Thursday, June 16, 2016
Yasmeen Abu-Laban, Professor of Political Science at the University of Alberta, and President of the Canadian Political Science Association
June 21, 2016 marks the twentieth anniversary of National Aboriginal Day. Canada’s official proclamation of a National Aboriginal Day stemmed from recommendations by Indigenous groups as well as the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.
For those concerned with equity in educational institutions and practices, National Aboriginal Day also offers educators (along with all Canadians) opportunities for sharing in Indigenous cultures and traditions, as well as teaching and learning.
For example, when I served as a “non-Aboriginal” parent volunteer for the National Aboriginal Day celebration in my son’s K-12 public school in Edmonton last year, amongst other activities I witnessed a teacher read an age appropriate story about residential schools to a class of kindergarten students. The experience was poignant because the teacher in question had worked incredibly hard to have a discussion about residential schools with such young children, and because aspects of the story were made even more personal by the commentary of another volunteer whose own mother had attended a residential school.
Read More: http://www.ideas-idees.ca/blog/twentieth-anniversary-national-aboriginal-day