Fractured Land Module 3: Colonialism, Treaties, and …bctf.ca › uploadedFiles › Public ›...

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Fractured Land Module 3: Colonialism, Treaties, and Moving Forward in Truth and Reconciliation

This module will focus on the impacts of colonialism, residential schools, and treaties on the lives and agency of First Nations people in Canada, including those of Caleb and his family.

Students will explore the realities of First Nations inequity in Canada looking at the kinds of system and personal factors affect a person or group’s ability to thrive. They will name and explore what colonialism is, how it relates to numbered treaties that were signed and not signed over Canada’s history, and how it is embodied in the realities and impacts of the residential school system. Students will also connect colonialism to the lived experiences of internal and external oppression.

In the latter part of the module, students will unpack the differences between informed consent and the “rubber stamp consultation” that was mentioned on Fractured Land. They will look at how First Nations land and title rights are enshrined in the Canadian constitution and have been upheld by the courts, and what needs to happen for those rights to be full respected/integrated. Finally, students together will create their own truth and reconciliation recommendations, and decide for themselves what they think Canada needs to put into motion to move the country move forward towards reconciliation with and justice for First Nations people in Canada.

Time allocations are approximate and should be adapted to individual classroom situations.

OBJECTIVES

Students will be able to speak to the kinds of inequity that First Nations people experience in Canada

Students will understand the implications of the numbered treaties or the lack of one on resource extraction authority

Students will be able to speak to, and explain internal oppression, external oppression, and colonialism and how they manifest

Students will be understand the legacy of residential schools in Canada, and how they still impact people and Canada today

Students will consider what they and we as a country need to do in order to move forward towards reconciliation and justice for First Nations people in Canada

COMPONENTS

1. Indigenous realities and colonialism 2. Treaty history and your community 3. Residential schools and internal/external oppression





4. Indigenous land and title rights, resource / fossil fuel development, and informed consent 5. Creating class recommendations for truth and reconciliation

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS

Social Studies 8, 9, 10, 11; Civic Studies 11; Comparative Civilizations 12; Social Justice 12

English Language Arts 8, 9, 10, 11, 12; Communications 11, 12

First Nations 12

TOTAL SUGGESTED TIME

5 hours, or 4–5 classes to do the entire module

RESOURCES REQUIRED

Whiteboard and white board markers

Digital projector and computer with internet access

Short cut video clips from Fracture Land (provided)

Double-sided photocopies of the “placemat” template

Large post-it notes

Five to six “sharpie” pens





Part 1 – Indigenous realities and colonialism

SUGGESTED TIME: 60 minutes

DELIVERY

Discuss the follow question in groups of 4, then debrief as a class. Tease out student-generated information on the whiteboard, and add context and additional information as needed:

Do First Nations peoples in Canada have equal rights and opportunities in Canada today compared to non-First Nations peoples? Why or why not?

Additional resources to for teachers to reference during debrief

Education

First Nations graduation rate in Canada is 36% compared to non-First Nations which is 72%

Poverty

50-60% of First Nations children live in poverty compared to 15-16% of First Nations children.

Health care

Dental decay rates for Aboriginal children in Ontario are two to five times higher than rates among non-Aboriginal children.

Prison system

First Nations people make up a higher than average part of the prison population. Aboriginal people make up 4% of the Canadian population, but 23.2% of the prison population. Aboriginal women make up a greater percentage of female prison system than aboriginal men do to the male prison system

See “Aboriginal Issues” at the Centre for Social Justice for more information.

Additional Discussion Question: Although First Nations people make up a disproportionately high amount of the prison population in Canada, they are virtually absent from Canadian juries. To have a jury of one’s peers is a guaranteed right of criminal defendants. Is the current situation fair or just? What could be done to address this?

Read Aloud: First Nations peoples in Canada continue to face widespread inequality, injustice and institutional and personal racism because of their identity as Indigenous peoples. The high school graduation rate for First Nations is three times lower than the national average. First Nations people make up a higher than average proportion of the prison population, and aboriginal peoples endure ongoing challenges with poverty, unemployment, marginalization. Aboriginal women are at particular risk for experiencing violence, and treaties signed between Frist Nations peoples and the Canadian Government continue to be unfulfilled and broken again

http://www.afn.ca/uploads/files/events/fact_sheet-ccoe-3.pdf

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/half-of-first-nations-children-live-in-poverty-1.1324232

http://www.socialjustice.org/index.php?page=aboriginal-issues


http://www.oci-bec.gc.ca/cnt/rpt/oth-aut/oth-aut20121022info-eng.aspx%5D)










and again. The very basis of what we now call Canada was founded on the colonization of First Nations people. Today, the legacy and continued practice of colonialism continues to impact Aboriginal people and contribute to the inequity that we looked at during the beginning of this lesson. So what is colonialism?

Colonialism is:

the policy and practice of a culture or country with more power extending control over people or nations with less power

about unequal relationships of power

a form of oppression (unjust treatment or control).

Discuss

How does colonialism manifest in the documentary Fractured Land?

How has colonialism impacted the areas of inequity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people that we explored at the beginning of this lesson?

How does colonialism connect with:

o Existing structures of power?

o Systemic discrimination or advantage?

o Historical advantage or disadvantage?

What is your relationship to colonialism in Canada?

In what ways does colonialism continue today? What does it look like? Are there any ways

that we can usurp it?

Part 2 – Treaty history and your community

SUGGESTED TIME: 30-40 minutes

DELIVERY

Read Aloud: Caleb, his family, and all Canadian Indigenous people have been impacted by colonialism both on a personal level and a systemic level. Non-Indigenous people can also be negatively impacted by colonialism to varying degrees depending on who they are, but almost all non-indigenous people, often called “settlers”, have benefited from it. Colonialism and the unequal treaties signed between European governments and First Nations people are part of what has allowed non-indigenous people to prosper and benefit from Canada’s rich natural resources. Caleb talks a little bit about the treaty process and how resource extraction from his territory impacts this family and his life.

Read Aloud: In the movie, Caleb talks about his nation’s land being on “Treaty 8 Territory” (see image on next page).





Show video: <From Fractured Land 6:47-8:12 then 22:13-24:37>

Between 1871 and 1921 European settlers in what is now Canada drew up exploitative treaties with First Nations Bands in efforts to pave the way for the Canadian Pacific Railway and to seize control of resources. There were 11 “numbered” treaties in total. The treaties signed were often rushed, disorganized, and poorly translated, and offered aboriginal peoples things such as reserve land, education funding, and fishing twine for a vast wealth of territory and natural resources. Indigenous peoples were often coerced into the agreements through well-documented campaigns of starvation and violence. As a part of many of the treaties, Indigenous people also retained the rights to hunt, fish, and use their traditional lands in their traditional ways. Education funding was a key part of many of those treaties as well, as many First Nations bands believed that education was going to be the bridge allowed their young people to transition into a changing new world.

Discuss:

Look at the map of the number treaties in Canada. What do you notice about B.C. and how it relates to the number treaties?

o Most of B.C. is without a numbered treaty.





o In 1923 the federal government made it a criminal offence for a First Nations group to hire a lawyer to pursue land claims settlements, and all treaty negotiations taking place in BC just stopped overnight.

o Many parts of B.C. are call unceded, as the land has not been yielded by indigenous peoples to the Canadian government or to the private ownership of non-indigenous people in a way that has legal authenticity, both within the laws of Canada, and in the laws of BC’s indigenous nations. It has been seized through force and domination.

o Because there are no treaties throughout most of B.C., Canadian law around who has rights and power over resource development and resource extraction is more unclear legally compared to other places in Canada that have established treaties.

o Even for the parts of Canada that are under a numbered treaty, many of those were signed under conditions of coercion (situations of force or threat), and different people have different perspectives on their legitimacy.

How does the lack of a numbered treaty for most of BC related to colonialism?

What traditional First Nations land does your city reside on? This is readily acknowledged and understood by the people in your town? o Optional activity: Visit www.native-land.ca and look up which First Nations territory

your school community is located one

Part 3 – Residential Schools and internal/external oppression


DELIVERY

Read Aloud: Another way that First Nations peoples have experienced and continue to experience colonialism is through the horrors and legacy of residential schools. European Canadians took First Nations children away from their parents and forced them into church led residential schools. In Fractured Land, Caleb’s mother and father, speak a bit about their family’s own history with the residential schools and their impact on their lives and the lives of their family. Caleb’s father speaks as a part of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee hearings in Vancouver.

Show video: <From Fractured Land 23:38-27:24>

What is the Truth and Reconciliation Committee? How is it moving us forward as

Canadians? In what ways is it falling short?

http://native-land.ca/





Discuss In groups of four. Have one person in each group act as a scribe, recording the group’s responses to be shared share/debriefed with the whole class.

Caleb’s mother tells the story of her grandfather saying to her father, “They make the words dance on paper, but what I teach you no one can take away”. What did he mean by that?

One of the goals of the residential schools system when it was first established was to, “take the Indian out of the child". How does this statement reflect the views and attitudes of European-Canadian society in the 1800s and 1900s? Does this reflect people’s attitudes towards First Nations people and culture today? Why or why not?

The residential school system is seen by many as one of the worst things that Canada has ever done. The last residential school closed in 1996, which in historical terms is well within modern times. Does this surprise you? Why or why not? How does reality align or conflict with Canada and its image and international reputation?

Questions/Threads to be explored during the large class debrief:

People who were forced into residential schools are often called “survivors of residential schools”; why do we call them that?

o Of the 150,000 children, at least 4,000 died of things like tuberculosis, malnutrition, accidents, drowning, exposure, or suicide. Some estimates put it up to 6,000

o The federal government stopped recording the deaths around 1920 after the chief medical officer at Indian Affairs suggested children were dying at an alarming rate.

o Schools were often crowded, poorly ventilated and unsanitary. Children died from smallpox, measles, influenza and tuberculosis. Some were buried in unmarked graves in school cemeteries, while others were listed as "missing" or "discharged." In some cases, parents never found out what happened.

o There was rampant physical and sexual abuse of First Nations students in the residential school system.

o Documents released in 2013 revealed that the federal government conducted nutritional and medical experiments ton thousands of children who attended residential schools.

o Many today call the residential schools a cultural genocide.





Richard Behn (Caleb’s father) speaks about doubting himself and wondering why his children accept him for who he is. Why might he bring that up at a panel for Truth and Reconciliation about residential schools?

Read aloud: How we experience the world affects how we feel about ourselves, especially if something happens over and over again. When people are groups are mistreated, controlled or told that they are less than by people, systems, or power structures outside of themselves they can internalize that way of thinking, affecting their own beliefs and behaviours in ways that hurt them. As a result, we say there are two types of oppression (unjust treatment or control) - external oppression, where people are control or exploited by outside forces, and internal oppression, where people internal beliefs or ways of thinking are negatively altered because of external oppression.

External oppression Internal oppression

The systematic exploitation of one social group by another for its own benefit; it involves institutional control, ideological domination, and the imposition of the dominant group's culture on the oppressed group. External oppression is hierarchical--the dominant or privileged groups benefit, often in unconscious ways, from the disempowerment of subordinated or targeted groups. The dominant group has the power to define and name reality and determine what is ‘normal,’ ‘real,’ or ‘correct.’”

Suggestion: draw a picture of a stick person oppressing another stick person

When people are targeted, discriminated against, or oppressed over a period of time, they often internalize (believe and make part of their self-image) the myths and misinformation that society communicates to them about their group. It can cause them to feel (often unconsciously) that in some way they are inherently not as worthy, capable, intelligent, beautiful, good, etc. as people outside their group. They begin to feel that the stereotypes and misinformation that society communicates are true and they act as if they were true.

Suggestion: draw a picture of a stick person with a big head, and an image of a stick person oppressing another stick person drawn inside of the head

Discuss

Have you ever experienced internalized oppression in your own life? If yes, in what ways? What is/was your experience with it?

How does internal and externalized oppression connect to colonialism?

How does internal and external oppression come up in the film Fractured Land? o Tahltan activist “Our fight is a psychological fight.” (46:41 in the film)





How might the legacy of and the affect of residential schools influence how First Nations people think and act today?

It has been suggested that many of the social problems that First Nations communities are disproportionately affected by (including things such as alcoholism, drug abuse, and violence) can be traced back to trauma that people and families experienced in the Indian residential schools.

o How would you feel if you were taken away from your parents, forced to speak and different language, punished for doing things that were a part of your culture, and experienced the kind of violence and trauma that many First Nations people experienced? How do you think it would affect you and your relationships?

Additional Fact: As of 2015, there are more First Nations youth in the Canadian foster care

system than there were at the height of the residential schools system. How does this issue

connect to the legacy of colonialism in Canada?

From the Office of the Correction Investigator, Government of Canada

www.oci-bec.gc.ca/cnt/rpt/oth-aut/oth-aut20121022info-eng.aspx

Factors Impacting Over-representation of Aboriginal People in Corrections

The high rate of incarceration for Aboriginal peoples has been linked to systemic discrimination and attitudes based on racial or cultural prejudice, as well as economic and social disadvantage, substance abuse and intergenerational loss, violence and trauma.

These well-documented social, economic and historical factors have been recognized by the Supreme Court of Canada, originally in R. v. Gladue (1999) and reaffirmed in R. v. Ipeelee (2012): “To be clear, courts must take judicial notice of such matters as the history of colonialism, displacement, and residential schools and how that history continues to translate into lower educational attainment, lower incomes, higher unemployment, higher rates of substance abuse and suicide, and of course higher levels of incarceration for Aboriginal peoples.” (Justice LeBel for the majority in R. v. Ipeelee, 2012)

Correctional decision-makers must take into account Aboriginal social history considerations when liberty interests of an Aboriginal offender are at stake (e.g. security classification, penitentiary placement, community release, disciplinary decisions). These Gladue factors include: Effects of the residential school system. Experience in the child welfare or adoption system. Effects of the dislocation and dispossession of Aboriginal peoples. Family or community history of suicide, substance abuse and/or victimization. Loss of, or struggle with, cultural/spiritual identity. Level or lack of formal education. Poverty and poor living conditions. Exposure to/membership in, Aboriginal street gangs





Part 4 – Indigenous land and title rights in Canada, resource / fossil fuel development, and informed consent

SUGGESTED TIME: 60–70 minutes

DELIVERY

Read aloud: It is within the context of colonialism (both its history and modern legacy), exploitative and broken treaties, residential schools, and a modern reality of inequity and marginalization that First Nations peoples in Canada now are deciding what to do about liquefied natural gas and fracking proposals on their territories.

Indigenous stories and perspectives on LNG and fracking in BC are diverse. Some people and nations are against this type of development in their land and are actively resisting projects, while others support it and have entered into agreements with the provincial government or fossil fuels companies. There are real risks and concerns that come with fracking and the industry, yet there is also a real need and desire for employment and economic opportunities for First Nations communities.

Regardless of what individual First Nations bands decide for themselves and their land, the Supreme Court of Canada and the Canadian Carter of Rights and Freedoms says that First Nations bands have the final say and authority on whether or not a fracking or resource development can happen on their territory.

First Nations people have rights that are distinct and separate from the rights of non-First Nation people under Section 25 of the Canadian Charter of Human Rights and within the Canadian Constitution. This includes:

The right to be consulted on resource projects that happen on their land

The right to self-governance in making decisions about what happens on their territory

The right to benefit from any resource development that happens on their land

The right to give or withhold consent for resource development projects on their land.

Instructions

Read aloud: In the film, Caleb talks with some frustration about process for First Nations consultation for land sales and resource projects on his traditional territory. He says, “This was not consultation, this was rubber stamp consultation, and that wasn’t consultation in good faith.”

In groups of four (ideally with groups of four desks arranged in squares), have students gather around a collaborative learning placemat (double sided – please see next page of image). In their corner of the four-sided placement, without talking, have them write words that come to mind or that they associate with the phrase “rubber stamp consultation” (2 minute time limit to accomplish this task). Then, have them look for themes or common





words / ideas amongst what their group of four, and write them in the centre of the placemat.

For part two of this exercise, ask the groups to flip their placemat, and do the same exercise with the phrase “informed consent.”

Debrief both results as a class.

Placemat image

Threads to explore in the debrief

What is “rubber stamp consultation”?

What is “informed consent”?

What is the difference between “rubber stamp consultation” and “informed consent”?

o Base on the way Apple has set up how iTunes contracts are reviewed, do they expect

that users fully understand the implications of the contract they are agreeing to before

they click “yes”? Why or why not?

o Do users have any way to give feedback or affect the content of the contract? For an

important, life-altering decision, would the process be fair?

Have you ever heard the term informed consent anywhere else? Where, or in what

context?

o It is term used in sexual assault prevention. The absence of a “no” is not an indicator of





a “yes” for sex or sexual intimacy. Consent also needs to be informed. People need to

know what they are consenting to in order to truly be able to give consent.

Are there patterns of colonialism in how the government and the fossil fuel industry

interact with indigenous people today? Why or why not?

Show Video: <Show from Fractured Land 7:56-9:17, then 8:49-9:33>

Discuss:

Based on what you saw in Fracture Land, was process for approving fracking or LNG projects

on Caleb’s traditional territory fair?

What kind of processes need to be established, or resources need to be available for local indigenous peoples and communities to make informed decisions, have influence or power over the kind of projects that happen on their territory, or be able to give informed consent?

Are voluntary guidelines for regulations described in Fractured Land effective in addressing

safety concerns or fair impacted communities?

o Would voluntary guidelines for firearm screening be effective? For food quality/safety?

For alcohol consumption when driving?

Show video: Tsilhqot'in First Nation granted B.C. title claim in Supreme Court ruling from “the National - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4D85H7lQxE

Discuss

The decision from Canada’s Supreme Court on the Tsilhquot’in land title claim was unanimous. What are the implications of this clear consensus on the strength of the decision?

What are the implications of this decision for fracking, LNG, and resource development projects in BC and Canada?

Although the Canadian Supreme Court has said that First Nations have land and title to their traditional lands, they have also said that “It still falls to province to regulate land use in BC and the province can justify development if it is ‘within the public interest.’” How might the fact that the provincial government is responsible for carrying out their decision affect how it plays out on the ground?

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip from the Union of BC Indian Chiefs said, “…and we are moving away from the world of mere consultation into a world of consent.” What does he mean by this?

Additional resource: “Aboriginal Title and Provincial Regulation: The Impact of Tsilhqot’in Nation vs. BC: Panel discussion at University of Victoria Law School” www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJybIpM7hEw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4D85H7lQxE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJybIpM7hEw





Additional Discussion questions

How might the legacy of and current effects of broken treaty promises, colonialism residential schools, and lived inequity affect First Nation’s trust with the government, or Canada’s legal bodies?

In Fractured Land, Caleb says, ““To be born indigenous in this country is a political act.” Do you agree to disagree? What do you think he may mean by that?

In Saskatchewan, materials from the Office of the Treaty Commissioner are often printed with the phase “We are all treaty peoples”. What do they mean by that? Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Why?

o Colonialism and the exploitative treaties with Indigenous peoples are part of what has allowed Canada and non-Aboriginal Canadians to prosper and benefit from Canada’s rich natural resources.

o Saskatchewan Office of the Treaty Commissioner http://www.otc.ca/education/we-are-all-treaty-people

Part 5 – Creating class recommendations for truth and reconciliation


DELIVERY

Read aloud: The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada has released 94 recommendations that should be put into motion in order to help the country move forward towards reconciliation with and justice for First Nations people in Canada. Additional resource: www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/index.php?p=3

Instructions:

In groups of four: Based on what you know or have learned about colonialism, residential schools, and its affects on First Nations people, brainstorm six to eight recommendations that you think need we be put in to motion to start us on the road to right some of the wrongs of the past and to move us towards reconciliation with and justice for indigenous peoples in Canada. Have each group write each recommendation on a separate post-it note with a thick black felt pen (one post-it note per recommendation)

Have each group announce each of their recommendations to the class, and hand a post-it note with their recommendation to the teacher. The teacher at the whiteboard should group the post-it notes into themes as they come in, possibly coming up with title that encapsulates the spirit of each group of recommendations.

After all of the post-it notes have been sorted into themes, consolidate the post-it notes together further until there are ten class recommendations themes.

Once you have ten class TRC recommendations, teachers can either:

http://www.otc.ca/education/we-are-all-treaty-people

http://www.otc.ca/education/we-are-all-treaty-people

http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/index.php?p=3





o Wordsmith them together as a class, or o Break the class again into small groups of four people, assigning each group two

recommendations to wordsmith and present back to the class

Once your class has collectively come to a decision on what their ten truth and reconciliation recommendations would be, you can: o Type them up, print them, and display them either in your classroom or in a more

prominent part of the school, or o Assign two recommendations to each group of four and have them make an art project

that includes a statement of their assigned recommendation and some type of visual representation to accompany.

Additional project: Spend some time as a class looking at the Truth and Reconciliation Committee website, then have students write a few sentences answering each question.

What is the Truth and Reconciliation Committee?

How is the TRC moving us forward as Canadians?

In what ways is the TRC falling short?

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