Powell River School Board voted to endorse the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission at a recent School District 47 meeting.
Released this summer, the commission’s report contained 94 recommendations, including a call for the development of curricula on the history of residential schools and first nations culture.
“We want to ensure within our schools that students from elementary to high school are being taught the history,” said Jeanette Scott, school board chair.
Scott said that prior to the recommendations of the commission the board had already moved to include first nations content in local curricula.
Tla’amin elder Elsie Paul’s memoir, Written as I Remember it: Teachings from the Life of a Sliammon Elder, won Aboriginal History Book Prize and a Clio Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian Historical Association this summer.
“Last year the board purchased copies of Elsie Paul’s book,” she said. “We supplied copies to every school in the district, as well as a curriculum guide that I prepared for secondary teachers.”
According to Scott, the board’s acceptance of the recommendations is part of paving the way for the implementation of the Tla’amin (Sliammon) First Nation treaty next year.
