Call to Action 12

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Author Anonymous discusses Call to Action #12.

The Importance of Education for Young Indigenous Children

A photograph of three young Indigenous children smiling in a classroom. One of the girls is holding a pencil and there is children's art on the wall to their right.

A Little Bit About Me!

I am a young woman who lives in Sudbury, Ontario. I grew up with my Mom and Dad, as well as one sister, one brother, and my dog! My background and the background of my family includes French-Canadian, Irish, English, and Indigenous.

I am taking the Early Childhood Education program at Cambrian College, and am approaching the end of my first year! I am continuing my education in hopes of becoming an elementary teacher.

I am a competitive dancer, and I enjoy the outdoors and traveling! Though I do have my fair share of lazy time, you can also find me staying at my campsite doing activities like fishing, canoeing, quading and more! In general I love to do anything fun! Whatever it is, count me in!

I enrolled in this course because as I grew older, I began to learn more about my family’s history and how residential schools have affected my family and our country. I began to take great interest in learning about the Indigenous community and history as not only did I find it interesting, but I felt it was right to be knowledgeable on the topic as a Canadian, and as a descendant of Indigenous people.

Call to Action 12

“We call upon the federal, provincial, territorial, and Aboriginal governments to develop culturally appropriate early childhood education programs for Aboriginal families.”

I have chosen Call to Action 12, which relates to the Early Childhood Education system for Indigenous families. I have chosen this particular call to action because it really spoke out to me.

Why? I am in school to be an Early Childhood Educator, and believe this age is such an important part in a child’s life, in which they learn almost all skills and information they need for the rest of their lives. If these Aboriginal children do not get the opportunity to develop their skills, and learn about their culture, over time they will lose their history and be unable to continue their traditions throughout their life.

This Call to Action should be important to everyone living in Canada because we must prioritize our children and ensure they are growing up in the proper environments. This connects directly to the past of residential schools, when right from the get-go, children were only learning the way of white people, and were not participating in anything related to their own culture.

This resulted in their culture being completely neglected and almost wiped out. If we ensure these children are learning about their culture and ways of life from a young age, we can be sure they will continue to practice these things throughout their life and carry on their culture.

Call to Action 12 – Status Update

Status: “In progress – Projects Underway”.

The government has said to have invested $2.5 billion worth of funding to support the framework in developing these programs for Indigenous children. I fully support the framework and hope to see changes and progress being made in the near future.

During my time on placement for my ECE program, I witnessed Indigenous educators coming in to explain to the ECE students that they will be taught about Aboriginal culture and can participate in things like smudging ceremonies and other cultural practices. This is somewhat proof to a great start in educating our educators so they may properly educate Aboriginal children and non-Aboriginal children in turn.

The Beginning of the Movement

A photograph of a classroom. Two Indigenous women teach eight children on a carpet.

As we know, the Call to Action I have chosen is currently in progress. Since it is in progress, I knew there must have been areas in the country that have already hopped on the train and began to open Aboriginal daycares/preschools. I did some research and found one in London, Ontario. You can read this article for information about their framework and goals at the centre.

It is great to see places like this already opened up, and it gives hope for more Early Childhood centres for these children to be underway and open soon as well.

What Next?

I encourage all people to continue to do research and gain knowledge on the Aboriginal Early Childhood Education system. After all, these children are our future. We need to take part in and care about their education system.

We do not want a repeat of the past, where these Indigenous children attend schools where their culture was not and is not talked about or practiced. Their culture needs to be taught and geared towards them so they can fully learn the way of their culture, language, and traditions.

Of course, it is important to learn about the past and what happened to the Indigenous community, but it is just as important to ensure the continuation of the Indigenous culture and not stop the awareness and education.

There is a great website that explains all 94 Calls to Action in an easy way to understand. It gives different vocabulary and perhaps simpler wording so that the younger audiences can grasp the concept of what is being said. I strongly encourage you to visit the site here.

Get Involved!

What good is a Call to Action with just bystanders? Just like we learned about bullying, if you are standing on the side and letting things happen without doing something about it, you aren’t exactly helping the situation in any way.

I encourage everyone to always expand their knowledge on Indigenous culture. Just because something may not directly affect you doesn’t mean it isn’t worthy of learning and supporting. Children are the future, why not prioritize them?

Show support by taking part in the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, National Aboriginal Day, and the Every Child Matters movement. To further expand your knowledge, consider taking an Indigenous course. You will learn more than you ever could have thought and pay respect by taking the time to learn about the history of the Indigenous community.

Final Thoughts

While researching the Call to Action I chose, I learned so much and gained the desire to prioritize Aboriginal children and their early education. Since I feel so strongly about children and their development in the first place, learning about the need for proper Early Childhood Education for Indigenous children made me realize I should continue learning about their culture so that when I am in the field, I can properly speak about and teach children about Indigenous culture. I want to prioritize the importance of their culture and background.

I personally encourage the government to strongly advertise, or to make mandatory, Indigenous courses for Early Childhood Educators and teachers. All educators should have great knowledge on Aboriginal culture and the history of what happened in Canada so we can properly teach today’s children and allow them to learn about such a great and important background.