By Josh Hall and Sheldon Spackman

Indigenous perspectives given to education students at RDC

Feb 2, 2019 | 10:33 AM

The third annual Indigenous Perspectives Conference took place this week at Red Deer College.

The conference originally began as a means of giving Education students a better understanding of how to incorporate Indigenous perspectives in the classroom.

Bachelor of Education instructor Brent Galloway says the ultimate goal is realizing the true meaning of truth and reconciliation.

“Our theme for the conference this year is creating a path and walking together,” Galloway said on Friday. “We realize that we all need to kind of walk this path together towards truth and reconciliation, and as teachers, they will be doing the same thing for their future students.”

With respect to the conference’s growth, which saw more than 100 students attend, in addition to staff, admin and members of the Indigenous community, Galloway said his motto is ‘You build it and they will learn.’

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“We really are hopeful that the students will become more involved and start to drive the agenda. I’ve seen that over the last three years,” he said. “Students used to be a little reluctant. In my classes I didn’t have a lot of students who were interested in this topic, but now three years later, they’re so interested in learning more, which is great and that’s what we want.”

A number of the 94 recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission deal directly with education, he noted.

Sessions during the conference focused on language and culture, literacy, fusion of Indigenous resources into the classroom, and crafts hosted by the Red Deer Museum.

The traditional blanket exercise was also taught, and at one point attendees sat in for a viewing of the movie Indian Horse, which won, among others, the Best Narrative Feature award at the 2017 Calgary International Film Festival.