Hearts around the fire

This task carries within it an imperative to include the story of our past in which the collision of worldviews and the resulting clash of stories, experiences and knowledge of self created over time have resulted in the current crisis in education, which sees the grandchildren of the original people failing in the educational system. [...] The place in which we come together in the conversation with Elders, includes the spirit of our ancestors, the pain and grief of loss of culture, the legacy of colonization, as well as the hope for future generations, yet unborn. [...] People in Saskatchewan, including the First Nations people, came to believe the stereotypes, and misconceptions at both ends of the spectrum of ‘brutal savage’ and ‘romanticized noble savage’, leading to the devastation of generations of First Nations children in school systems, which continues to this day. [...] In 1969 the Government of Canada prepared a position paper known as the White Paper that attempted to shift education, among other federal responsibilities, to the provinces in the hopes of dismantling the Indian Act, thereby, shrugging off government commitments made in the treaties by the Queen to the Indians of Canada. [...] Without the engagement of all my senses, and the wholeness of being in the presence of the Elders, I could never have grasped the richness of this way of knowing and being that is the gift of my ancestors.