An agreement in principle described as “historic” between Ottawa and the First Nations paves the way for a “substantial” increase in funding for schools on reserves and for more autonomy for Aboriginal people to manage their education system.
According to what The duty learned, this agreement is welcomed with open arms in 22 Indigenous communities in Quebec, who have been calling for measures to protect their languages and culture for years. Ratification of the agreement by each of the band councils must be done by the end of June.
This move follows a commitment by the Trudeau government to “decolonize education” after the trauma of residential schools, created to assimilate young Aboriginal people. The discovery of graves anonymous near these religious schoolsfor a year, has cast a harsh light on the system’s violence against First Peoples.
“We have experienced trauma, but today we are in a good position to improve the funding and governance of our schools,” confirms Denis Gros-Louis, Executive Director of the First Nations Education Council (FNEC), which represents these 22 Aboriginal communities in Quebec.
Mr. Gros-Louis refuses to reveal the details of the agreement with Ottawa, which must be unveiled in the coming weeks, but he recalls the extent of the needs of the First Nations in terms of education. Federal funding is frozen at 1996 levels, he said. Additionally, the majority of on-reserve students drop out of school before graduating from high school, the Office of the Auditor General determined in 2018.
“Credentials of diplomas”
The Aboriginal reserves come under Ottawa, which funds the services, but the band councils must pull off a tour de force: comply with the Quebec educational system while teaching their ancestral languages and traditions.
The First Nations in Quebec follow the Ministry of Education’s program to “guarantee the credibility of diplomas”, explains Denis Gros-Louis. Aboriginal students must in particular take the end-of-year ministerial exams, like other Quebec children. This allows them to continue their studies anywhere in Quebec, for example if their parents move.
However, Aboriginal communities take the liberty of adapting certain programs to their context. For example, they have not set up kindergartens for 4-year-olds, which, in their opinion, place too much emphasis on learning and not enough on the pleasure of toddlers. Instead, First Nations trained parents to help their 4-year-old children learn about numbers and letters through play.
The FNEC also produces school materials adapted to local realities: children learn mathematics by counting tree leaves or bustard flights.
Language teaching also requires costly adaptations, explains Denis Gros-Louis. For example, in Kahnawake, the Mohawk language is taught by elders. They need the support of younger teachers who have mastered pedagogy. Two people in class, that comes to double the cost of education.
A bridge between cultures
Young Aboriginal people need to feel valued at school — a place that has long been hostile to them — underlines Marie-Marthe Malec, educational advisor at the Cégep de Sept-Îles. This Innu from Natashquan has been pursuing a teaching career for 35 years. She knows Gilles Vigneault well. Marie-Marthe Malec sees herself as “a bridge between cultures”.
“When I became a teacher, I was anxious. I had to follow the Quebec education program. After five or six years, I said to myself: “Wow! I’m going to start integrating my culture into my teaching,’” she said this week during a symposium on the indigenization of education at Ahuntsic College, in northern Montreal.
This pioneer is wary of the label of “behavioral disorder” or learning disorder attached to Aboriginal students. With hindsight, she considers that these children may just have difficulties with teaching methods that are poorly adapted to their reality.
“Education for Aboriginal people is ‘seeing and doing’. Don’t give hour-long lectures, you’ll lose them. We don’t listen! We have to experiment. Don’t teach a recipe by saying to put 100 milliliters of this and 200 milliliters of that, rather make the recipe with young people, they will understand,” she says.
The language of instruction can create an additional obstacle to the success of Aboriginal students, points out Denis Gros-Louis. French or English are often the second or third language of these children. For example, the Innu and the Atikamekw speak first and foremost their ancestral language. They then learn French. For the Mohawks, who are mostly Anglophones, French is the problem.
Mr. Gros-Louis deplores that Bill 96, recently adopted, marginalizes Aboriginal languages, which, according to him, threatens the success of First Nations students.
Julie Gauthier, anthropology teacher at Ahuntsic College — who organized this week’s symposium on the indigenization of education — salutes the federal government’s willingness to help First Nations. But we need to go further, she says.
“Indigenous people are on the move. We can’t stop them. If we don’t give them self-determination in education, they will take it,” she believes.
She notes that the First Nations do not have the same conception of time as the majority. The educational path of Aboriginals could extend over a period different from that provided for in the current basic school system. Pupils could, for example, go into the woods for the hunting season and return later to the school benches – without being penalized. The ways of evaluating learning are also likely to be adapted. It is up to the Aboriginal nations to determine their needs, emphasizes Julie Gauthier.