ABORIGINAL EDUCATION IN CANADA: A COSTLY JOURNEY Presentation by Dr. Christy R. Bressette The Ethics of Everyday Life Winter Series Third Age Learning Burlington, Ontario March 3, 2016 1
KETTLE AND STONY POINT FIRST NATION DOONJABA 2
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CONVOCATION: UWO (FALL 2008) 5
ABORIGINAL EDUCATION IN CANADA: A COSTLY JOURNEY 1) Contextual background - A review of Aboriginal Education in Canada 2) ReconciliationNational and International Responses 6
The past is more than something to be recalled and debated intellectually. It has important contemporary and practical implications, because many of the attitudes, institutions and practices that took shape in the past significantly influence and constrain the present. -Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, Vol.1, 1996, p. 36 7
Contextual background - A review of Aboriginal Education in Canada 8
INDIAN RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL: BEFORE AND AFTER 9
KILL THE INDIAN, SAVE THE CHILD 10
TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION OF CANADA (TRCC) Chief Justice Murray Sinclair on Reconciliation video message http://www.trc.ca/websites/reconciliation/in dex.php?p=312 11
EVELYN JOHNSON: INDIAN RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL SURVIVOR 12
INTEGRATION: BUSED AWAY! 13
HOME AT LAST! KSPFN HILLSIDE SCHOOL 14
KSPFN HILLSIDE SCHOOL 15
KIDS IN CARE Although Aboriginal Peoples account for 4.3% of the Canadian population, 48% of children and youth in care are Aboriginal. Between 1995 and 2001, the number of Status First Nations children in child protection systems increased by 71.5% Today, there are more than 40,000 Aboriginal children in child protective services today than there were at the height of the residential school system. 16
INCARCERATION 36% of women and 25 % of men sentenced to provincial and territorial custody in Canada are Aboriginal, of a group that makes up just 4% of the national population. -Add in federal prisons, and Aboriginal inmates account for 22.8 % of the total incarcerated population 17
GENERAL STATISTICS In 2011, the median age of Aboriginal peoples was 28 years compared with 41 years for the nonaboriginal population Half of First Nations children live in poverty. Life expectancy of First Nations citizens is 5-7 years less than other Canadians. There are more than 1,200 official cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. 18
GENERAL STATISTICS Tuberculosis rates are 31 times the national average. Aboriginal people account for 12.2% of new HIV infections and 8.9% of those living with HIV. Suicide rates are 5-7 times the national average, and upward of 11 times higher for the Inuit. 132 First Nation communities are currently under boil water advisories and 48% of First Nation water systems are in high or medium risk. 19
GENERAL STATISTICS 130,197 new homes are needed on-reserve 1 in 4 adults living in overcrowded housing and deteriorated units. More than 4,300 First Nation citizens remain displaced from their homes due to flooding dating back to 2011. 20
Reconciliation: National and International Responses 21
ROYAL COMMISSION ON ABORIGINAL PEOPLES Despite the painful experiences Aboriginal people carry with them from formal education systems, they still see education as the hope for the future, and they are determined to see education fulfill it s promise. -RCAP, 1996, p. 405 22
HOPE FOR THE FUTURE: RECONCILIATION THROUGH EDUCATION 23
THE SITUATION OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN CANADA (UN REPORT) Of the bottom 100 Canadian communities on the Community Well-being Index, 96 were First Nation communities Housing has reached crisis levels, with overcrowding contributing to higher rates of respiratory illness, depression, sleep deprivation, family violence, poor educational achievement and an inability to retain skilled professionals in the community. 24
THE SITUATION OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN CANADA (UN REPORT) experience higher rates of suicide, chronic disease, communicable disease, infant mortality, and lower life expectancy More than half of water systems in First Nations communities pose a medium to high health risk to users over representation in the child welfare and criminal justice systems 25
CANADA S OFFICIAL APOLOGY The burden of this experience has been on your shoulders for far too long. The burden is properly ours as a Government, and as a country. There is no place in Canada for the attitudes that inspired the Indian Residential Schools system to ever prevail again. You have been working on recovering from this experience for a long time and in a very real sense, we are now joining you on this journey. -Prime Minister Steven Harper, June 11, 2008 26
CANADA S OFFICIAL APOLOGY 27
HOPE FOR THE FUTURE: RECONCILIATION THROUGH EDUCATION 28
HOPE FOR THE FUTURE: RECONCILIATION THROUGH EDUCATION Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRCC) 29
TRCC REPORTS List of reports issued or created by the TRCC: http://nctr.ca/reports.php 30
OTHER RESOURCES Legacy of Hope Foundation Martin Aboriginal Education Initiative Indspire Virtual Network Canadian School Boards Association Manitoba First Nation Education Resource Centre First Nation Education Steering Committee First Nation Education Council Canadian Human Rights Museum Project of the Heart Indian Residential Schools 31
NATIONAL ABORIGINAL ORGANIZATIONS Assembly of First Nations (AFN) Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK) Metis National Council (MNC) Native Women s Association of Canada (NWAC) Congress of Aboriginal Peoples (CAP) National Association of Friendship Centres (NAFC) 32
CHI - MIIGWECH! (BIG-THANKS) Dr. Christy R. Bressette c.bressette@bell.net 33
WAB KINEW HEROES https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ul4kmhlzmc 34