Skip to content

Notes From The Trail: If we’re serious about helping Indigenous children, let Indigenous governments take the reins

The GNWT showed its colours recently and some were not pretty.
31285545_web1_210616-YEL-SJF-seven_1
The Department of Education should introduce courses in drum making, storytelling, First Nations history and a host of languages (now endangered) as told and taught by the Elders, says columnist Nancy Vail. It could lead to improved attendance, she suggests. Here, former premier Stephen Kakfwi, left, K’a Nakehk’o, Jim Antoine, Deneze Nakehk’o and Ehxea Nakehk’o perform a Dene drum ceremony in front of the fire in June 2021. NNSL file photo

The GNWT showed its colours recently and some were not pretty.

In the first instance, a recently released report from the government showed that Indigenous people are still only being hired for entry-level jobs. Commentators such as Deh Cho MLA Ronald Bonnetrouge and Danny Gaudet, chief of the Deline Got’ine Government, point fingers at an education system which continues to fail young people. The literacy level upon graduation can be so low that students often have to go south to upgrade before they can consider post-secondary schooling.

In the meantime, both the City of Yellowknife and the GNWT look at developing a polytechnical institution when the report clearly showed that young graduates don’t have the grades to qualify. That the system is failing our upcoming generation, particularly in the communities where staffing levels at schools and retaining teachers is so difficult, is not new. Nor is an attempt to improve the graduation rates. The system has been dysfunctional for years and now the GNWT is looking to adopt the B.C. curriculum in an attempt to improve students’ chances of success.

Really?

Young people, particularly Indigenous youth, are not doing well because we are still trying to fit them into a colonial system that does not speak to them or help them shine. It does not honour who they are or their culture in the same way that residential schools failed children then. The system is designed for us, not them. Why are we thwarting the movement toward decolonization?

Yukon recently created a First Nations school board which will determine the curriculum for its First Nations. Why is that not happening in the NWT? We have an English school board, Catholic school board, and schools specializing in French. Why are we dropping the ball on an education designed specifically for First Nations? Give them the reins. Why are we not offering courses in drum making, storytelling, First Nations history, and a host of languages (now endangered) as told and taught by the Elders? These are just a few suggestions that might increase attendance because they speak to the soul of the students rather than being designed to meet our needs? Why are we still trying to fit them into a mold we created that doesn’t even work for us? Will a curriculum adopted from B.C. really improve the situation?

To talk about building a new polytechnic school when we are unable to help young people make it through the system at all makes no sense. This is putting the cart before the horse and adding to the Yellowknife-centric focus while people in the communities continue to fall through the cracks. The education system here, including Aurora College, was intended to help Northern people — let’s remember the mandate. Outside of Yellowknife are third-world conditions. Let’s build an education system to meet their needs now.

Adding to all of this, the territorial government has decided to join a Supreme Court of Canada legal challenge of federal legislation that, until recently, it supported. This legislation would allow the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation (IRC) to govern the care of beneficiary children, which is decentralization in action and returning power into rightful hands. The Inuvialuit would be taking care of their own, as it should be.

Until recently, Premier Caroline Cochrane supported this move. Now, with the legal challenge, she has gone silent and what we are hearing is that the GNWT is afraid of losing power and control. In other words, it is pulling a Danielle Smith — the challenge has nothing to do with the well-being of the kids.

Why are we doing this? It appears that the federal government is doing its best to follow its commitment to decentralize and return power to First Nations, but the GNWT does not want to let go. Why? A governing structure that owes its very existence to maintaining colonial practices does not want federal money falling into the wrong hands. It is a precedent it doesn’t want to set.

With an election in the not too distance future, the GNWT might want to rethink this challenge and avoid angering the chiefs — and the people — more than it already has.

We are in a critical time right now — working toward truth and especially reconciliation. Doing that requires our relinquishing power and putting it in the right hands: the First Nations themselves. We either want to end colonialism or we don’t. The GNWT needs to make up its mind.

Drop the challenge, forget the polytechnic for now. Let’s improve what we have to help the kids, let go and empower. GNWT, the ball is in your court.