Schools Mark National Indigenous History Month

Each year, Canada recognizes June as National Indigenous History Month. This year, several Christian schools marked the occasion by using resources from the Christian Reformed Church’s Centre for Public Dialogue and the Canadian Indigenous Ministry
Committee.

One focus for the Centre for Public Dialogue (CPD) is on Indigenous justice. To help further efforts in this area, CPD created Education Together, which advocates for equitable funding for Indigenous education and for curriculum and teaching methods that serve Indigenous students in a healthy and holistic way.

Elaine Eshuis, a teacher at Guelph (Ont.) Community Christian School, said that after hearing about some of the resources available through the CRC, she reached out to the denominational office in Burlington, Ont., for materials and ideas. 

“Since our social studies unit focused on Indigenous culture and the effects of exploration, we hoped to have the students hear from people who had a personal experience in these areas,” she explained.

As a result, Adrian Jacobs, senior leader for Indigenous justice and reconciliation, along with justice mobilizer Cindy Stover, came to the school and led students through various activities – including the Kairos Blanket Exercise for grades seven and eight – to help them understand elements of Indigenous culture, history, and experience.

“Adrian talked a bit with the students about the negative impact of children being taken away from Indigenous communities to go to residential schools. He also read the Six Nations Story of the Peacemaker to the students. Adrian also shared his wampum belts, and the students each made a bracelet using colours based on the wampum-belt agreements,” said Eshuis.

The interactive and hands-on approach to learning was helpful, and Jacobs’s presentation was meaningful for the students, said Eshuis. 

“It was important that the students could hear from Adrian, who is from the Six Nations Reserve and could speak from his experience. This made learning about Indigenous culture and the effects of exploration much more real for the students.”

Some students were so moved by what they learned, said Eshuis, that they wanted to take action. Having studied in their classes this year about the government and how it works, they decided to advocate for change.

They “recognized the injustice of students living on reserves and getting less funding, and they also knew that we have the right and responsibility to advocate for issues of injustice,” she noted.

Stover provided the school with postcards designed to send to Canadian Members of Parliament, raising awareness about systemic inequalities in education and asking for meaningful change. Each student wrote a persuasive paragraph explaining why students living on reserves should have equal funding for education, said Eshuis. 

Students then shared those paragraphs with family members and asked them to consider signing the postcards. Between family members and older students at the school, the students managed to have nearly 300 postcards signed and mailed to Parliament.

At Huron Christian School in Clinton, Ont., teacher Sue Vander Kooij shared videos of Jacobs’s On the Land Learning presentation with her grade-seven students. They learned about a centuries-old link between incoming European settlers and Indigenous people, who learned from each other and began to share traditions.

As outlined in a resource available to churches, Indigenous children observed the curious and fun custom of Dutch children, who ran from door to door in their community on New Year’s Day, spreading cheer and receiving oliebollen, deep-fried dough treats, in exchange. The Indigenous children picked up the custom, and a shared tradition was born. Vander Kooij bought doughnut holes for her class to enjoy, and next year, she said, she hopes to follow a CIMC-provided recipe and make the “No:yah Doughnuts” from scratch.

By providing students with such meaningful experiences and curriculum aids, Eshuis said she hopes these young people will gain a greater appreciation of Indigenous culture and better understand the negative impacts of residential schools. 

“It is also my hope that students will have experienced the importance of standing up for things that need to be changed, such as the inequality in education. Even if it feels like a challenge too big to fix on one’s own, we can all do our part to positively effect change,” she concluded.

If your church or school is interested in accessing resources or hosting presentations related to Indigenous justice or other topics related to justice and the public sphere, contact Cindy Stover at [email protected].