truth &
reconciliation
An exploration of how indigenous people are represented in texts that make up our knowledge about British Columbia's educational history.
The Text
For this reparative research exercise, I will explore Raptis’ (2011) article titled Exploring the factor prompting British Columbia’s first integration initiative: the case of Port Essington Indian Day School. The article reviews one of British Columbia’s first large-scale integration initiatives for indigenous people by allowing seventeen children of Port Essington Indian Day School to attend Port Essington Elementary in 1947. This led to the permanent closure of the 58-year-old methodist-established day school.
Rationale, Question, and Terms
I selected this article because I have great respect for the advancements in reconciliation and decolonization that have taken place in British Columbia and wish to learn about important milestones that facilitated this process. I grew up in Peru, a country where reconciliation is not mentioned often, except in some rare cases, such the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which raised awareness of human rights abuses committed during the 1980's and 1990's. When I started studying at the University of British Columbia I was impressed at how much respect and consideration exists towards indigenous communities in British Columbia, something I had not seen while living in Toronto in the 2010’s. Hence, the question I would like to answer is: what were the attitudes, rationales, and strategies that led to a paradigm shift towards integration in BC?
Analysis
With this question in mind, additional to the 5 specified search terms of this assignment (Indian, indigenous, aboriginal, first nations, and native) I will focus on other terms (integration, shift, and segregation) to bring forth clarity about the content and theme of the text. The results are as follows (term/number of times term appears in text):
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• Indian / 65
• Indigenous / 0
• Aboriginal / 8
• First Nations / 0
• Native / 16
• Integration / 25
• Shift (shifting, shifted) / 11
• Segregation / 3
After reviewing the problematic issues that were faced in on-reserve day schools, such as poor environmental conditions for learning, high absenteeism, inexperienced teachers with minimal teaching qualifications, and low teacher retention, Raptis (2011) explains how this landscape started to change in the 1940s due to some specific factors. These include a “growing recognition of the sanctity of human rights” (Raptis, 2011, p. 525), concerns about Indian well-being, a need to take a more active role in ensuring minimum standards of life for all Canadians after World War II, and better services for aboriginal Canadians. In my opinion, these factors respond to the question of what were the attitudes that began to instigate necessary changes. However, this is only one piece of the puzzle. Raptis (2011) also explains how integration was also driven by financial concerns and made possible by financial support and changes in legislation. Indian policies and government services had to be reformed to start the integration process. This piece of the puzzle responds to my question about what were the rationales and strategies necessary for change.
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​I find this understanding to be very enlightening as it shows how development often requires the unity of different forces of human societies, such as law, economics, and ethics. Being more interested in art and philosophy, I often focus on the ethical or humanistic dimension, but this has helped me to understand the importance of legislative and economic factors. Being that said, I think other dimensions should also be considered and Raptis (2011) gives a hint about these when mentioning that the integration initiative occurred without the input or consideration of native children and their families, meaning that there was no aboriginal input. In my view, this is a major blindspot and calls for the incorporation of social and cultural considerations (in addition to the ethic, economic, and legislative ones). Fortunately, I understand that, in the present time, this is being considered when creating initiatives and strategies for reconciliation.
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New Question
The new question I propose after studying this case is: how can these attitudes, rationales, and strategies be translated to other contexts that have segregation issues? It seems to me that it all comes down to an understanding that human issues are a reflection of human life, which can’t be reduced to just one dimension, such as ethics. We should always look at issues from many angles and recognize what changes are necessary to achieve a positive result that is more holistic, and includes the active participation of the people whose lives are involved in the process.
Impact
Finally, I believe this text makes a positive and impactful contribution to British Columbia’s educational history because it allows readers to learn about the poor and unjust conditions inflicted on indigenous communities and be more sensitive about how, even in our present-day context, these issues can persist in more subtle ways affecting various minority groups. The transformational process that led to higher levels of integration that are described in this text also gives us clues about what attitudes and strategies could be useful to improve our society and educational systems.
references
Raptis, H. (2011) Exploring the factors prompting British Columbia’s frist integration initiative: The case of Port Essington Indian school day. (4), 519-543. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-5959.2011.00356.x