U of W student teachers get lesson in treaties

Student teachers are getting a crash course in First Nations history and using Treaty 1 as a tool in their future classrooms not unlike traditional textbooks and 2B pencils.

The University of Winnipeg partnered with the Treaty Relations Commission of Manitoba this week to equip education students with the same training as their certified colleagues.

“It’s about understanding why we are the way we are today, why relationships are fractured, why we don’t know what we don’t know and what we should be today, had things gone according to plan (based on) our First Nations communities and ancestors’ beliefs,” said Lisa Maes, a teacher candidate at U of W.

Maes, 34, is among 165 students who signed up for the optional two-day event that took place Wednesday and Thursday.

The Red River Métis participant registered to boost her hireability and fulfill her “personal mandate” to make sure her students are exposed to more Indigenous knowledges and perspectives than she was in school.

Manitoba Education announced its Treaty Education for All plan in June 2023 to equip school staff with knowledge on the original spirit and intent of treaties at no cost to employers.

School divisions were given 30 months to run treaty education; non-teaching staff are only required to attend the first half of the Treaty Relations Commission’s two-day training.

Starting this winter, U of W — which has the largest number of student teachers on any campus in Manitoba — is facilitating annual workshops about historical negotiations between First Nations and the Crown, and related age-appropriate pedagogy.

For Ojibwa teacher Renée McGurry, treaty education begins by acknowledging that settlers wanted to protect resources from “a real danger that the United States was going to move up north,” establish farming communities from east to west and connect them via cross-country railroad.

There was a rush to make land-sharing agreements with First Nations, hence the wave of treaties signed between 1877 and 1891, said McGurry, a support teacher at the Treaty Relations Commission and originally from Pinaymootang First Nation.

“Everybody needs to know about that first relationship and they need to understand why we’re all treaty people — it’s because everybody has benefited from those treaties. Everyone’s able to purchase land, to build a house, to move around freely,” she noted.

During a training break on Thursday, Nikki Tomoniko, who plans to teach high school language courses, said an earlier discussion about the word treaty in and of itself had stuck with her.

For settlers, such as her ancestors, these agreements were viewed as a legal contract, she said. But for Cree speakers, they were interpreted as “a big promise or sacred promise, like a marriage,” Tomoniko said.

The 27-year-old said those differences were among her takeaways from the training. They have furthered her resolve to “be brave, to listen, to give space,” learn with her students and practise “critical literacy.”

Tomoniko added: “I’m being given tools to teach my students, ‘OK, this is a textbook we have in our school, how can we actually use (outdated) resources that we have and frame them in a way that actually honours Canada’s true history?”

Maes echoed her peer’s comments. “It makes you a better citizen, period, to question things and think about other perspectives. That’s true for everything — whether that’s social studies or language arts, even science,” the mature student said.

The faculty of education wants the Class of 2025 and future cohorts to be ready for their final practicums and the job market, said Will Burton, a lecturer who primarily teaches social studies courses.

Burton co-ordinated treaty training for him and his professor colleagues last year.

He urged his students to enrol in it for “ethical reasons,” citing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

Call to action No. 62 in TRC’s final report endorses mandatory lessons on treaties and Indigenous peoples’ historical and contemporary contributions to Canada across the kindergarten-to-Grade 12 system.

McGurry recommends starting with “baby steps,” be it by creating a classroom treaty or tasking children with designing personal “treaty medals” — art projects that display their unique family history and interests.

“We just want to establish that idea of friendship and sharing and making promises to each other,” she added.

Education Minister Tracy Schmidt said all new school staff will continue to receive treaty training, what she called “a very worthwhile investment,” after the Dec. 31 deadline. Schmidt’s department funds the initiative via direct support to the Treaty Relations Commission.

While she has yet to complete the training herself, the mother of three indicated she’s continuously impressed with her children’s knowledge on the subject and she’s learned a lot from them and their teachers.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca