North / Do

To begin, we sent an invitation to members of Alderville First Nation to see what their perspectives were on what we were doing and where we can go. 

To that end, on the morning of Friday, October 29, members of NCS staff, including the principal, administrative assistant, an E.A., the Kindergarten teacher, and I met with three members of Alderville to connect and talk about the future of Indigenous education at NCS. Before the meeting began, the principal asked me if I would like to lead the meeting. I had initially planned to take more of an observer’s role, but accepted the challenge to speak directly into the matters at hand.

One guest, Dave, a former grandparent of NCS students who appears elsewhere on this site, is passionate about the school and the work we do and was eager to help out. The others were a brother, Brian, and sister, Verna, who are both connected through their great nephew, an NCS student. Verna has attended productions and watched as her nephews attended, Brian was less familiar with us and was curious about the discussion and the questions we would have.

We began the meeting by offering a small gift of tobacco, wrapped in leather and tied with a red string. I handed it over with my left hand, the one closest to my heart, as a sign of thanks and appreciation for their visit and their words. I then walked our guests briefly through the history that can be found on this site; describing my own moment of awareness and the learning journey we’ve been on since then. The principal then led us through introductions and each attendee described, in brief, their background and purpose for attending.

Brian began by offering some suggestions for resources that he has spoken into. We commented that it was nice to have books recommended by Indigenous experts like him, because not everything out there can be trusted to come from Indigenous voices. He recommended we continue to be cautious about resources. Brian mentioned that a mutual friend of ours has created lesson plans and was willing to donate textbooks for our school! He mentioned that our advertisements for the meeting may have kept some potential guests away because it seemed like we were planning to speak only about curriculum and history, something not many would feel comfortable speaking about as they weren’t teachers or historians.

This comment led to our first main takeaway for the next invitation: We need to be more specific about the content of the discussions we are inviting people to, and broader about our subject matter. In our efforts to craft the invitation, we were informed that we had actually kept some away from participating. The wording and lack of schedule outline for the day made many potential guests feel inadequate speaking into specific curriculum streams. It was exciting to hear that many wanted to come, but we had left them feeling they had nothing to contribute. This led to some imagining about what a follow-up meeting would look like and we landed on something everyone has to tell; Stories. This seemed to resonate with our guests who shared much of their own experiences throughout the morning. Many of those stories reinforced a common theme in Indigenous pedagogy; that of formational learning. Learning by doing, and the importance of a community that values and respects everyone was evident in their recountings. Dave also emphasized the importance of silence in communication, actively listening more than talking. He clearly remembers the elders as he was growing up, spending long periods of time together in silence, or placing their fingers on their lips and letting out long, quiet, ‘shhhhhh’s,’ which he demonstrated with smiling eyes, often to himself as we spoke. All three of our guests seemed excited about the prospect of recording stories like these in future, as elders only get older, and their stories and experiences hold such value.

We spoke about the heartbreaking aspects of the Indigenous experience. How the pain is often dwelt upon without moving towards hope. All agreed that empathizing with the pain of others is the first step to caring and only the heart can drive change. Loss and pain needs to be looked at, but the success of today and hope for tomorrow needs to be celebrated as well. This led us to celebrate some of our current and former Alderville students, as well as some of the experiences we’ve shared through our learning journey. Working hard to strike a balance between lament and hope was another takeaway from our discussion. 

We also spoke about the pain that Christendom has inflicted upon Indigenous people, how simply having the word “Christian” in our school’s name can be a barrier. While Dave knows us, and Verna had an idea, Brian was curious about how Christians, many of whom have considered his people ‘pagans’ and their cultural practices ‘witchcraft’, teach Indigenous studies. We told him that the school is nondenominational and that the ‘trappings of Christendom’ have very little to do with walking in ‘The Jesus Way’. This discussion reminded us that decolonizing history also involves decolonizing your whole worldview, including your Biblical worldview! To love Indigenous people, one needs to see them as equals, as neighbours, as created in God’s image just as much as anyone else. Dave reminded us that good change was happening quickly, in society and in the church, and that public moments like the Kamloops unmarked graves confirmations were keeping the momentum going. We also celebrated the Indigenous Christians who have influenced us, many of whom Dave knows, who have been building momentum over the last 30 years and are happily finding themselves very busy these days.

This reminded our guests to include, in our curriculum and lessons, the fact that, prior to colonization, Indigenous people had no class system. All were equal. A chief, elders, and council members may have been respected and trusted to represent the rest, but they were all equal members of the community. Verna shared her biggest takeaway with us: “Little ones need to know that everyone is equal.” Having suffered some of her worst moments of life in school, she is most concerned for the self esteem of the younger generation. How they need to be proud of who they are, and never ashamed. Dave suggested inviting Indigenous guests in to teach about their clan system may be a way to build that pride in oneself; Knowing their identified traits are something valued by others and celebrated. 

Lunch was served and Dave celebrated the truly consultationary approach to the morning. Having been ‘consulted’ by the government in his position, which seemed more like being ‘informed’ and looking for a rubber stamp, he appreciated sitting in a circle with us, on the same level, and being asked to speak into the process. Having so many of our lessons, directions, and approaches moving forward affirmed, was another important takeaway. Dave told us that we have made “A good start,” and that there was, “Nothing wrong with kicking the can, but kick it in the right direction!” He affirmed that we were doing so.

We were left with much to contemplate as we debriefed after our guests left. Tentatively, we have landed on two short-term goals that will hopefully lead us towards a third long-term goal. First, we see the need for a group of Indigenous 'counsellors’ committed to NCS who can vet our resources, suggest topics and approaches, and most importantly, speak to our students as First Voices and experts. Second, we need to plan another invitational, following Brian’s suggestions, one surrounding the stories that guests can share, perhaps with AV equipment at the ready and a list of topics to provide a focus and spark memories. Finally, we landed on a theme that hit hard and will require more planning, thinking, collaboration, and dreaming; we have received many affirmations for how we teach about Indigenous Peoples, our next big step is teaching with them. 

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With these goals in mind, NCS is hosting another invitational in January. Broadening our scope to ‘stories’ and narrowing the topics to ‘Childhood and School’, ‘Learning from the Land’, and “Being Indigenous Today’. Any who wish to join us are welcome to share their stories in this next first step in our ongoing journey. 

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‘Nihil de nobis, sine nobis’ (Nothing about us without us)