Tag: Residential Schools

In all of our interviews with nêhiyawêwin-speaking Elders, learners, and teachers across Treaty 6, we learned that the land is integral to Indigenous language revitalization, as the land and the language are inherently and intrinsically connected.

The land has always been here and Indigenous Peoples have always been reclaiming parts of it. So Canada’s challenge is how to keep us off of it, and how to keep us from holding onto the idea that it’s right for us to reclaim it.

In Ontario’s Indigenous child welfare agencies, the superficial trappings of culture take the place of policies that would grant jurisdiction over Indigenous children to Indigenous families, individuals, and communities.

I have a memory. At least I think it’s a memory – it’s hard to tell sometimes between dreams, nightmares, visions, and memories. I’m choosing memory because it feels like a memory.

Through the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s, the Canadian government took thousands of First Nations children from their families and placed them in white foster homes. I was one of them. Alienated from my language, culture, and community, I was taught to hate my people.

Two books about residential schools are reviewed by 10-year-old Tanson Pitawanakwat Acoose.

We must embrace instead of dismiss uncomfortable knowledge that calls into question the framework of virtuous educators and troubled Indigenous students.