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Oct 25, 2017 @ 13:19
The Algoma District School Board (ADSB) was pleased to host Dr. Niigaan Sinclair for two days this week, as he spoke with students, staff, parents and community leaders from across the district about Truth and Reconciliation. He is an Associate Professor with the Department of Native Studies at the University of Manitoba and a respected voice nationally on current Indigenous issues.
On Monday morning, Niigaan spoke to approximately 350 ADSB students, representing grades 9 to 12, indigenous and non-indigenous. He tried to help students understand the complexity of truth and reconciliation by telling a simple story about a young boy, Cameron, who owned a bike. It was a great bike that had been passed down from one generation to the next (being fixed along the way) and Cameron loved it dearly. One day a new boy moved into the neighbourhood. He asked to borrow the bike. Cameron granted permission – first for 15 minutes, then for an hour and eventually for a day. The new boy grew to love the bike too and wanted it for himself. Borrowing it wasn’t enough and he eventually stole it. Cameron was heartbroken. After a year, the new boy began to see how sad and depressed Cameron had become over the loss of his bike. He went over to Cameron’s home with the bike and said “I’m really sorry for taking your bike. I can see how much it means to you. I hope you’ll accept my apology”. Then the new boy hopped back on the bike and drove away.
Niigaan asked the students to imagine these two young people growing up in the same neighbourhood. “What will the story be that each chooses to tell their family over time?” He went on to say that “if you can understand the complexity of this story you understand the challenge of reconciliation. We have a difficult situation ahead of us. We have a lot of anger, resentment, frustration.”
Niigaan also shared some of his own family’s history, including the story of his grandfather, Henry Sinclair, who lied about his age in order to join the army, in effect “choosing bullets over school” because he attended a residential school where he was mistreated and abused. His grandfather returned from war injured both mentally and physically. This, on top of the horrors he experienced at residential school, led him to become a heavy drinker and when he drank, he hurt those around him. Yet on the day Niigaan was born, with the threat from Niigaan’s father of not being able to see his grandson, his grandfather quit drinking.
Niigaan never saw the angry, hurtful man that Henry once was. Niigaan said to the students “If my grandfather can chose something different, following the hardships and sadness from his younger days, and the decision to do something different comes from love, you can do it too.”
Niigaan’s father, Justice Murray Sinclair, was the Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Ninety-four recommendations came out of the commission’s final report, many of which offer ways that we can create relationships. Niigaan reiterated that the students have a role to play in reconciliation, as does everyone and he encouraged them to volunteer, write, make a piece of art, blog, serve, connect.
Elder Willard Pine opened the day with the students by asking everyone in the room to clear their minds, open their hearts and to remember anything said is said not to hurt but to help. He reminded the students that “…education is very important and that we need it today. The world is big and beautiful. But it can be cruel and mean. Your teachers are like wolves. A wolf will bring up their cubs so there can be a strong blood line. Listen to your teachers. Help them by studying, so that you can learn to be that wolf someday.”
Dr. Sinclair shared his message about the role we all play in Truth and Reconciliation again on Monday night at an event open to the public at the Community Theatre Centre. He also spent the day on Tuesday with ADSB educators, helping to determine where, how and why it is critical to incorporate Truth and Reconciliation into today’s curriculum. In addition, school teams developed action plans for each school’s next steps in moving forward with reconciliation. Niigaan’s final presentation was to ADSB Trustees and Senior Administration, along with SSM Mayor Christian Provenzano, at the ADSB Board Meeting on Tuesday evening.
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