Being Included in and Balancing the Complexities of Becoming an Aboriginal Teacher

Abstract

Our Mi’kmaq and Anishinabe Elders, Sister Dorothy and Florence, remind us of the centrality of family in our lives and who we are becoming. When children are taken away from their families and familial contexts the suffering endured by the children, parents, family members, and community is unbearable. This removal of Aboriginal children from families, communities, and the places they knew was unnecessary. Aboriginal people have always known what they want for their children: “We all agree that respect is one of the foundations of what defines our values of our people.” This teaching of respect given to us by the Elders has sustained us in the past and in the present. These teachings will continue to sustain us into the future. The stories of our parents have sustained us too. When our mothers and fathers urged us to not lose our languages they were reminding us of who we are and where we come from. In this way they were giving us a legacy of being proud of our language, of our traditions, and of our ways of being Aboriginal people. It is as we claim and reconnect with these stories of the Elders and our ancestors that we know ways forward (Archibald, 2008; Cajete, 2001; Restoule, 2000).

Citation

Isabelle Young, M., Joe, L., Lamoureux, J., Marshall, L., Dorothy Moore, S., Orr, J.-L., Mary Parisian, B., Paul, K., Paynter, F. and Huber, J. (2012), "Being Included in and Balancing the Complexities of Becoming an Aboriginal Teacher", Isabelle Young, M., Joe, L., Lamoureux, J., Marshall, L., Dorothy Moore, S., Orr, J.-L., Mary Parisian, B., Paul, K., Paynter, F. and Huber, J. (Ed.) Warrior Women: Remaking Postsecondary Places through Relational Narrative Inquiry (Advances in Research on Teaching, Vol. 17), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 127-152. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-3687(2012)0000017013