Calgary educators focused on moving forward in truth and reconciliation through education – Calgary
Whereas some post-secondary faculties in Calgary remained open on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, others selected to shut their doorways.
Nonetheless, the day was being well known at a number of universities, via on-line shows and particular acknowledgments, main as much as and after Sept. 30.
Learn extra:
Canada set to mark 1st National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Here’s what’s happening
At Mount Royal College in Calgary, organizers of the varsity’s Journey to Indigenization occasions unfold the color orange throughout the campus. Linda ManyGuns, affiliate vice-president of indigenization and decolonization at MRU, says the orange youngsters’s T-shirts, hanging within the bushes, orange lights on the fountain, and lighting up the varsity, are a robust image.
“We’re actually making an attempt to carry that means to the experiences of Aboriginal folks to allow them to be understood and we’re right here to reply questions, as effectively. We would like folks to ask questions,” stated ManyGuns.
“It’s simply been so encouraging. Each single a part of the college is concerned on this and all people is . I feel we’re in a altering place in society and folks wish to know, effectively, why.”
Asking why and studying about Canada’s residential college system is a part of the trail to reconciliation. Casey Eagle Speaker, Kainai Elder at St. Mary’s College, says the tales should be advised.
He usually speaks to the schooling college students at St. Mary’s and shares his personal story of surviving a residential college. He says the scholars usually really feel a way of shock once they hear what he skilled.
“Future lecturers must know the reality of Indigenous folks. It’s been far too lengthy that they’ve lived underneath this umbrella of stereotyping but it surely’s these untold tales that basically carry mild and color again into the historical past of Indigenous folks,” he stated.
Michelle Scott, director of Indigenous initiatives at St. Mary’s, stated her campus has been fairly lively within the time she’s been there, over the past seven years, however there’s a distinction this 12 months, with the discoveries of unmarked graves throughout Canada. She stated extra individuals are engaged within the dialog.
“I’ve all the time been saying that this isn’t an Indigenous dialog, however it’s a Canadian dialog.”
And it’s a dialog these Calgary educators say must be shared brazenly in our faculties and with all Canadians.
As Elder Eagle Speaker provides, it’s about transferring ahead via schooling.
“We all the time want to maneuver ahead. You already know, an eagle can’t fly backwards. It’s all the time going ahead and that’s what we’re desiring to do. Training is de facto one of many main steps for us. In spite of everything, life is studying and studying is life.”
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