“Canada should lead the world in giving Indigenous peoples the kind of education, healthcare and recognition that they deserve,” former Prime Minister Paul Martin told a packed audience at UBC on October 17.
Martin was speaking at Moving Forward Together: Resurgence and Reconciliation in Indigenous Education, the third instalment of faculty of education Dean Blye Frank’s “Frankly Speaking” series. He was joined by UBC’s former Associate Dean of Indigenous Education Dr. Jo-ann Archibald and the University of Winnipeg’s Associate VP Indigenous Affairs Kevin Lamoureux.
Together, the three speakers discussed the challenges and successes of Indigenous education and the essential role it plays in reconciliation.
Martin spoke about the Canadian government’s historical failure to provide equal opportunity to its Indigenous population, noting the dramatic transformation experienced by on-reserve schools when they receive adequate resources and funding.
He even implicated himself.
“We have not given the First Nations, Metis or Inuit the tools to do the job,” Martin said. “And the reason that we have not done it is because we have hidden behind cost — and, I’m speaking to you as a former finance minister.”
After leaving public office in 2006, Martin has worked to improve opportunities for Indigenous youth in Canada, including by founding the education-focused Martin Family Initiative.
“There is no return on investment in government higher than putting money into education,” said the former Liberal prime minister.
Archibald, also known as Q’um Q’um Xiiem, encouraged the audience to focus on successes in Indigenous education.
In particular, she highlighted how Indigenous graduation rates in the Sea-to-Sky school district rose to 86 per cent in 2017 — an increase of 35 per cent since 2009 — following the implementation of “relentless and purposeful” reforms.
Archibald attributed this success to a holistic form of Indigenous education that embraces community involvement, personalized education programs for students and a focus on the transition from elementary to secondary school, among other things.
As Archibald celebrated the contemporary successes within Indigenous education, Lamoureux honoured the triumphs of those who came before him.
“We wouldn’t be talking about reconciliation if it wasn’t for the courage, strength and dignity of Residential School survivors,” he said. “Yes, there are stories of inter-generational trauma, but there are also stories of inter-generational love and strength.”
In moving remarks about the challenges of reconciliation, Lamoureux urged Canadians to confront the country’s painful past head-on.
The former education lead at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation made a distinction between Indigenous education — which he described as “learning about and from Indigenous people” — and what he called “education for reconciliation.”
According to him, the latter involves acknowledging that UBC and other esteemed post-secondary institutions have in the past “been complicit with the exercise of colonization [...] and an attempt to destroy Indigeneity in this country.”
In April, UBC President Santa Ono made a formal apology to Indian Residential School System survivors on behalf of the university at the opening of UBC’s Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre (IRSHDC).
But five months after its opening, the IRSHDC was reported to have received little support from the university. The centre only recently received approval from UBC Vancouver’s Senate to become an academic administrative unit at a vote on October 17.
“Education for reconciliation is about Canada learning about itself,” Lamoureux said.