The Agenda vol. 65 - The legacy of residential schools

September 30 marks the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada, a day to honor the lives of children who never returned home from residential schools. The impacts of the residential school system, which was designed to strip Indigenous children of their cultural identity and force them to assimilate with their colonizers, are still being felt in? Indigenous communities across North America. Residential schools also existed in the United States as the Indian boarding school system.?

In this month’s Agenda, some communications resources and news stories designed to help foster an understanding of the legacy of residential schools, and impart more about the cultures and traditions its architects attempted to suppress.?

Recognizing the dark history of Indian boarding schools

Though abuses in the Canadian residential school system are well-documented, accounts of those that took place in America’s Indian boarding school system seem to be less prevalent. An oral history project recently announced by the U.S. Department of the Interior aims to change that. The first volume about the atrocities committed at these schools was released last year, a second volume is expected to be published at the end of 2023. The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition will receive $3.7 million for the oral history project.

U.S. announces oral history project of country's dark Indian boarding school past | Fronteras

Indigenous Canada Course?

This online course developed by Tracy Bear, a Native Studies professor at the University of Alberta, has become a popular resource for people looking to advance their understanding of Indigenous issues in Canada. (You might recall it getting a plug from Dan Levy in 2020 that drove 64,000 people to sign up). The course features 12 modules which cover topics such as the fur trade, residential schools, connecting Indigenous worldviews with ecological knowledge, and contemporary social movements such as Idle No More, the Oka Crisis, and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG).?

Coursera: Indigenous Canada

Unbroken: My Fight for Survival, Hope and Justice for Indigenous Women and Girls?

Gitxsan journalist Angela Sterritt’s book details her tumultuous early life on the streets of Vancouver and how journalism gave her an outlet to pursue the untold and overlooked stories of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Her accounts of investigating these cases provide harrowing insights into the legacy of trauma inflicted by residential schools, as well as the ongoing neglect and mistreatment of Indigenous peoples by the authorities supposed to protect them. Sterritt also chronicles her experiences fighting for coverage of important Indigenous stories in white-dominated newsrooms, and for the compassionate treatment of survivors in those stories, who often have the credibility of their experiences questioned.?

'I Had to Break the Rules' | The Tyee

How Indigenous culture is beginning to take its place in school curricula

Most Canadians will recall learning about historical customs of regional First Nations in high school, but learning about residential schools is a recent (2019) addition to school history and social studies curricula, and one of the 94 calls to action. Courses that covered Indigenous culture more deeply have traditionally been electives, but British Columbia recently instituted an Indigenous course requirement for graduation. The Ministry of Education and Child Care hopes the requirement will “build further awareness and understanding of First Peoples' perspectives, cultures, and histories among all B.C. students and serve as an important step toward reconciliation."

Indigenous course requirement now in place for B.C. high school students | CBC News

From the Impact Relations Community?

Join us for our next Impact Council: The Future of ESG

Wed, Oct 4 at 12pm ET / 9am PT ESG (environment, social and governance) investing has been making headlines lately, having become both a target for anti-woke initiatives and a topic of discussion in sustainability circles. Social impact communicator Michael Maslansky and his firm recently concluded an extensive research study on ESG and its future. Join our Impact Council to discuss the findings and explore:

• Why some insist the language of ESG is divisive
• The factors that impact investors’ attitudes toward ESG
• Whether ESG delves deep enough into the negative impacts of its investments, and why many progressives opt for B Corps, Public Good companies or Benefit Corps instead

Thanks for reading,

— Ashley Letts, Managing Editor