Total Education at Cross Lake A Report Prepared for the Cross Lake Education Authority 5 August 2020 William Osborne, Michelle Umpherville, and Greg Halcrow; compiled by Anne Lindsay Acknowledgements I wish to acknowledge Anne what she could do for me, meline of the day and Lindsay and Michelle Umpher- and I said I had come here to residen al schools that form ville for their great contribu- off er my help to the school. part of the path to today’s on and support in this proj- She immediately responded schools. The goal and the ect, the Cross Lake Educa on that I could not have come at objec ve are that each person director for his support and a be er me than today. She will be able to think back and encouragement, the Mikisew asked me to come to work retrace their own school path School and the O er Nelson and help the next day. and experiences; and knowing River school administrators I said I will go and see Greg, what happened, and that it and all of their staff for their and I will tell him I will help should not have happened, welcome and support, and with the school’s behavioural and learning about an the Cross Lake Band members issues and concerns. I did accep ng the past, to be able for their sharing stories and visit the Cross Lake educa on to move forward in a good pictures. I would also like to director, and sure enough he way, thinking: what can we thank the local IRS offi ce and welcomed me in helping and do be er, what can we plan staff for their respect and suppor ng the high school. I and create, how can we make courtesy. A big thank you to said to him that I would like to and build a safe and eff ec ve Elder Anne e Ross for sharing do research about this social school wherein all pupils are school pictures and to Corrine and behavioural school issues respected and accepted in Halcrow for providing sta s- and concerns from there order for eff ec ve learning cs and computer-generated by making the necessary to happen, as respec ully so graphs. Also to Jeremy Ross and appropriate structural, desired by the community for his help. protocol, and process in a and the parents. short term and in the long term. This is how this research Foreword and wellness work and project came about. I was always shown in a But in doing it, we found that dream about schools and we had to reach back to how children, and one day I had it all began, tracing the path strong feeling that I must from the 1800s to now. So go to the school and off er here is “Total Educa on at my help and support to the Cross Lake” – know the past administrators and staff . to understand the present, When I got there and when to plan for the future. To the school’s recep onist told make the reading easier and the principal that I had come more understandable, we to see her, I walked into he have included a chronological principal’s offi ce; she asked Total Educa on at Cross Lake Executive industrial, or residen al that probably exacerbated schools. For children problems with staff reten on. Summary a ending residen al schools, The sudden increase in the From the early 1880s, either the Roman Catholic number of pupils a er World the type of educa on School on the Cross Lake War 2 only added to the Pimicikamak families and Reserve or more distant challenges students and their their children have had schools at places such as families faced. Norway House and Brandon, access to has shi ed from Changes to the Department western educa on was a family and community- of Indian Aff airs’ educa onal totalizing experience well- focused land-based learning policy in the 1970s and 1980s documented by the Royal toward increasing amounts of made space for increased Commission on Aboriginal me spent in western-style par cipa on by bands in the Peoples (RCAP) and the classrooms where students educa on process. The Cross Truth and Reconcilia on were exposed to curriculum Lake Educa on Authority Commission (TRC). For designed, and in many cases was created in 1987, 105 students a ending days delivered, by non-Indigenous years a er the fi rst school schools on the reserve, educators. While this trend was held in the teacher’s a endance could be, and was experienced diff erently home on the reserve, when o en was, sporadic, and was by diff erent children and the community decided to balanced by long periods on their families, in general, take control of the school the land learning with family access to tradi onal ways of system their children were and community at least un l learning and knowing, based a ending. As a part of this, the end of World War 2. in rela onships and centred the community commi ed within families and the land Despite these diff erences, to expanding the number of declined gradually from the from the beginning, grades off ered at the school, late nineteenth century un l both day schools and the so children could receive a the end of World War 2. residen al school on the higher educa on without It was not un l the 1940s, Cross Lake Reserve were having to leave their families. when a number of changes, funded and supervised However, funding con nued including the introduc on by Canada, while being to be targeted to certain of the Family Allowance operated by two diff erent kinds of infrastructure, Program, that Cross Lake day religious denomina ons: course delivery, and schools saw marked increases the Roman Catholic and curriculum. In the late 1990s, in school a endance, Methodist (later United funding caps that did not however, some families’ Church). Curriculum refl ected accommodate changes in children a ended school full that of the colonial state, total popula on or refl ect me before this period. as did the structure of the real infl a on exacerbated From the 1890s un l the learning environment. While an already exis ng divide 1970s or 1980s, children parents took an interest in between Indigenous and might fi nd themselves in their children’s educa on, non-Indigenous educa on one of two broad streams funding and infrastructure spending. This pa ern of of classroom educa on; tended to be below that of under-resourcing can be day schools or boarding, southern schools, a situa on traced back through the i Total Educa on at Cross Lake en re history of classroom Today the community consists Certainly related to the above educa on at Cross Lake. In of 8,790 members, with 6,288 issues, other community 2016, the CBC reported that, living on reserve and 2,482 social concerns include: according to one economist, living off reserve, as well as 20 First Na ons students living on crown land. Of these, received 30 per cent less there are 1,741 registered Unemployment, funding when compared to students ranging from Nursery cri cal safe housing shortages non-Indigenous students. to Grade 12. In grades 6 to 12 alone there are 732 registered homelessness, Looking back over the more students. However, according than 100 years of schooling health issues, to band membership at Cross Lake, it is clear that, and deaths and dying. popula on sta s cs, of youth despite many challenges, aged 11 to 17, only 671 out of parents have wanted and a possible 892 are registered supported educa on that All of these concerns have for school, raising the respects rela onships clear impacts on the school important ques on: where between family, community, climate and on the ability are the remaining 221 school and Aski, and that off ers of children and youth to age young people, and how students the opportunity realize their full learning can schooling respond to their to learn in ways that are capacity. By looking back needs as well as to the needs meaningful and useful to at the educa onal history of already registered students students and their families of Pimicikamak and using in ways that will invite all of and communi es. Especially that informa on in the the community’s youth into a before World War 2, families present, it is possible to fi nd a posi ve and useful educa on. chose to combine family posi ve vision of community and community-centred Because community and educa on that can inform a educa on with periods educa onal success are be er future. in the classroom to learn necessarily enmeshed, Lessons from the past, from the skills that could help current community social the history of Day schools, students succeed in their issues must be considered in of the Residen al Schools changing world. This balance any sort of future planning. By System, can off er invaluable of tradi onal values and surveying court records, the insights that can help avoid skills with western subjects community has iden fi ed 5 past traumas and point to con nue to refl ect in a local key social issues: eff ec ve alterna ves and vision of what respec ul a brighter future for the modernity can look like; at next genera ons and the Alcohol abuse, present, the community’s community as a whole. schools have the capacity to crimes against persons, They can off er hope and be an important resource impaired driving, take advantage of current in preparing for a brighter opportuni es to create a shared future.