Richmond Regional - Indian Residential School history incorporated into Ethics and Religious Culture class

At Richmond Regional High-school, the Sec V Ethics and Religious Culture (ERC) class got a deep-dive into Indian Residential School (IRS) history. Tara-Ann Smith became inspired in January at the CLC Teachers Institute in Montreal. She wanted to introduce her students to some of the history, but didn’t have much background in the information. Eager to learn, Ms. Smith walked away from the Institute with the 100 Years of Loss Edu-Kit in hand. A month later she participated in VC training on the kit with national trainer Charlene Bearhead.

She immediately began to use the kit, with her 30 students, all non-Aboriginal.

Using the kit, she completed five lessons. This included an activity studying photographs, an explanation of the IRS system came to be, a study of “a normal day at the school” and she especially focused on a consideration of the 2008 apology by the Government of Canada.  

"The kit had everything I needed and everything was very neatly packed. It’s a very good resource. I would recommend it! Every history class should have it! Sometimes we think that it is too difficult of a subject for the kids to face, but the kids want to know. They are curious. They want to know and ask 'why did this happen? This created a deep and meaningful point of departure for understanding several ERC curriculum topics.”

But she didn’t stop there! Ms.Smith saw that the students need to channel their reactions to the new information into some kind of expression. So she ordered tiles from the Project of Heart website and had her students create artistic commemorative items to honour the thousands of Indigenous children who died as a result of the residential school experience. Following the PoH model, she learned about an Aboriginal Elder Ena Greyeyes who lived in her area and is a survivor of IRS (through CLC contact with Memphremagog school).

Ena Greyeyes visited the school and led a smudging ceremony of the tiles. Although the students had been through several lessons about IRS by this point, hearing Ena’s stories brought the lessons even more to life, and really had an effect. "When Ena came in, the kids didn’t realize just how bad it was. You know, when you read it in the books and you have someone in front of you, real life, talking about what they went through, it hits harder. The kids couldn’t believe it, that we as Canadians could treat anybody like that. They told me their hearts went out to Ena, that she had to go through it…”

 

Through the smudging and Ena’s discussion however, they also heard a key message that was a the heart of what Tara-Ann had been trying to teach students all year -  the healing power of forgiveness. “I try to help them understand that hatred is not the way to go. We talk about tolerance, it fits into anything I do in my ERC…That’s what makes us strong."

CLC Coordinator Siu-Min Jim was invaluable support in terms of accessing resources and funding, and she was happy to share news of the project that was captured in a local newspaper.