Province unveils new school treaty education plan

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This article was published 28/06/2023 (878 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

All Manitoba teachers and school employees must be trained in treaty education by 2026.

On Wednesday, the province unveiled Treaty Education for All — a six-page document outlining initiatives to bolster understanding about the foundational land-sharing agreements made between First Nations and the Crown.

The plan entails ensuring every elementary and secondary teacher has completed the Treaty Relations Commission of Manitoba’s two-day training by Dec. 31, 2025.

All other division staff will be required to participate in a minimum of one day of training before the deadline.

“(Treaties) are part of our shared history and hold the promise of a prosperous future for Canadians and First Nations peoples,” Loretta Ross, treaty commissioner at the Treaty Relations Commission of Manitoba, said in a news release.

“This new plan to ensure treaty education is embedded in the education of our young people will have widespread effects across society, bringing people together and helping them embody the spirit of the treaties throughout their lives.”

The Manitoba education department and commission partnered to launch the initiative — a direct response to Call to Action No. 62 in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s final report.

The TRC call urges governments to collaborate with residential school survivors, Indigenous peoples and teachers to create age appropriate curriculum on treaties and train educators on integrating Indigenous ways of knowing into classrooms.

Since 2009-10, 86 per cent of schools across the province have participated in treaty education through the local commission. Several divisions have reported upwards of 90 per cent of their teachers have received the training, which explores the original spirit and intent of treaties, to date.

The province has asked every school division to submit a local strategy to support treaty education within their classrooms before November 2023 to ensure all graduates have an understanding of treaties and their related responsibilities.

The plan also requests schools identify “catalyst teachers,” who can support professional development in English and French.

The department is in the progress of creating a high school elective on treaty education, per the report.

The University of Manitoba’s Canada Research Chair in Indigenous education celebrated the document’s release Wednesday, although he said the implementation timeline for universal treaty training should be tighter.

“The climate and culture of our schools is continuing to change. Sometimes, these changes are small, they are slow and they are gradual, but I think what’s happening here with this announcement is another contribution to the improvement of Manitoba K-12 schools in the area of Indigenous education,” said Frank Deer, a professor and associate dean at U of M.

As treaty education grows across the province, Deer said he hopes teachers both emphasize these foundational documents are nation-to-nation agreements and the role they have played in colonization.

Representatives from the Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre, teachers society, school superintendents association, federation of independent schools and the government’s Indigenous inclusion directorate advisory council all weighed-in on the new plan.

Manitoba is earmarking up to $1.3 million to provide more than 2,000 treaty education resource kits to schools in the fall.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Manitoba’s Plan for K to 12 Treaty Education