Education Minister Dominic Cardy says he wants to ensure the curriculum in New Brunswick public schools directly addresses the history of Indian Day Schools in the province.
“We’re looking to provide a lot more material,” Cardy said.
“Especially in light of the tragedy that’s come to light in Kamloops over the last couple of days and the fact that we’ve got a lot of work to do here in New Brunswick to literally dig up our colonial past.”
The discovery of the remains of 215 Indigenous children in an unmarked grave at the Kamloops Indian Residential School last week is forcing a reckoning within New Brunswick on it’s own past with day schools. On Tuesday, premier Blaine Higgs promised an investigation into the province’s 12 day schools, but has yet to speak with Indigenous leaders about how that will unfold.
The last day school in the province closed in 1992.
Cardy said he wants to ensure curriculum force students to confront that past, while also addressing how to move forward from it.
“We can’t just reflect on a history that’s so often been ignored,” Cardy said. “We have to look at that without any filters, look at the harsh reality of what happened and then talk about how we can move forward and what we can do better to try and achieve actual reconciliation.”
Right now students in the Anglophone sector begin learning about the history, culture and worldview of Indigenous nations, along with the legacy of residential schools in kindergarten. By the time they are in middle school there are several modules that deal with the history of the Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik peoples. One of those deals with residential and day schools in greater depth, according to the department of education.
According to Patti Doyle-Bedwell, an associate professor of Indigenous Studies at Dalhousie University, introducing children to the realities of residential schools is important, but needs to be handled carefully.
“If you’re teaching kids about this you can only go so far. You can’t talk about the gory details of the sexual abuse and things like that,” she said. “But you can start the process of letting them be aware that this happened, this was a part of Canadian history, that Indigenous kids were sent away from their homes and not allowed to be who they are.”
“As they get older you can add more layers to that education process.”
But ensuring that children are educated about these difficult topics is extremely important.
“For all Canadians, we have to know the whole story and the way we start that is with education,” Doyle-Bedwell said. “So that when things happen like the 215 children they found in Kamloops, it’s not a surprise.”
“This is not ancient history, this is something we’re dealing with right now.”
That’s important to keep in mind as the province begins exploring an investigation into day schools in the province.
The Wolastoqey Nation has called for the site of the Sussex Vale Indian Day School to be surveyed with the same technology that discovered the bodies in Kamloops.
Chief of Saint Mary’s First Nation Alan Polchies says he wants to see a full investigation into that school, along with the Shubenacadie School in Nova Scotia, where Indigenous children in New Brunswick were also sent.
“It needs to be put under a microscope and our truth needs to be uncovered and revealed,” he said.
Higgs had announced the investigation before speaking with Indigenous leaders. A call to discuss how to move forward is scheduled for Friday.
Polchies says that an inquiry into systemic racism in the province, something Chiefs have been requesting for almost a year, would likely have covered the 12 former day schools. He says if the current effort is to be successful, Indigenous involvement is crucial.
“If you want to be respectful, consult the First Nation leaders, the elders and the folks in the community,” he said.
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