College wants students to learn about indigenous issues in ‘meaningful’ way
“George Brown College (GBC) is not doing enough,” said Anthony Hooper, an aboriginal student in the community worker program. “The college should recognize aboriginal people right off the bat as history plays a role in everything.”
With other post-secondary schools taking steps to enhance awareness of indigenous culture and issues, several members of the George Brown community are suggesting the merits of similar actions here.
“There were so many policies slanted against indigenous communities, so now the next generation of people who want to learn indigenous studies, so if they’re not changing their approach then it’s going to be repeating the same things over again,” said Coty Zachariah, First Nations, Metis and Inuit representative for the Student Association of George Brown College, which also funds The Dialog.
The University of Winnipeg and Lakehead University have begun implementing mandatory indigenous studies courses for undergraduate students following recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) report. The report, released last year, contains 95 calls to action to help redress damage caused by residential schools in Canada.
While GBC has indigenous studies courses, they are not mandatory for students and are not a requirement for programs.
“Programs like the social-service worker and community worker program should have mandatory indigenous studies courses,” said John Laforme, an aboriginal student in the community worker program. “These students are going to be working in the field where they’re going to be dealing with an aboriginal community-base, and they need to know where these people are coming from, not just what’s written in the textbook that is European-based.”
Even though George Brown already has an aboriginal services department and indigenous studies courses it should be mandatory for students to take an aboriginal history class said Jolene May who works as aboriginal student support staff at GBC.
Another recommendation of the TRC calls on the federal government to “provide the necessary funding to post-secondary institutions to educate teachers on how to integrate indigenous knowledge and teaching methods into classrooms.”
Georgia Quartaro, George Brown’s dean of preparatory and liberal studies, said that the college has offered indigenous studies courses for many years, through general education, liberal studies, and some program-level courses. This year the college offered more than in previous years, with some courses and programs including mandatory content about Indigenous Peoples and issues.
“Like many Canadian post-secondary institutions including other colleges, we are considering how best to implement the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which we take very seriously,” said Quartaro. “We want to ensure our students learn about Canada’s first peoples in a meaningful and sustainable way, so we are exploring what those options might look like and will consult our George Brown community, including our aboriginal education council, once we are further along in our planning.”
While reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous people in Canada is a complex process May notes the value of education.
“If students had an understanding of the history and traumas aboriginal people suffered then they would be able to have compassion for aboriginal students and the aboriginal population in general,” said May. “this would allow them to look past the stereotypes.”
