A Collingwood-based charity with a mission for education is working with the local school board to take teachers and students on a journey featuring the history and culture of Indigenous people in Canada.
Educators are invited to a special training session to learn more about the new curriculum, which features the voices of Indigenous youth and elders teaching their history and culture through multimedia modules, on April 8.
The Indigenous Journey is a series of 45-minute sessions designed to fit in a classroom and backed up by support materials to provide teachers with an opportunity to teach Indigenous history from the perspective of the Indigenous community. The content was created by Indigenous leaders and youth.
Collingwood-based charity Elephant Thoughts helped provide a platform for the curriculum and is working with the Simcoe County District School Board to get it into the hands of teachers and the minds of students. The Indigenous Journey also received federal government and Trillium funding.
“The Elephant Thoughts teachers have put the modules together with some classroom activities, but the youth are the ones that are sharing their stories and recording the modules and, in some cases, filming,” said Lisa Farano of Elephant Thoughts.
"We’re educating non-Indigenous youth through Indigenous youth … and Indigenous youth are learning about their own culture.”
Together, Elephant Thoughts and the Simcoe County District School Board are hosting a session meant to introduce educators to the curriculum and teach them about what is available for them to use in their classroom.
The program was piloted in some Simcoe County schools last year, including Mountain View Elementary School, Connaught Public School, and Cameron Public School.
“It’s a comprehensive tool to support teachers to teach Indigenous content,” said Farano.
Farano said the crew at the training event will run through an interactive guide on how to use the modules and what is available.
“It’s been a long time coming,” said Farano. “There’s a lot of different partners coming together to create this content, and it’s been vetted in schools for a year. I’m hoping all the teachers (in Simcoe County) will be fully-integrated this spring.”
Some of the modules cover subjects such as residential schools, missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, land claims, and truth and reconciliation.
“This opens doors for relationships to be built, and we know relationships are important to rebuild trust,” said Farano. She’s hoping to see the curriculum continue to evolve as more conversations evolve and the journey continues.
The Indigenous Journey presentation is open to educators and members of the public who are interested in learning more about the free, online curriculum.
The training session, open to the public, takes place April 8 at the Simcoe County District School Board Education Centre in Midhurst from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. and dinner is provided.
You can visit The Indigenous Journey website and sign up for a free account here.
