This year has been fulfilled of experiences towards Treaty Education, that have been informative, powerful and inspiring. I have had the opportunity to learn so much from Treaty Education, Joseph Naytowhow and now recently Murray Sinclair. Lately, I have also been thinking about and applying how to indigenous my classroom practices.
During Murray Sinclair’s talk he talked about public school experiences, and what those experiences entailed towards Treaty Education. For me, I learned very little and it wasn’t until University that I really began to truly understand the place I live today. Why was I not taught about First Nations and Métis culture when it is mandatory in the curriculum? With all of the learning experience I have had around Treaty Education, I know as a future educator I will infuse my classroom with the information we should know about.
The Saskatchewan Curriculum, in the Treaty Education Outcomes and Indicators page it states, “By the end of grade 12, students will understand that Treaty relationships are based on a deep understanding of peoples’ identity which encompasses: languages, ceremonies, worldviews, and relationship to place and the land.” It saddens me to know that when I was in grade 12 I didn’t know much or anything at all about Treaty Education. I know I will not allow this to happen for the students I will be teaching in the future.
The most inspiring thing I took away from Murray Sinclair’s talk was that the end game is important, and if we want to reach the end game we need to be committed and patient. We all made a contribution by listening to his speech and taking his message forward with us. We still have a lot of work to do, but we need to work together. We live on Treaty 4 land and we are all treaty people.
Ms.Keller 