 I teach all the Indigenous Studies courses at the college here, and I also teach the language course, Introductory 1521 and Introductory 1522. Plus, I'm also doing the Indigenous Education in the Education 211 course, which is for the 10 program. It's giving the teachers all their training to be teachers in their third year of teaching, and it's giving them that knowledge that they need involving Indigenous Studies and history, and how to teach that for the TQS that's coming up. Every teacher has to teach to a certain quality standard, and so Alberta a few years ago set the limits to what teachers have to teach. It's actually become effective that they have to teach Indigenous history, as well as teaching all students the residential schools, the effect it's had on Indigenous students. So we have from kindergarten all the way up to grade 12 have to be taught that history now. And you had a system where it was so vague that you could teach pretty well anything you wanted on Prismations People, but now because of the Constitution Act that actually has identified the Indians, Inuit, and Métis as different groups, but they have rights also. They're acknowledging that and saying, you know what? Because they've been recognized as a group of people and they have human rights, and they do have rights under the Indian Act, and of course the treaties that were signed. Then what we're doing is we need to get that information out to the people, because students are not even learning it until university level, many of them, many. So I have students that are a little more mature, and out of the whole entire class, I think I had five people that put up their hands that said that if they had taken it in high school, those were the only five that I noticed out of 38 students. Wow. That's amazing. In the five that put up their hand, the areas that they were coming out of were in areas that were pretty well in the areas where it was prominently indigenous population. First day I think it was, I was there. I said, out of all of you that are sitting in this class today, I said how many of you would have taken this class if you didn't have to? Three people put up their hand. Oh my. So I asked each of them what their background was. One was Métis. The other one was, she just said she's from, I think, Prince Edward Island, and then the other one, he was pretty confident that he actually, he just enjoyed it. He just wanted to take it, but the rest of the class wasn't. No, they wouldn't have taken it probably. Well, the courses that I teach are the indigenous way of knowing. It's just connecting the students to the land and our culture and how nature is such an important part of our culture and how we use all animal and plants and take it with of course pride and respect. And then we have the indigenous governance, which teaches students about governance at the bound levels, how it ties into the Canadian society, how we have been basically run by the Indian Act, many First Nations people, and how the indigenous governance now we're taking that step saying, hey, we did once have our indigenous governance, and it's only been recently taken away in the last hundred years, right? And so now what we're trying to do is we're trying to revive that. And then the other one is the indigenous community development and leadership. It's taking the students into the issues that First Nations people are dealing with, but not just First Nations people, but indigenous organizations even. Even when you look at Métis locals, you look at Métis settlements, all the different problems that they're actually experiencing at their communities and trying to take a look at what problems we have in our communities and how we're trying to get away from that, bringing in community development programs and using our leadership to take that role and step, I guess, out of that stuckness that we find ourselves in. And I have so much fun in them. And then the other course I'm teaching is the introduction to indigenous research on, of course, history, and that one takes, and that's been here for years, because I took it back in 2001, and it was taught by Duff Crear at that time. I remember him telling me when he was teaching me, because I said to him, this was in response to what I said to him, right? I said to him, I said, you know Duff? For the first time in my 39 years, I've been on this earth. This is the first time I've ever been proud to be an Indian. Wow. I said, that's the first time. I said, I tried to hide my background. I didn't want people to know I was indigenous. I tried to blend in with Canadian society. I said, yes, people always knew, especially if they were racist. I said they'd hide, and they'd do it in subtle ways. So I tried to blend in and it never worked. It worked for people who weren't prejudice, but for the ones that were, I said it didn't matter. And I said, and now that you taught me that I could be proud of who I am, I said, now I'm going to take that and I'm going to hold my head up high. And he said, you know, darling, it should be people like you that are teaching this course. Wow. I'd like to see you up here teaching this. Wow. There you are. Here I am 18. Actually, it's been 16 years, 16 years later teaching. I know it's compressed because I've got, what, three and a half months, not even really half a month, to teach these students the history of indigenous people, why we are the way we are, why we have such low numbers in the university and colleges. And taking a look at our history has has a huge part of our success. You know, now that our life is changing for the better, people are now going to school. They're becoming more comfortable in these schools. The intergenerational trauma is lessening every year. We're not there yet, but we're getting there. Well, indigenous education to me is all about learning the history of the indigenous organizations or people in the area and really taking a step back and learning about the culture. What types of practices do they have in reserves? How do they tie into nature? Like we take a look at our environment right now, and Alberta, of course, as we all know, is huge on oil and gas production. And it goes against indigenous people in their way of knowing, like we honor Mother Earth and we treat her with respect and the exploration. Not that I'm banning exploration because I drive a vehicle, so I depend on that also. However, the way in which we treat Mother Earth in reclaiming her back to its original state I think is what companies need to take a look at and say, hey, you gotta respect Mother Earth. Mother Earth is an important part of our life. If we disrespect her, we're then the Zalida, so we need to educate the public. We need to educate Canadian society and say we need to honor Mother Earth. We need to be educated on, we have lived here for centuries, and we know how to live off the land. We have adapted. We have been resilient to everything that we've experienced, and we're still here. We're still standing. We're a very strong people, and people need to know that part of us, I think. And that's where I think the education comes in. Teach them about our cultures, how we're not all one group. Education is about getting the information out there that Blackfoot and Cree, Sue, Beaver, Denne, those are all different groups, different native groups, Métis, they all have their own form of culture, although, yeah, they're distinct, but over the last few years, as everybody knows, in the 1800s, we were banned from participating in ceremony, and in 1951 that ban was lifted. And so, if you've got a half a century where you had an Indigenous, people did not practice their culture, you know, you're going back now and all of a sudden, hey, we have to go and relearn or find people that are still fine in their practice. Yeah, they're practicing the traditions, and so some people were resilient, some people maintain that. So I think we're getting that information across culture, culturally learning. So I know the Cree people have adapted the Sundance into our traditional practices, which it never, to my understanding, from what I have read, I haven't read anything about Cree people participating in Sundances, yet now they do, and it's because they're adapting them. Who owns it? I don't know, because you have an argument between the Sue and the Blackfoot that say, hey, we owned it, but in reality, who cares? Yeah. You know, who cares? Yeah. So I think about, do you follow those beliefs? Because if you take religion, for example, if you take the Catholic religion, opposed to Christianity and the differences, well, Christianity followed the Jesus Christ model and the Catholic followed the God, right? Yes, Jesus Christ is a part of that, but that's not who they pray to. And you take a look at that, and if there's certain things within that culture that you like, or within that religion that you like, then take it and use it. Take those. So I'm saying that if you like something in the Cree culture, then it should be open for people to accept that. You don't have to incorporate the whole belief system into your life, but take segments of it, and maybe that works for you and use that. And I think that's what education is, just bringing that and saying, hey, this is our education. If you want to use it, use it. My vision is that every Canadian will have knowledge of the impact, the Indian Act, the treaties, the residential schools. All of those negative impacts have had on First Nations people. And rather than sitting there and judging Indigenous people for living in homes that are breaking down their family or whatever their reasons, right? Looking at us in the negative, hopefully being empathetic to say, hey, I'm empathetic and I understand now that you are going through that because of the intergenerational trauma of the residential schools, because of the Indian Act and their restrictions and their rules that they bestowed upon you. Not being allowed to leave the reserves in 1895 unless you had a pass, which was called the pass system. All those different things that were playing a huge role in our lives, Canadian society doesn't actually understand that. And I hope that one day, everybody will know that and they'll be learning it from kindergarten. And I think the TQS, the Teaching Quality Standard, is a step towards ensuring that teachers teach that. However, what they teach, though, will never know. Because they could teach whatever they want. But I hope that they'll teach the not only just the basic truths, the truths, the facts of what really happened.