b'GUIDING THE JOURNEYHow can curriculum changesWhat did it mean to you to receiveI was actually able to bring my support authentic reconciliationthe Guiding the Journey Award?mom with me. My mom is Mtis and celebrate Indigenous identity,You know, coming full circle, doingfrom Winnipeg, and she never got especially given the tragic legacythe work that I do and that manyto complete her education. She was of residential schools? Howin the foster care system. She grew does your work in Indigenizingother people do, you dont need curriculum contribute? a pat on the back, but it doesntup in poverty, and she only has a This is a huge part of my ownhurt, right? Were all human. WeGrade 4 or 5 education. And I do journey, supporting my grand- want that recognition. For me,this not just for my mom, but for mother,whos now passed. Whenit was all about that inner child.my grandmother, for all the people the Truth and ReconciliationIt was personally healingevenwho werent able to make it, to Commission (TRC) first came out,being recognized with the awardsurvive these systems. It still is very I helped her tell her story. I wasin Winnipeg, which is a place tiedimpactful to me, and Im very proud one of only two people who hadto my own childhood traumas.of it.heard it from her. That was really impactful for me. Carrying on her story helps others realize that just because I didnt attend residential school doesnt mean I havent felt the impact.Its really important that recon-ciliation, identity and Indigenizing curriculum are always rooted in the reminder that we are still here today, still feeling the impacts and effects of residential schools on individuals and communities, parenting, identity, etc. I want [educators] to know that, for example, if theyre engaging with an Indigenous family or when theyre making comments about why this Indigenous family doesnt come to the school or doesnt respond to their emails, they remember its [rooted in] a long history of this not-great relationship between the modern education system and First Nation, Inuit and Mtis people. Whats also really important is to bring in the historical Mtis experi-ence with residential schools. I try to draw and bring that into the curric-ulum that Im sharing and helping my peers design and learn. Im really trying to [put] a lot of importance on making sure that people dont lump us all into one groupto stop pan-Indigenizing us, highlighting Two-Spirit identities, talking about Moon Time teachings. If you know of an Indigenous resource, or a person who can talk about these things, go there first.2025indspiration27'