Decolonizing Education - Part Three

And I am back and I decided the Ferrero Rocher should probably be a treat at the end of the video, not before I shoot a video. So today I'm continuing finishing the discussion of pre contact education. So if you watched my Wednesday and Thursday video, if you don't links in the description, in the notes before the video or below the video. We've been talking about pre contact education, the fact that Indigenous nations, we had governance systems, we had education systems, we had justice systems, we had all of the systems that Canada now has. They just totally didn't look like their European counterparts. And this week I've really focused on the fact that the education system, the Canadian education system has been failing Indigenous youth for years. And it's one of those cases where in business if you had a process that wasn't achieving the desired results, you would change the process. But in Canada, unfortunately, often the gut reaction or the instant go to reaction is that it's the Indigenous youth's fault that they're failing, that this system works well enough for us, it should work for them. We could also argue to the end of time whether it's working for non Indigenous youth because I think, I don't believe it is. But in these last today's video, in the last two videos, what I wanted to do, this is an indigenous centered YouTube channel and I wanted to do indigenous centered education. Rather than tearing apart mainstream, let's look at what did work the in pre contact Indigenous education systems and the characteristics of those. That's what I'm going to do today where I'm going to share the last eight characteristics and and then the challenge goes over to you. If you're involved with mainstream education, how can you tweak it? Because the more of these you include, the more successful the Indigenous youth are going to be. And I promised to share a story yesterday. I should probably do that. First let's talk about it. Hi everybody. My name is Andy Boucher. I'm Red Thunderbolt, woman of the Loon clan, a proud member of Seine River first nation in Treaty 3 territory in Northern Ontario, Canada. And as mentioned in the opening, we are finishing our discussion of the characteristics of a pre contact Indigenous education system. But I did mention there was a story I wanted to tell you and this was years ago. I had the opportunity to work with a First Nation community in Northern Ontario. And the chief and I had a chance to sit and have a conversation and we were talking about education and I shared with him that I had this crazy idea because I had worked with so Many youth over the years, and I saw that they were lost. They were struggling with their identity. They knew they were different from mainstream, but they really didn't know how because their communities seem to be more focused on fitting in with mainstream than it was on thriving. And so I mentioned to the chief that if I could wave a magic wand, our youth, our Indigenous youth wouldn't get anywhere near a mainstream Canadian education system until high school. And before that, it would be that pre contact Indigenous education system. They would be in the community, they would be learning their languages. They would be learning how to survive, how going to fish, how to hunt, how to build homes, how to prepare meals. They would have their confidence because they would have all these skill sets. They would have learned the teachings from the elders, they would have learned the history of their community, listening to the leadership, discussing the challenges of the day. We would be preparing them for to be the warriors that we need them to be. And of course, they would know math and the whole nine yards. And yes, they would even learn English as a second language language so that they could go into the high school system. And at that point, yes, they would learn the mainstream skills, but they would know who they are. They would have the identity. So when people centered them out and pointed out they were different, they'd already, already know that, but it wouldn't be a negative anymore. So there I go, hit the microphone. Of course, I had to do that at least once. This video. I got a new mic for those of you new to my channel and, and I used to yawn in my videos. Now I beat up my microphone. But so that's why I wanted to share these characteristics of a pre contact Indigenous education system. For anyone whose youth is struggling in a school system, this is the kind of stuff we need because the entire pre contact Indigenous education systems, because different nations had different characteristics, these are the generalities, the things they all had in common. But it was so youth focused. The success, the survival of that youth and success meaning that they became a better person and they knew how to survive. It was not about wealth acquisition, right? It was, are you, do you know more than you did yesterday? Meaning more about you, more about your community, more about life, more about how to serve and, you know, how to survive if something happened. And one of the things that was stripped from Indigenous people when the colonists arrived was that independence, that ability to survive. Their hunting was restricted, their fishing was restricted. They had to get permission to leave the community to go to hunt. So. And the communal sharing was banned. Different values were imposed and now there are so many indigenous people that are dependent on outside sources. And independence is where your self confidence and your self esteem come from. So we really need to start looking at this stuff. So we had eight more characteristics to run through the other one super fast. Pre contact Indigenous education systems were integrated with day to day as opposed to a separate. They involved community members. Everyone was a teacher, everyone was a student. Focused on survival and personal growth, not career or financial success. Was integrated with culture and tradition. Was not scheduled. It happened naturally rather than within scheduled hours. It was active learning, curiosity, a sense of wonder. Knowledge was shared and passed through the generations. It was never about acquisition, but rather unity and community service. No grades or no tests outside of the natural ones. The students path was revealed, not decided upon, really focused on responsibility to self, family, community and nation. And there was no actual school or classroom. It was landing community based. Now the last eight, the grandfather teachings, the seven sacred grandfather teachings were interwoven because it's part of every single day. It is not a lesson you take. It is not a list you memorize. It's traits you live so living, loving each other and the world and the animals and the plants and everything that's within it. Practicing and building your wisdom. Respect for yourself and other people. Bravery or courage to share your truth in a respectful way. Being honest to yourself and others. Humility always and truth, that deep truth that resonates huge, huge part of pre contact Indigenous education systems. Next. And I love this, the education was needs based as opposed to subject based. So they didn't learn math. They learned how to prepare a feast for the community. Math's going to be involved. You got to make sure there's enough. How many people are in this community. You're going to need to know how to count. Looking at this meal, how are you going to divide it up? You're learning fractions now. Needs based as well rather than subject based. Y' all learned how to count because you needed to. You learned the directions because you needed to know how to get home after you went on that hike. Needs base as opposed to subject based. I love that one child and community driven. So spirit, depending on where the community was, you're going to learn different traits. Obviously fishing is not going to be a huge part of your upbringing. If your communities in the middle of the prairie provinces, right. How you're going to fish on the east coast as opposed to northern Ontario is going to be totally different. And is this community, Is there a drought? Has there been a lot of rain? Like what kind of animals are interacting with the community. Very child based, child focused and community driven. And last but not least, the language tied into everything. Anishinaabe is very much practical land based language and integral to day to day life. And that would be part of it. Like I said, learning English as the second language. Another thing I absolutely love that so ties in. And like I said in one of the earlier videos, my mom used the metaphor of the puzzle piece and how everything fits together. The aspects of a pre contact education system all fit together to to provide that youth with what they would need to become a successful adult. And I think again that's one of the reasons mainstream education doesn't work, because it's separate, it doesn't fit the puzzle piece. It may be a puzzle piece, but from a different puzzle and it doesn't fit. One of the characteristics of an indigenous pre contact education system, that puzzle is the fact that there were no timelines and no rush, that you didn't have to have this done in 40 minutes. You didn't have to answer this in five minutes. You had to prepare for the next season. You had to do what you could in this day before dark. But outside of natural deadlines, there was no time. It was not this clock worship, this big hand touching the 12 and everything changes or worse, you got to pack up everything and go to a different classroom now. Like little marching soldiers. No, no, just hard pass as I've already alluded to. But now I'm just going to highlight it. There was no curriculum. You didn't have to learn certain things on Monday, excuse me. Or by June. It was what the youth needed, what the community needed and what they gravitated to so long as they were growing and learning every single day, which is going to happen naturally. Of course. I had to yawn. It's the end of the week. Oh, here's another one and I'm indigenous lens here looking at it. Pre contact indigenous education, the youth were guided. They weren't controlled. Right? They weren't. It wasn't about walking in that single line to the next class. It wasn't about move when the bell goes off, which is way too residential school. It was you ate because you were hungry, right. And you went home because it was dark, right? So guiding the youth, not controlling them. If they want to run off and do something, they ran off and did something because that's where their interest would take them. And feeding that. Imagine a child never getting in trouble for following up on their interests. Now we're talking empowered, happy and very Wise youth. Last but not least, I did mention this sentence where we focused on, on raising the next generation of warriors that we knew. We needed skilled hunters and fishermen and warriors. We needed strong voices. We needed people who understood the history of the community so that they could speak to what comes next live. That they would be able to live up to the responsibilities of adulthood. I think way too many. What I see in mainstream is so many people thinking like we joke around about having to adult now. Well, we've always had to adult. That's adult. Wasn't this, this get out of jail free card? It wasn't this massive freedom. With a gift comes responsibility. You want your own place that has way more responsibility than a shared place. You want a healthy bank account that comes with way more responsibility than an empty one does. But those are choices. So there you have it. The pre contact education system. Like I said, they do a full day seminar on it. But these, this is, these are, this is the pre contact Indigenous education system. These are the characteristics that allowed and promoted indigenous youth and allowed them to thrive. And I think you can see how mainstream is falling apart. And again, I repeat, I think as Indigenous people we're going to quit waiting for Canada. That's not empowering. That's outside dependence dependent on outside means. We need to design these own systems for ourselves. I mentioned that my grandchildren are homeschooled and I love that my daughter did not follow this checklist. She naturally does the best for her children and by doing so has done such a great job of replicating the pre contact Indigenous education systems. The process that we have now doesn't work. And like every other process that doesn't work, it has to change. And I honestly believe if the education system was changed to better fit Indigenous youth, then a whole lot more than just Indigenous youth would thrive in that system. Dying to know what you think. What did you think of the information shared like? And I don't want to hear any. Well, we can't do that because that's the reason we can't, because people are saying we can't. I know if I had to do it over again, my children would have never seen the inside of the classroom. And I am so thrilled that my grandchildren never have. Until next week. I love you. Take care. Bye bye.