When students in Mount Royal Collegiate's Indigenous Studies 30 classroom were asked to examine the social issues that affect their lives and community, they turned the focus on their school.
"A major outcome in Indigenous Studies 30 is looking at social development," said teacher Jody Lerat, who is from Cowessess First Nation. "Everybody in the class had to choose their own social issue or social topic that affects Indigenous people in Canada. I gave them a huge list to choose from and everyone in the class chose different topics, with the end goal of educating each other about our topics."
"My focus was to have them look at the big picture of Canada, narrow it down to how it affects Indigenous people in Saskatoon, and then take it even further: how does it affect students at Mount Royal?"
The result was a series of video projects that examined subjects such as substance abuse, two-spirit narratives, residential schools and the resulting intergenerational trauma, government policy toward Indigenous people, and missing and murdered Indigenous women — all issues that affect the lives of students. Last, the class ended with a photo essay featuring students in the class, as well as members of Mount Royal's staff, which gave a face to what reconciliation means to people in the school community.
One of the final short films, "Stereotypes: How they affect Indigenous people in Canada & at Mount Royal Collegiate", was the recipient of a City of Saskatoon Living in Harmony award. The film, shot by Reshai Aisaican with the help of Mickey Laliberte and Taylor Larocque, asks students how they view themselves as Indigenous people. When they are asked to share the stereotypes that are used by others to describe Indigenous people the students' words are blunt and honest.
