In honour of Truth and Reconciliation Day, SelfDesign Learning Foundation is proud to launch a new section on our website that is devoted to Indigenous education.
Integrating Indigenous culture and perspectives into all aspects of everyday learning and working at SelfDesign is one of our goals. Our efforts are guided by the more than 80 recommendations put forward by SelfDesign’s 2017 Indigenous education task force, which included a First Nations elder, a First Nations SelfDesign parent and learner, and SelfDesign educators of Indigenous heritage.
By sharing this information online, we publicly confirm our commitment to advancing the journey towards reconciliation.
“Today’s learners are tomorrow’s leaders, and they will be the ones to carry reconciliation through and see it made part of everyday thought and action,” says SelfDesign Chief Education Officer Nikki Kenyon. “Reconciliation is one of Canada’s great challenges and opportunities that learners will engage with.”
A central, one-stop online resource for Indigenous Education at SelfDesign
The series of Indigenous education web pages show how we’re working towards reconciliation by building cultural bridges to Indigenous ways of being, seeing and knowing throughout our educational programs and offerings.
They also, says Amber Santos, SelfDesign’s Indigenous Educator, provide a central, one-stop resource for information about Indigenous education at SelfDesign.
“They show what we’re doing to meet our commitment and what resources and support people can expect in terms of Indigenous education when they enrol their children with SelfDesign,” she says.
The webpages outline our approach to Indigenous education as part of a national network of schools committed to reconciliation. They define the ways in which we support our learners as they explore the rich and varied Indigenous cultures and perspectives within Canada. They set out how we seek to integrate the First Peoples Principles of Learning into every aspect of our work and educational programs by providing authentic learning resources, training our B.C. certified educators, and emphasizing learning through our relationships with each other and the land.
On the pages, we include our territorial acknowledgment, recognizing that we, our learners, families, educators and contractors work on the unceded territories of many different First Nations in British Columbia.
We also provide information about the opportunities we offer Indigenous learners and families to further connect with and explore their own cultures and ways of seeing.
“Having these webpages is an exciting step for us,” Amber says.
