During the earlier years of my secondary education, I always listened to Indigenous guest speakers, and what they had to say. With every guest speaker, I noticed that they all had the same thing to say before they began, and that was, "I would like to acknowledge that we are on Treaty 6 territory, and the homeland of the Metis." I never understood what that meant until I took a unit in Native Studies 30 that gave me a better understanding of what treaties were, and it also gave me a better understanding of who the Metis people were.
After of couple of years on developing a better understanding of the history of the land we live on, it has given me a better understanding of why people give acknowledgements to the land. By acknowledging the land that we are on shows the respect towards First Nations, Metis, and Inuit people who have been people that lived on the land before colonialism, or were a culture of people that were created on the land.
For my own personal journey, I never really knew what it meant to acknowledge that land until I started to take history classes that were based on the history of Canada. After being able to study the different types of events that have occurred between First Nations, Metis people and the Canadian Government, it showed that the respect towards First Nations and Metis people from the Canadian Government only lasted a short amount of time before everything went downhill. After everything had gone downhill, giving acknowledgements to the land is one small step towards the up rise of First Nations and Metis culture.
The next step that could help with the up rise of First Nations, Metis, and Inuit cultures and traditions is getting the cultures and traditions included in the Ministry of Education's Curriculum. By having any of these cultures and traditions included in the curriculum and having them involved in the classroom could create a better relationship between First Nations, Metis, and Inuit people and the rest of the Canadian Society.
Being a future educator, I feel that every teacher should do their best to incorporate any type of culture or tradition from a First Nations, Metis, Inuit, or any other types of ethnic origin in their lessons and units.
After of couple of years on developing a better understanding of the history of the land we live on, it has given me a better understanding of why people give acknowledgements to the land. By acknowledging the land that we are on shows the respect towards First Nations, Metis, and Inuit people who have been people that lived on the land before colonialism, or were a culture of people that were created on the land.
For my own personal journey, I never really knew what it meant to acknowledge that land until I started to take history classes that were based on the history of Canada. After being able to study the different types of events that have occurred between First Nations, Metis people and the Canadian Government, it showed that the respect towards First Nations and Metis people from the Canadian Government only lasted a short amount of time before everything went downhill. After everything had gone downhill, giving acknowledgements to the land is one small step towards the up rise of First Nations and Metis culture.
The next step that could help with the up rise of First Nations, Metis, and Inuit cultures and traditions is getting the cultures and traditions included in the Ministry of Education's Curriculum. By having any of these cultures and traditions included in the curriculum and having them involved in the classroom could create a better relationship between First Nations, Metis, and Inuit people and the rest of the Canadian Society.
Being a future educator, I feel that every teacher should do their best to incorporate any type of culture or tradition from a First Nations, Metis, Inuit, or any other types of ethnic origin in their lessons and units.
I agree, Thank you, Jacob. Spending time with various elders and knowledge keepers myself, throughout my education career, has helped to increase my understanding of our history and gain perspective from an often unacknowledged perspective. We are slowly moving forward as a society and further growth in perspective and acknowledging truth will only come from education, teaching, listening, and learning from one another. Thank you for this reflection and connection.
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