Members of the Winnipeg School Division’s board of trustees convened Monday to discuss how to better serve the city’s indigenous students and community.
Winnipegger Kevin Setee spoke at a Winnipeg School Division board of trustees meeting Monday and suggested the division consider forming an indigenous committee to help deliver a more comprehensive indigenous component to kids in the school system. (CBC)
The division hasn’t updated their aboriginal education policy in 10 years. One idea being mulled over: the prospect of forming a committee that would help give indigenous people more of a voice in the school system.
Winnipegger Kevin Setee went before the school board Monday on behalf of the city’s indigenous youth. He said he supports the idea of forming a committee.
“We’ll have experts; language experts; experts in our culture, aboriginal education, [all] coming together, working with the Winnipeg School Division,” said Setee.
‘Both my children are Métis, and I am trying my best to instill within them a sense of cultural pride and identity. They are growing up knowing who they are and where they came from’- Ry Moran, director of the National Research Centre for Truth and Reconciliation
Setee graduated from Gordon Bell High School before attending the University of Winnipeg. He said he was never given the opportunity growing up to learn about his culture through school.
By forming a committee singularly focused on delivering a better educational experience for indigenous youth, Setee said he hopes kids in the community will get exposed to indigenous cultural traditions in a way he never did.
Along with Setee, Ry Moran was present for the school board meeting Monday. He is hoping to see an indigenous committee in the school district.
Moran is the director of the National Research Centre for Truth and Reconciliation and the father of two Metis children.
“Both my children are Metis, and I am trying my best to instill within them a sense of cultural pride and identity,” said Moran. “They are growing up knowing who they are and where they came from.”
Moran hopes that with the right direction from a committee, youth will be taught to more about the historical relationship between indigenous and non-indigenous cultures beginning in elementary school.
“They [youth] need to understand that the relationship between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples in this country has been fraught with difficulty, lies, deceit and outright attempts at cultural and physical genocide.”
The school board will hold a vote on Dec. 15 to determine whether or not to move forward with the creation of an indigenous committee.
