Indigenous-led early childhood education course introduced

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This article was published 24/02/2025 (220 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Urban Circle Training Centre has launched a new holistic course to recruit more early child-care educators and increase diversity among daycare staff across Winnipeg.

The centre has partnered with Red River College Polytechnic to run an accredited diploma program that will equip graduates with academic and Indigenous cultural lessons.

Trista Harry signed up to build on her babysitting experience — the third oldest in a family of 11 children, she has plenty of it.

The 25-year-old said helping her parents care for her siblings, the youngest of whom is six, sparked both her interest in early childhood education and desire to become a positive role model for Indigenous youth.

“It’s really important that they see their own people working. I know when I was younger, all my teachers were white,” said Harry, an Anishinaabe student who is originally from Black River First Nation.

Harry’s goal is to work in a daycare in the North End, her home neighbourhood for the last decade, upon graduation.

Given many of the students’ kindergarten-to-Grade 12 schooling was disrupted for varying reasons, the early weeks have involved reviewing basic study skills and community-building.

Internships are also a key component of the two-year, tuition-free course; students are expected to apply their in-class lessons in real workplaces and gather feedback as they create and facilitate play-based learning activities.

The province has earmarked $220,000 to train up to 30 Indigenous students at the adult education centre and training hub.

“It’s an Indigenous-led initiative for Indigenous students to provide (services) for the community that is largely Indigenous. That’s where we’re at and what makes it really unique,” said Nicholas Chasowy, education director for Urban Circle.

“It’s an Indigenous-led initiative for Indigenous students to provide (services) for the community that is largely Indigenous. That’s where we’re at and what makes it really unique.”– Nicholas Chasowy, education director for Urban Circle

Chasowy noted that Stella Blackbird, an elder who was heavily involved in the centre prior to her 2020 death, had a vision for the training hub on Selkirk Avenue to become a place of “intergenerational healing.”

Opening an on-site daycare in 2011 was an initial step to reduce barriers for Indigenous parents to complete high school or pursue additional education, he said.

There are 52 spots in the daycare, including a dozen for infants and 40 pre-school spaces.

Urban Circle leaders indicated the course seeks to build on that legacy and further reconnect families that were fractured by the residential school system.

Founder Eleanor Thompson said smudging, land-based learning, such as medicine-picking, and sharing circles complement the early childhood learning curriculum.

“The reclaiming of proud Indigenous identity makes all the difference for both our adult learners and our children,” she said, adding it’s important for children to be exposed to their relatives’ languages and cultural practises at an early age.

Thompson added she’s hopeful this iteration of Urban Circle’s early childhood educator program will prove successful given the centre previously set out to train these professionals, but funding for the initiative was not renewed.

Statistics Canada data show that about five per cent of all early learning and child-care workers in the country identify as Indigenous.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca