It has come to my attention, after reviewing many of my posts, that I seem to write in a highly negative context, as though there is nothing good happening in the field of FNMI education. I need to stress that it isn’t the case. Yes, FNMIs have endured horrific acts during the Residential School Era of our shared history, however, not 100% of them were “brainwashed” into thinking that their own culture, traditions, and everything their parents and ancestors gave them was nonsense. Women have long been the staff bearers of the culture, nurturing it, caring for it, and keeping it alive… Amidst the hundreds of murdered and missing women in recent years, even with the violence committed against them by a system that viewed them as inferior to men of their on communities, they held on. For that, I salute their bravery and unending drive to keep their culture alive. Men have done the same as well. Keeping traditions like building birch bark canoes, building traditional homes, and hunting and trapping alive. I also salute them for their bravoury in the face of cultural genocide.
Why speak of all this when it comes to FNMI Education? It’s simple really; everything has to do with it. Education is only one rung in a chain of other events, and it is as much a part of it all as traditional foods, language, beliefs, and culture.
There are many who seek to reestablish the ties that were broken by colonialism. They work diligently to invite settlers to come to know their neighbours, and know who they say they are. If we are to move along, then both parties have to come to terms with it and start respecting each others values and worth.
This is a big reason for this blog.
pizindan 