What We Learned
Two Generations Reflect on Tsimshian Education and the Day Schools
Moving beyond the more familiar stories of residential schools, two generations of Tsimshian students recall their experiences attending day and public schools in northwestern British Columbia.
Description
The legacy of residential schools has haunted Canadians, yet little is known about the day and public schools where most Indigenous children were sent to be educated. In What We Learned, two generations of Tsimshian students – elders born in the 1930s and 1940s and middle-aged adults born in the 1950s and 1960s – add their recollections of attending day schools in northwestern British Columbia to contemporary discussions of Indigenous schooling in Canada. Their stories also invite readers to consider traditional Indigenous views of education that conceive of learning as a lifelong experience that takes place across multiple contexts.