By Bryan Eneas

Using reconciliation to educate about residential schools

Aug 30, 2017 | 5:00 PM

Following yesterday’s article taking a look at the Saskatchewan Rivers Public School Board’s approach to residential school education for teachers, we’re taking a look at the Prince Albert Catholic School Board’s approach.

Teachers within the Prince Albert Roman Catholic School system are approaching residential school education through reconciliation.

Lorel Trumier, the education director for the Prince Albert Catholic School Division (PACSD) said their schools have taken part in reconciliation and residential school education seminars for the last five years.

“Anytime a historical event occurred, we, the royal we, we’re all part of that problem,” Trumier said. “That means we… must attend to be part of the solution.”

Teachers in the PACSD participated in workshops hosted by the Office of the Treaty Commission revolving around reconciliation and the seven points within the 2015 Calls to Action addressing education. Teachers also learn about the appropriate lessons to teach students across all grade levels while working with representation from the Office of the Treaty Commission.

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The PASCD is actually operating as a pilot program according to Trumier. The division tries the lessons in classrooms and will pass along feedback to the Office of the Treaty Commission. Trumier said she was quite happy to be participating in an open dialogue with the office.

While the school board’s teachers were involved in residential school education, Trumier said confidence is a strong word when describing teachers’ feelings about distributing the information.

“Confidence would say ‘yeah, we got this, and we understand this well,’ I think we’re at the beginning stages of our school system to really understand it truly well,” Trumier said. “Only the people who experienced it would be the best to say that we understand this and what has happened.”

When it comes to working with the survivors of residential schools, Trumier said the school board does contact local Elders and people who went through the system to speak in classes. She said the school board strives to hear from their own families to understand how the intergenerational effects of residential schools are still felt today.

“It’s delicate work, it’s important work, and we’re trying to do the best we can to understand our families and each day trying to get better at understanding as well,” Trumier said.

She said teachers within the school division are starting to understand the scope of resources available to them in order to properly educate students about residential schools. Like the public school board the PACSD also has access to a resource website addressing the legacy of residential schools not just in Prince Albert, but across the province as well.

The teachers’ association in Prince Albert produces supporting materials once a month to aide in understanding residential schools and reconciliation. Teachers participate in model lessons with an Indigenous consultant “to support that greater and deeper understanding” on the topic.

“Thank goodness there are so many resources we can use,” Trumier said. “It’s important that we educate our children and we’re learning about what happened, and we’re supporting [survivors] all the time.”

Bryan.Eneas@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @BryanEneas