Senate committee hears educational concerns

The message received by a handful of senators is clear: for Aboriginal children to be successful in the classroom, there needs to be community and parental buy-in.

What’s not as clear is how that goal will be achieved.
Rose Laboucan, chief of the Driftpile First Nation, said, “Those children that have parents there for them . . . . those are the children that will succeed.”

But today’s parents and grandparents, and by extension today’s students, are victims of residential schools and still feeling the impact.

“When you steal our children out of (our communities), who’s parenting who?” asked Laboucan, voice thick with emotion. “It’s not my fault that my people don’t know how to parent . . . . We have a multi-generational issue here.”

Gerry St. Germain, Progressive Conservative senator from British Columbia and chair of the standing senate committee on Aboriginal Peoples which is examining the issue of education from kindergarten to grade 12, agreed that the effects of residential schools were still playing out with today’s Aboriginal people.

“There is a dysfunction in families as a result of residential schools,” said St. Germain, who is Métis. “Every living, breathing Canadian should understand how horrific this is for these people.”

Issues concerning First Nations education were the focus of the Edmonton hearing on Oct. 7. Representatives from Treaty 6, 7 and 8 talked about their challenges in providing education on-reserve and representatives from Edmonton public and Catholic school boards, Red Deer public and Catholic school boards, and Wild Rose Public Schools talked about challenges of meeting the needs of First Nations, Métis and Inuit children through mainstream schools.

Funding was an issue of concern expressed by the First Nations representatives.

Vivian Ayoungman, of Treaty 7 and member of the First Nations and Adult Higher Education Consortium, said, “When I listened to (Harper’s) apology I cried all day . . because I did not hear,  because we have beaten the Indian out of the child, we are now going to provide major funding so First Nations can . . . work on their language and culture.’”

Ayoungman also cautioned the committee about restricting its hearings to primary and secondary education, noting that Native-run post-secondary institutes provided a valuable grounding for adults, helping them to be successful.

Public and Catholic school board representatives also noted the importance of parental and community involvement to the success of their FNMI students and the necessity to change the system that mainstream schools were operating under.

“What we’ve been doing doesn’t work,” said Brian Celli, superintendent with Wild Rose Public Schools, which encompasses the Drayton Valley-Rocky Mountain House area.

Celli said instead of trying to figure out how to get Aboriginal children to fit into the system, the school board needed to determine how to use public education to help Aboriginal children.

Said Margaretha Ebbers, supervisor, Aboriginal education programs with Edmonton Public Schools, “Our system was filled with barriers.”

Not the least of those barriers, she noted, was the resemblance of Edmonton public schools to residential schools, which caused difficulty for parents.

Among changes already incorporated by mainstream schools are regular meetings with Aboriginal youth and community to get input; Edmonton Catholic Schools has incorporated the use of an Elders council; the development of cultural and language programs; and staff sensitivity training.

“Our achievement gap is still there,” said Ebbers. “Now that we’ve started to make bridges with the community, that gap is going to start to close.”

Notably absent from the presentations was the Alberta government and representatives from Northland School Division. In January, Education minister David Hancock dismissed the corporate board of NSD appointing a trustee to run the division’s business.

St. Germain said he is aware of the situation with NSD and an invitation had been issued to the provincial government to attend. He said he would ask Hancock to appear in Ottawa.

The standing senate committee is scheduled to table its report by late spring of 2011. However, St. Germain said the committee would not rush the report. He also said that he wanted to provide three or four recommendations that “First Nations could buy into” and which the federal government could not ignore.

The committee’s meeting in Edmonton was its 11th but first one on the road. Prior to coming to Edmonton, senators had a fact finding tour in Saskatchewan.

Photo Caption: Making presentations to the standing senate committee on Aboriginal Peoples were First Nations representatives (from left) Vivian Ayoungman, Eileen Lines, Rose Laboucan, Evelyn Goodstriker, and Sheena Jackson.