The following poem expresses some of my struggle and inspiration revolving around my own relationship with indigenous past and present, and the writing that follows connects this to my learning regarding the incorporation of First People’s Principles of Learning into the current curriculum. I believe the personal reflection is important because it had to take place before, and during changes in academic understanding.

Shift

I used to think that indigeneity was one-eighth of my history,

A pruned branch of my family tree.

I will never know those roots.

Displaced, like my great-grandfather couldn’t find his family after residential school,

but it’s just a story.

Spanish was more acceptable, so he kept the English name.

 

My grandmother told stories                                                                                      Shame.

 

With elements of truth                                                                                                Liar.

 

The only child who looked                                                                                         Wrong.

 

called “home-child”

and left there too, while everyone else went out.

 

A family photo without                                                                                              Acceptance.

 

A colonial recipe:

She combined her own experience, and what she had been told: time, land, imagination,

Summers spent helping a woman called Grandmother.

The words:

Anishinaabe and Cree

Mean nothing to me

 

New: she told me stories when she thought I was too young to remember.

She taught me to be the sky. (Interconnectedness of all things)

When she stopped telling stories I tried to find proof

Catholic Church documents

and what was his name before? Records and lost things.

 

An argument stopped me from hearing the last story, but Dad told:

“No. Forget. Do not.”

Just words, just breathing out and out forever, never in again

But she never got old to me.

 

Then I learned:

To be a witness

An ally

Someone who believes in stories

 

They don’t have to be mine.

 

These people are my first textbooks and I am learning to appreciate them. They inform my being, And I am still becoming

because learning is generational.

 

 

Explanation:

As evident in the beginning of the poem, I used to think that I had extremely limited connections to First Nations culture and people. I used to feel ostracized and unwelcome, even though there is Aboriginal lineage in my family background. I realize now that this is because I was coming in from the point of view of someone trying to claim part of the culture and connect to a lost or displaced aspect of my own heritage. Additionally, I used to think there were very few areas of First Nations culture that connected with modern learning.

Then I learned about First People’s Principles of Learning, and the versatility of the current curriculum. I felt particularly drawn to First Peoples Principles of Learning #4: Learning involves generational roles and responsibilities, and the poem came about as an initial reflection. At first, I took the principle to mean that some concepts are learned over generations. While this holds true in some respects, such as fears and anxieties that some First Nations people still experience as a result of residential school experiences and the negative legacy connected with them, there is so much more. Learning about the structure of education, the history of education and the roles of residential schools, has informed my understanding about how and why the BC curriculum is meant to incorporate this principle.

Now I understand that learning involving this principle does not have to cover generations of time, and it does apply to the school setting. It utilizes generations of people, meaning that young people – children and teenagers, can learn from any adults or community members that have knowledge, rather than just their teachers. This includes Elders and Knowledge holders of First Nations communities, and the experts in larger, local communities, teachers other than oneself, family members, or even peers. Additionally, the fourth First People’s Principle of Learning encompasses aspects of modelling, but the meaning of this is two-fold. First, teachers should model in the obvious sense by being a role model – conducting oneself in a manner that may be emulated or looked up to, such that the person doing the emulating would be behaving in a positive, socially constructive way. However, I also now understand that modelling means to model learning. That is, to be a model learner, oneself, and allow students to view the learning process.[1] This could be done in a myriad of ways, such as to show enthusiasm for new learning, admit learning gaps, and demonstrate how to fill them. As well, modelling learning includes showing respect to experts in the field, such as Elders and Knowledge-holders within the local community. To fulfill this principle, a teacher needs to facilitate intentional learning in this way, specifically, to plan and implement learning from community members and opportunities for students to see modelling from a variety of people. While this seems a daunting task, there are multiple levels of the education system that support teachers in all their teaching, and from the learning so far, in all my courses, I can see that I have only scratched the surface of the ways that First People’s Principles of Learning are connected with the curriculum and the teaching and learning process.

[1] This aspect of being a learner oneself has been fundamental in a personal mental shift regarding First Nations peoples and cultures. I have found a way that I can connect to an aspect of my heritage that previously seemed off limits, as an ally, rather than a participant. With this shift, comes the realization that I may never find the details of my own family background, but also the inspiration that I can be a part of making sure that these beautiful cultures do not disappear.