Engaging lesson plans based on the Five Foundational Knowledge Themes. Educators have the opportunity to build their foundational knowledge while delivering Métis content through lessons that reflect promising practices.
NFB Education is proud to partner with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation to help teachers educate students about Indigenous realities during National Truth and Reconciliation Week, as well as throughout the year.
This year, the theme of National Truth and Reconciliation Week is “Remembering the Children,” where we memorialize the children lost to the residential school system and honour Survivors and their families. The expanded program features age-appropriate material for students in Grades 1–12.
All sessions will be held virtually on Hubilo. Registration is required to stream live or pre-recorded sessions and to participate in the Q&A segment. The link for registration is provided on this page.
Reconciliation is about exploring the past and choosing to build a better future. Sharing stories of understanding helps one another to build trust. We want to hear about your moments of reconciliation.
Head to the "Education" Tab to access resources.
Learn more about the treaties, treaty relationships and treaty rights that shape Ontario.
On this page
- Treaties
- The treaty relationship
- Treaty rights
- List of treaties in Ontario
- Treaties Recognition Week
- Treaty learning resources
5 Films...
"Orange Shirt Day was launched in 2013 to call attention to 165 years of residential school experiences (1831-1996). For residential school survivor Phyllis Webstad, the severing of the threads connecting her to family, community, and culture began in 1973, when the beautiful orange shirt she wore to her first day of school was stripped from her and never seen again. The removal of the orange shirt was the first of a series of destructive methods enforced to deplete her sense of self-worth, erase her culture, and suppress her spirit. Her story is just one of the experiences described by countless survivors, but many others did not live to tell their own story. Intergenerational experiences rooted in the trauma inflicted through residential schools and other forced-assimilation policies continue to ripple through communities today...."
This resource, as the disclaimer says, is a continuing work in progress mapping out territories, languages and treaties. On this website you are able to click on an area and find out about related treaties and Indigenous languages. They have also developed a teacher’s guide.
This resource guide and facilitator's book was created with Walking Together, Education for Reconciliation and The Alberta Teacher's Association.
The resource examines Awareness, Acknowledgement, Atonement, Action, and Truth in Reconciliation.
This is a self-guided PD opportunity from the SK Ministry of Education.
Start by downloading and reviewing the PPT "Reconciliation and Treaty Education: Curricular Connections and Resources"
Then review some/all of the other opportunities including:
Introductory Module - Supporting the Journey Towards Reconciliation (also available here: https://resourcebank.ca/courses/supporting-the-journey-towards-reconciliation)
Module 1 - Starting the Conversation (also available here: https://resourcebank.ca/courses/module-1-starting-the-conversation-from-the-sk-ministry-of-education)
Module 2 - The Sixties Scoop (also available here: https://resourcebank.ca/courses/sixties-scoop)
Concentus Citizenship Education - Moving Toward Reconciliation (also available here: https://resourcebank.ca/courses/k-12-resources-for-citizenship-education-from-concentus)
Reconciliation Canada hosted a series of six short films on the theme of reconciliation, produced by young Indigenous filmmakers with the help of Wapikoni Mobile.
The videos are:
- Tio’tiake Montreal
- The Power of Laughter (Maskwesiwin Papiwin)
- At the UN – Wapikoni Mobile Speaks Out
- The Path
- Correcting the Chalkboard
- The Joy of Living
Missing children and the existence of unmarked burial sites at Residential Schools across Canada have been well-known for decades among Indigenous communities. However, Canadians are still grappling with the truths about Residential Schools, spurring long-overdue conversations inside and outside the classroom.
Remembering the Children, the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation’s publication for students, offers a way to begin those conversations. It takes readers to a variety of Residential Schools across time and space, opening a door into a past that reverberates today, while also celebrating the resilience and resurgence of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples’ culture.
The publication Remembering the Children and this complementary educator’s guide
were designed to help students achieve the following goals:
• gain a more complex understanding of the history and reality of residential schools in Canada, recognizing that children who attended Residential
Schools, day schools, industrial schools and boarding schools had their own
unique experiences and that these experiences varied across the country and
across time
• gain an appreciation for Indigenous knowledge and the diversity of traditional
cultures, languages and teachings of First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities
• understand the depth of loss that occurred as a result of the Residential
School system
• learn about contemporary people and organizations who are engaged in cultural revitalization efforts
• understand that they have an individual and collective role in reconciliation
Students and teachers all over Canada will be at different stages of learning. We hope
that the Remembering the Children publication and educator’s guide provide you
with content, resources, voices and ideas so that you can continue these important
conversations all year long.
With appreciation to all educators who are taking on this important work
Residential Schools is a three-part podcast series that aims to honour the stories of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Survivors, their families, and communities.
Residential schools were boarding schools for Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit and Métis) children and youth, financed by the federal government but staffed and run by several Christian religious institutions. Children were separated from their families and communities, sometimes by force, and lived in and attended classes at the schools for most of the year. Often, the residential schools were located far from the students’ home communities. The schools were in existence for well over 100 years, and successive generations of children and families from the same communities endured this experience.
Understandably, the impacts were severe. This history was hidden for many years, until Survivors of the system were able to find the strength and courage to tell their stories. This lead to one of the largest class action lawsuits in Canada’s history. Though it will take time and commitment to heal the relationship between Indigenous Peoples and Canada, the reconciliation process has begun.
Rupertsland Organization for Teaching and Learning has developed some excellent resources to learn about the Métis history in Alberta that are recommended for all educators. Resources are continually being added as they are created and approved in support of educators’ learning and teaching.
Curated ELA resources for teaching Indigenous Perspectives.
Shattering the Silence is a Saskatchewan Project of Heart interactive ebook that uncovers the history of Indian residential schools in Saskatchewan.
Written in 2017 by the Faculty of Education at the University of Regina, this document discovers the reality of residential schools in Saskatchewan. It is a great resource for teachers, students and the community that covers many topics and all the residential schools in the province.
This ebook is part of Project of Heart, which is a commemorative project that facilitates student learning about residential schools. The project is an inquiry-based, collaborative, intergenerational, and artistic journey to examine the history and legacy of Indian residential schools in Canada, leading to the acknowledgment of the losses incurred by former students, their families and communities.
The Sixties Scoop refers to a period in Saskatchewan’s history when Indigenous children were removed from their parents and communities by provincial child welfare services. Status, non-status, Métis and Inuit children were placed for adoption and/or foster care and were raised outside of their communities without the influences of their Indigenous culture, values and languages. This section contains a list of resources and curriculum connections for teachers to address with their students.
This is a link to the Ministry of Education's site and Sixties Scoop Resources.
This booklet is written by Spirit Bear as a youth-friendly guide to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) 94 Calls to Action.
In 2008, a group called the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was made. Their job was to listen to stories about residential schools and then write the stories down so we can learn from our mistakes. In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission announced their 94 Calls to Action. These are 94 activities all governments, courts, businesses, schools, and people living in Canada can do to help fix the mistakes of the past and present so that all children – including First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children – can grow up happy, healthy, safe, and proud of who they are.
A teacher’s guide from the 2022 Treaty Education Summer Institute which uses storytelling as a portal to explore Treaties.
This site has been created to support school staffs to work together to expand their understanding of truth and reconciliation as well as the history and legacy of residential schools. It contains tools and resources to support important conversations and professional development opportunities.
This space will continue to grow and evolve as resources are identified and experiences are shared. The intent is that this site will be created collaboratively, in the true nature of reconciliation. Please join the discussion to share what your school is doing to support student understanding and to help bring about reconciliation in our province and our country.
Use the navigation on the left to get started.
Learn more by navigating the more detailed menu below.