Truth and Reconciliation ETEC 511

For this task, I chose to examine Issues for Canada, a 2008 grade 9 social studies textbook. This book studies the social landscape of Canada, but I am afraid that it might be under representing indigenous peoples and so am curious to find out. My primary motivation for choosing this text is understanding how indigenous peoples are represented in high schools. While I remember indigenous people being a topic of discussion during my high school years, I no longer remember the details of what I’ve learned beyond the teacher’s vague acknowledgment of the existence of residential schools. I am curious to figure out whether the texts are what underrepresented indigenous peoples or whether it was my teacher at the time.

First Question

Is there underrepresentation of indigenous peoples in historical social studies textbooks? The search terms I will use include Indian; Indigenous; Aboriginal; First Nations; Native. I’ve also included Metis and Inuit as these terms also refer to indigenous peoples.

Indigenous terms were quite common in the textbook. The textbook included topics such as collective rights, how the forming of Canada treated aboriginal people as a ‘responsibility’ of the government instead of a sovereign people with their own way of life and government, and a look into the numbered treaties that the government made with indigenous peoples among other topics. The total number indigenous terms was 435. With the term “Canadian” appearing 680 times, it seems to me that indigenous peoples are not underrepresented in the book at first glance, but this led me to my second question.

Second Question

Are indigenous peoples misrepresented in the book? While indigenous peoples are represented in the text, much of the mentions talk about how the government has been repairing their relationship with indigenous peoples, without acknowledging the damage that has been done to indigenous communities. In fact, the only section that mentions residential schools in vague detail is screenshotted below. The only acknowledgment the book gives is that residential schools “disrupted connections to language, cultures, and identities.” We all now know that is a vast understatement of what residential schools actually did. My answer to the second question is that indigenous peoples are definitely misrepresented in the textbook because it solely focuses on painting a positive light on the government’s effort in repairing the relationship without going into detail on why and how it was broken in the first place and the damage that had been done.

While history cannot be changed, the way that its taught to our kids can. It angers me that objectivity is so low in this textbook and that the concepts taught in the book can appear as objective truth to the untrained eye. We need to do a better job facing the truth of the past if we want to march forward towards a more unified future.

References

Lychak, P., Anderson Gerrits, D., Nogue, A., & Parsons, J. (2008). Issues for Canadians. Toronto: Nelson Education Ltd.