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By Alessia Proietti

Week long events

Red Deer Public Schools uses hands-on activities to teach about Truth and Reconciliation

Sep 28, 2022 | 12:57 PM

In honor of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Friday, the Red Deer Public School District (RDPSD) has organized various events throughout the week for students.

Hayley Christen, Coordinator for First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Learning Services, says incorporation of Indigenous perspectives into the daily learning curriculum began many years ago with Orange Shirt Day, in honor of the lost children of the residential school system.

Similar to last year when the first National Day took place, all RDPSD schools will watch a division-wide video on Thursday created with Indigenous partners in commemoration of the day.

“We didn’t want students to just see a video and then go about their day learning math and language arts and all that. We wanted them to do meaningful lessons and activities to help them. We know with good teaching, just hearing about something isn’t good enough; you need to follow up with some hands on activities,” said Christen.

On Monday, a Grass Dancer Presentation was held for students at Mattie McCullough Elementary involving the Red Deer Aboriginal Dance Troupe.

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The same troupe will also perform for families from 6 – 6:45 p.m. on Wednesday at Normandeau School.

As a school-wide project, the students of West Park Middle School created an honorary rock garden while being taught lessons about Orange Shirt Day and Residential Schools. On Thursday morning, students will lay their rocks on the institution’s front steps.

“I hope that they know that there is a true history in Canada and there’s a lot of good stuff but there’s also a lot of stuff that happened that we’re not very proud of and shouldn’t be proud of. It’s important to know the truth,” she said. “That we have to learn from the past so that we can be better in the present and in the future,” she said.

In teaching younger children from Kindergarten to Grade 2 about the impacts of the residential school system on Indigenous youth, Christen says her approach is to use age appropriate literacy from Indigenous authors like Nicola Campbell. Some of her stories include Shi-shi-etko, about a young Indigenous girl being taught lessons by her parents and grandparents to remember before she is sent off to residential school. Christen says the book demonstrates to students that while they will learn in school, their first teachings, like Indigenous children, are from family and must be honored.

“The commissioners from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and specifically Chief Wilton Littlechild, I’ve heard him say ‘education is what got us into this mess and education is what will get us out’. We just believe that education was used for 150 years to try to assimilate, oppress, dispossess all First Nations, Métis, Inuit children and we need to begin with education at undoing the damage that was done,” she said.

Christen explains that teachers at RDPSD are given liberty to use their judgement to create their own activates for the National Day and incorporating themes into their lessons. She adds last year, some schools allowed students to invite their parents and grandparents in the evening to view their orange hearts and shirts decorating the classroom windows.

“We really want to build the teacher capacity of all our teachers in Red Deer Public Schools to be able to, in a good authentic way, teach about Indian residential schools, the legacy that it has left in Canada; to teach about the true history,” she said.

“Following learning about the truth, we look at reconciliation. Now that’s happened, what do we do now, what do we do in the present and what do we do going forward?”

While RDPSD schools will be closed on Friday, Christen says she hopes members of the public use the day to reflect and deepen their understanding of Canada’s history through the Indigenous lens by visiting the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation’s website resources, watching the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) for Indigenous programming, listening to Indigenous radio stations, and reading the Truth and Reconciliation 94 Calls to Action.

Following the National Day, Mattie McCullough Elementary will also be holding an event for Grade 5 students on October 5. A member of the Red Deer Native Friendship Centre will share Indigenous teachings while the students help to build islands on the back of “turtles” and play Indigenous games.