| Educating Our Nation After years of abuse and isolation at residential schools, First Nations communities are taking back control over education. Many see it as the key first step toward native self-government. In this series, we’ll examine how First Nation communities are transforming what was once a source of profound alienation and despair to a creator of pride, knowledge and confidence. Today: Part 1: Community-run schools paving the way toward First Nations’ self-government Followed by: Part 2: Learning to move past residential schools and Part 3: B.C. bands take educational control for brighter future. |
Community-run schools paving the way toward First Nations’ self-government
By Jenifer Norwell
First Nations across British Columbia and Canada are caught in a dilemma of self-determination. They want to take back responsibility for their communities, but often lack the tools they need to govern on their own terms.
For Fred Fortier, that’s a challenge he struggles with on a regular basis as the acting chief of the Simpcw First Nation. He’d like to see his community, a reserve north of Barriere, take over the role of providing services for his people and become self-determining.
Fortier is not alone. Across the country, First Nations communities are looking to take back control from the federal government. Increasingly, First Nation communities see education as the key to nurturing the attitude and skills they need to accomplish that goal. After years of abuse and isolation at residential schools, First Nations communities are taking back control of their children’s education.
Among the groups working to help First Nations communities take back those responsibilities is the National Centre for First Nations Governance. The non-profit organization works to support nations in their right to self-govern.
“First Nations people have been governing themselves prior to the Indian Act,” says Cherlyn Billy, the B.C. regional manager with the centre, “we’ve been doing it for thousands of years and it’s only now that we’re starting to remember the work that we used to do before.”
For Billy, the key to First Nations communities getting back to self-government is information and self-awareness.
“The more knowledge that people have about who they are, about knowing where they come from, I think that’s where you begin to find your voice in moving ahead,” she says.
“A lot of education that people need for self-governance probably comes from knowing the past,” says Billy.
Understanding the past is only part of moving towards self-determination for Fortier. He’d like to see changes in what’s being offered to First Nations communities as they negotiate control of services with government.
“The true issue between us is revenue sharing between us and the province and the federal government,” he says, sitting in a downtown restaurant in Kamloops.
“If we got the revenue sharing for all the natural resources in our territory, we don’t need government handouts anymore,” says Fortier. “We don’t need free everything if they give us our land and our resources and that’s the fight that our young people have today.”
To take on that fight, Fortier sees education playing a critical role.
“The way that self-determination is you have to have a good base of education to find who you are and to control the future of what you’re going to do on the land because without that, truly we won’t have anything,” he says.
His community has been running its own school for nearly three decades. That’s made a big difference in how the community is able to approach issues with the federal government, he says. By providing cultural activities like drumming, fishing and berry picking in addition to the provincial curriculum, students are grounded in their sense of self and that allows them to better understand what their community needs to be self-determining.
“The most important thing is to be able to control our people is the way that we put out information,” he says.
Even with a desire to be self-determining, some First Nations bands are still reluctant to move to a formal self-government agreement. There is concern that it will leave First Nations people without the rights they’ve been accustomed to under the Indian Act. Though the act is inherently racist on many levels, some First Nations people see it as the only existing legislation that establishes a unique identity for them.
Sitting in his office in the annex building of the old Kamloops Residential School, Chief Shane Gottfriedson hasn’t noticed the members of the Tk'emlups Indian Band wanting a move toward formal self-government.
“That was the talk in the nineties and the early eighties,” he says.
Since he was elected chief eight years ago, he hasn’t heard much interest in becoming self-governing, which would move jurisdiction for virtually all services from the federal and provincial governments to the band.
Since he was elected chief eight years ago, he hasn’t heard much interest in becoming self-governing, which would move jurisdiction for virtually all services from the federal and provincial governments to the band.
Members of the Tk'emlups Indian Band seem to be happy with the responsibilities they have now for providing services, he says. As it stands, the mandate of the band encompasses everything from picking up garbage to running social agencies and a school.
Other challenges Gottfriedson sees in moving forward with self-determination are flaws in how the federal government deals with First Nations communities.
“Recognition of a true government-to-government relationship still needs some light shed on it,” he says, “we are a governing body. We have that responsibility to look after our people.”
“It’s been very frustrating and challenging over the years following some of the guidelines of Canada in relationship to land developments and following the Indian Act,” says Gottfriedson, “I think those definitely need to change if there’s going to be any better sort of relations or developments for First Nations on their land.”
Gottfriedson isn’t the only one looking to see changes happen for First Nations people. Phil Fontaine, the former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations and an outspoken advocate for First Nations people, wants to see self-government continue to grow as an option for First Nations communities.
“All peoples in the world have the right to handle their own business. That right was denied to our people for a long time and it’s been only in recent history that First Nations people were able to exercise the right to govern themselves,” says Fontaine.
“Study after study... has made it very clear, self-determination has to be the central piece in whatever we embark on,” says Fontaine.
“People have to have a sense of ownership over institutions such as the education system. If that’s denied, you’re not going to succeed as well as those people who take it for granted that the education system is all about them, so I absolutely believe that self-determination is the underpinning of anything of significance in the lives of aboriginal people,” says Fontaine.
First Nation leaders aren’t the only ones seeing the value in self-determination. Many young people across B.C. look to self-determination to reclaim their nations’ leadership role in the province.
Vernie Clement, 27, is a member of the Lhoosk’uz Dene, a southern Carrier nation about 200 kilometres west of Quesnel. He comes from a strong family of leaders and was asked to run for chief at 16. He believes self-government is the way to go for First Nations people. Clement recently completed a business degree at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops and hopes to put that knowledge to work back in his community.
“We’re naturally self-governing since time immemorial and (settlers) couldn’t understand our governance. That’s the other thing—a total lack of respect and understanding for what was there and what was effective for the people here and developed over millennia and it’s sad to see it disappearing slowly,” says Clement.
First Nations leaders like Fortier see educated and confident young people like Clement as the foundation of their communities’ future.
“I really see the benefits of education,” says Fortier, “that’s the most important thing because it builds our capacity to deal with self-governance and self-determination.”
