involves the appropriateness of government initiating forcible coercion against peaceful citizens, allegedly for the benefit of society. (while) The abuse is obvious, blatant and obscene. The people participating and those observing have have different views. The residential schools may have been well intended but poorly executed. Created Poverty As times have changed, so has colonialism. In the past, colonialism was more overt. For years, the government policy on-reserve was to provide only enough food to keep Indigenous people alive. Likewise, the Hudson’s Bay Company in Labrador gave local Indigenous people only enough ammunition to hunt for a short time. The thinking was: If they had a food surplus, they would not want to set traps for the Company Residential Schools By 1920, Indigenous families were required by law to send children as young as seven to distant residential schools run by churches. The role of these schools was to “civilize and Christianize” Indigenous children. Children’s pain of being away from family was often worsened by disease, hunger, and physical and sexual abuse. This attempt to strip Indigenous children of their culture and language lasted for generations, with the last residential school closing in 1996. Many former students are alive today, and are living with the effects of the trauma they endured at the schools. Residential school had impacts on the physical and social health of children who attended them, and on the generations that followed. These impacts have included: • medical conditions • mental health issues • post-traumatic stress disorder • changes to spiritual practices • loss of languages and traditional knowledge • violence • suicide, and • effects on gender roles, childrearing, and family relationships. The federal government did not have the same relationship with residential schools in Newfoundland and Labrador, as it did in the rest of Canada. As a result, it has taken no responsibility for residential school survivors in Newfoundland. They were not included in the federal government’s apology or compensated as residential school survivors.
