Published on February 23, 2015 | by Colleen Curtis Photography by Belinda Teixeira
0Aboriginal Resources in Schools
Making sure Aboriginal students feel comfortable is something many schools are striving to ensure.
Faith Julien, a Humber College student, grew up in a first nations community in Nova Scotia. She now works at the school’s Aboriginal Resource Centre to help other students make the transition.
Julien is the centre’s fitness and health promoter. She said the centre helps “build a foundation” for aboriginal students who could be coming from other places.
“It’s such a big change and it’s definitely a culture shock. So when you can build a good foundation with an organization through friendships and relationships it really helps our students transition,” she said.
Julien is starting a program through the centre that incorporates getting healthy with having fun. She said aboriginal students have the highest diabetes rate in Canada, as well as having obesity and other issues.
“Fit Nish” (nish being the Ojibwe word for aboriginal people) is set to launch late February. Julien said it will include a variety of fun activities like as indoor rock climbing.
The Aboriginal Resource Centre runs many events and workshops throughout the year.
One of the events they run is called Traditional Tuesday. Craig Waboose, also a Humber College student, is the centre’s administrative assistant. He said one of the things they teach is traditional beading. After reading week Waboose said they would most likely be holding a dream catcher workshop.
A dream catcher is a hand-made aboriginal decoration that is said to collect a person’s dreams. It traps the bad dreams while letting the good dreams pass through.
The Aboriginal Resource Centre is open to students of all backgrounds. Julien said everyone coming together builds a solid foundation of allies between aboriginal and non-aboriginal students.
“It’s a safe place where people can connect and reach out to all sorts of cultures,” she said.
She said normally wherever there is an aboriginal population they have aboriginal student support services, from elementary school to post-secondary schools.
Julien said there have been many improvements over the years but drop-out rates are still high for aboriginal students. She said these centres offer the extra support that may be needed for students to be more successful.
Suzanne Methot, who is aboriginal and living in the GTA, started her own business called Dragonfly. She said the company gives students and teachers knowledge and understanding of aboriginal culture.
Methot said there is a definite need for better understanding of aboriginal culture in urban areas and on reserves.
She said a major problem in urban areas, such as Toronto, is teachers not knowing that there are first nations students in their classroom. Even though she said there are 50,000 aboriginals in Toronto alone.
“Kids in urban environments are not confident because they are erased,” she said.
Methot said other issues in classrooms still include lessons being very stereotypical. She said there is still a sense of Aboriginal people living “over there in the bush” when 60 to 70 percent of aboriginals live in urban areas.
Major problems she finds on reserves are funding issues, lack of librairies, limited teaching curriculums, and sometimes there are no schools at all.
She said there are “not a lot of textbooks from decolonized perspectives” and this is where she steps in to educate students and teachers on contemporary situations.
By visiting different classrooms Methot said she wants to start a dialogue about aboriginals and create a sense of unity. She said the best way to do this is through the education system.