Mac Orlando is a second-year Indigenous education student at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay. He grew up in the predominantly white city of Barrie, Ont. and attended predominantly white schools, though he himself is an Indigenous person.
In this environment, he had to reconcile with his Indigenous identity, as it was not an explicit cultural aspect of his upbringing or family life. The lack of Indigenous education available to him in the public school system did not help.
“It’s discussed very briefly in elementary schools, even more briefly in high schools. I remember in grade 10 talking very briefly or skipping over Aboriginal content,” he said.
That lack of information is what inspired Orlando to go on to study Indigenous education at Lakehead, a school that’s leading the way in providing Indigenous education for its students.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada released their official Calls to Action last December. Of the list, several recommendations were directed at post-secondary institutions, aimed at promoting Indigenous education and the inclusion of Indigenous language courses in academic settings.
While some universities had already taken steps towards reconciliatory action before the report was released, its findings and recommendations have sparked a debate about how mandatory courses should be implemented.
Universities across Canada that are geographically situated in regions with high populations of Indigenous people, such as northern Ontario, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan, have so far been leading the way on promoting Indigenous education as a fundamental building block to higher education.
Lakehead and the University of Winnipeg (U of W) have implemented a course on Indigenous education, with students starting university in September now required to complete the credit in order to graduate.
At the University of Saskatchewan (U of S), programs such as nursing, education, and social work have had mandatory Indigenous education requirements for a while now.
Adam Gaudry, a professor in the department of Indigenous studies at U of S, said that the university started these programs because its students will be “the people who are going to be working on the front line with young Indigenous people in Saskatchewan.”
While Gaudry said he’s heard of little protest about adding mandatory credit classes, he said some students in programs such engineering are concerned that another mandatory credit is simply too much schoolwork to handle, especially when it’s not specifically geared towards their degree.
But Gaudry said regardless of the degree, knowledge of Indigenous culture is important to have. If an engineer is involved in a development on Indigenous land, for instance, they’ll be more aware and empathetic to the people living there and their wishes.
Deborah Young, the University of Manitoba’s (U of M) executive lead for Indigenous achievement and the founder of the Manitoba Collaborative Indigenous Education Blueprint, which partners public school boards with post-secondary institutions including the U of W and U of M in order to advance Indigenous education.
The blueprint consists of 10 commitments by the 10 institutions involved to promote Indigenous culture, knowledge, and language within public school curriculums and academic environments.
“We are looking at integrating Indigenous knowledge into how we deliver information to our students,” Young said. “Carleton [University] will also have to have that same conversation and part of that conversation is going to have to include Aboriginal students.”
Young is a Cree woman herself who, like Orlando, grew up in a predominantly white city, in predominantly white schools. While she said reconciliation involves every Canadian, and is certainly not just an Indigenous matter, she also remembers what it was like being “isolated and hurt” as an Indigenous student with peers who did not understand her background or culture.
Orlando said he is supportive of the mandatory Indigenous education courses at Lakehead, and of more programs developing across the country.
“When you’re educated about something, your ignorance is removed from it,” he said. “Then the decision you make and the words that you speak are based on entirely you. And if you choose to make racist comments after learning about it then you’re probably just a crappy person.”
However, Orlando added that he’s skeptical of how programs will implemented.
“Who decides what is and isn’t Indigenous knowledge?” he asked. “It sure isn’t the Indigenous Learning department, as they have yet to be consulted by any of the other departments as to how they should incorporate this ’50 per cent Indigenous knowledge requirement’ into their already formed courses.”
Orlando said that as of now, it’s entirely up to each individual department to determine what constitutes “Indigenous knowledge,” something that he sees as having potential for perpetuating misinformation.
Gaudry shares Orlando’s concern.
“I wouldn’t be able to teach evolutionary biology,” he said, referring to the fact that while universities are rushing to implement mandatory requirements, they might not necessarily have the right people for the job.
“We risk reinforcing this kind of world view that we’re living with if we don’t do it correctly,” Gaudry said.
But with that said “you’ve got to start somewhere,” Orlando said. “It’s something that every Canadian needs to know about.”
