When thinking about Lamoureux and his explanation of viewing reconciliation as fire and thinking more about how we as educators can contribute to this fire, we should begin by looking at the TRC’s Calls to Action. For example, the 62nd Call to Action, calls for the government to, “Make age-appropriate curriculum on residential schools, Treaties, and Aboriginal peoples’ historical and contemporary contributions to Canada a mandatory education requirement for Kindergarten to Grade Twelve students.”
This Call to Action is vitally important, as it is the main component when moving towards reconciliation is to educate others on true history and all kinds of walks of life. If the students in our classrooms today are educated and taught how to respect all walks of life then in the future these individuals will be able to work together into reconciliation. In the classroom, it is important to ensure that you are delivering age-appropriate content in order to ensure their learning experience is meaningful.
For example, an activity that we could bring into a Grade 7 class when looking at elements of the Indian Act would be to look at the concept of status. On small pieces of paper, there would be components such as Indigenous woman, Indigenous Man, non-Indigenous woman, and non-Indigenous man. We could look at what it means to be a 6(1) versus 6(2). After a lesson on the status and the role of status within the Indian act, students would pair up the pieces of paper and then look at the rules of status based on the Indian Act and have conversations about if these individuals got married or had children would they and their children still have status. We would look at scenarios of if the individual wanted to move off-reserve or go to college – would they still have status? I would imagine that this activity would be done in groups or pairs with a leaded discussion. I think this activity would bring up good conversation and look at the Indian Act in a sort of hands-on way. It would be a good discussion starter to look at the beginning ideas of sexism in the Indian Act and arbitrary measurements of Indigeneity.