Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - October 6, 2020, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE B1 CITY●BUSINESS ASSOCIATE EDITOR NEWS: STACEY THIDRICKSON 204-697-7292 ● CITY.DESK@FREEPRESS.MB.CA ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM B1 TUESDAY OCTOBER 6, 2020 SECTION BCONNECT WITH WINNIPEG’S NO. 1 NEWS SOURCE▼ T HREE-AND-A-HALF centu-ries after Hudson’s Bay Co. received its first charter — giving Prince Rupert and his “Com- pany of Adventurers of England” an exclusive trading monopoly over the entire Hudson Bay drainage basin — its biggest symbol of colonization is coming to an end. In February, the company plans to close its six-storey flagship store at Por- tage Avenue and Memorial Boulevard, literally Canada’s gateway to the West. When it opened in 1926, its palatial architecture was an homage to proper and profitable English civilization. As a testament to the Empire, the Union Jack once flew high on its rooftop, towering over a burgeoning city, pro- nouncing progress and evolution. Inside were goods manufactured from Canada’s settling of the plains: furs, blankets, and, eventually, Guess cologne (that’s what I bought there, anyways). Everything Canada, includ- ing Olympic gear, came from HBC. At one time, the building was “a testament to the wealth being amassed in this colonized land,” as my Free Press colleague Melissa Martin wrote, but eventually became, “an impossible building. Too big, too costly, too proud.” So, this is how colonization ends. The people who profit the most take all they can from the land and people within it, and then quietly leave when there’s nothing left to take. Soon, all that will be left is an empty, lifeless pile of plaster and metal that will cost millions to repair or remove for those who actually live here. Really, though, this is how coloniza- tion continues. HBC is not a retail empire — never really was — but a mas- sive real estate company. Just as King Charles II gave Prince Rupert lands that were not his to give, HBC holds deeds to billions of dollars of global property (much within former Rupertsland itself) and will march on. As proof, I will be able to buy my cologne at the Bay loca- tions at St. Vital or Polo Park. The company’s legacy of exploitation, violence and theft is permanent, though. HBC began with profits from the slave trade and cheap goods from the British colonies. It was instrumental in manufacturing goods for the Common- wealth, the world’s oldest economic su- perpower. Alongside were billions built off Indigenous lands and resources. Indigenous peoples benefited from the fur trade, of course, but they paid far more than profited. On its website, HBC admits it “relied on Indigenous expertise for general survival, survey- ing, trapping, translating, kinship and much more” to build the company, but when it came to sharing profits and the land (particularly when transferring Rupertsland to Canada in 1870), ev- erything was done “without consulting First Nations or Métis inhabitants.” Canada may have instituted poverty via the Indian Act and residential schools, but HBC opened the door. As National Indian Brotherhood Chief George Manuel said at the company’s 300th anniversary: “The company was responsible for the misery, deprivation and exploitation of Canada’s Indigenous peoples.” So, yes, the HBC building means a lot to Winnipeg beyond warm memo- ries of the Paddlewheel restaurant, although I have those too. The building is the face of British occupation, theft and the first steps of genocide. It’s a conspicuous site. Therefore, recovering it requires a conspicuous solution. Let’s make Winnipeg’s most non-In- digenous space Indigenous space. Let’s make it a place where our community can renew, change, and enter the next 350 years of our lives together. Time is now to reimagine symbol of colonization NIIGAAN SINCLAIR OPINION ● CONTINUED ON B2 I N the third grade Malaihka Sie-mens met the first — and only — classroom teacher she would ever have who looked like her. At the time, Frances Smith was approximately 5-4 with short black hair, glasses and a teaching style that incorporated sharing circles into the classroom, recalls Siemens, now in her final year in Manitoba’s public school system. “Up until then, I hadn’t seen any- body Indigenous in a teacher’s pos- ition,” says the 17-year-old, who is Oji- Cree and Kenyan. “From there, I had this vision of me being in her position and I kind of vic- ariously lived through her in her class- room because I was so fascinated with the way she incorporated our culture into her lessons so eloquently.” Had Siemens not been in Smith’s class at Sister MacNamara School, she may never have put becoming a teacher on her bucket list. That’s the premise behind a new report card on the state of equity in Manitoba’s K-12 education system. Authored by the Winnipeg Indigen- ous Executive Circle, the report outlines the underrepresentation of Indigenous peoples as teachers in classrooms of all grade levels, in post- secondary faculties of education and on public school boards across the province. “In order to improve academic out- comes for Indigenous students, they need to see themselves better re- flected in the curriculum and teach- ing staff working in their schools,” states the 31-page-document, which is to be made public today. While the authors acknowledge the traumas of the residential school sys- tem and related issues of poverty and mental health care must be taken into account when working to improve In- digenous graduation rates, they argue representation plays an important role in boosting outcomes. “A teacher is really important to the lives of the kids, as we all know, and having more Indigenous educators in those positions and giving (students) different viewpoints, the class as a whole, I think is a great goal,” said Trevor LaForte, co-chairman of the Winnipeg Indigenous Executive Circle. LaForte added that achieving such a goal requires both data collection and targets to improve the status quo at training and division levels — which are among the 10 calls to action listed in the report. Other calls to action range from an ask all divisions create an employ- ment equity policy to a call for uni- versities to release annual Indigenous enrolment and graduation reports to the creation of a designated Indigen- ous seat on school boards. The report draws on survey re- sponse data collected from the six Winnipeg-area school divisions and the faculties of education at the Uni- versity of Manitoba, University of Winnipeg, University of Saint-Boni- face and Brandon University in the spring of 2019. The data indicate that in 2017-18, In- digenous students accounted for 27.2 per cent of the student population in the Winnipeg School Division. That same year, according to the report, 8.4 per cent of the division’s perma- nent teaching staff identified as In- digenous, while Indigenous support staff made up 13.3 per cent of its edu- cational assistant roster. The River East Transcona, Louis Riel, Pembina Trails, St. James-As- siniboia and Seven Oaks divisions did not provide detailed Indigenous self- identification figures — more often than not, citing the fact they do not collect such data. As for a breakdown of teachers-in- training, figures in the report show Indigenous students accounted for 6.6 per cent of the total Bachelor of Education graduates at the U of W, on average, between 2011 and 2015. During that same period, the mean annual percentage at the U of M was 5.2 per cent. Also in the report is a breakdown of the number of Indigenous trustees — 2 of 54 across the city’s six divisions — serving on school boards in Win- nipeg. Both Métis trustees currently serve on the province’s largest board in central Winnipeg. A co-author of the equity report and former trustee, Sonia Prevost-Der- becker knows firsthand the importance of having Indigenous representation on school boards, and how exhausting it can be to be the only Indigenous voice at a decision-making table. “If you have Indigenous people at the table, you’ll have a greater chance of ensuring that Indigenous issues get a place of priority and outcomes will change as a result,” she said. Prevost-Derbecker founded the Building From Within program, whose aim — in partnership with the Winnipeg School Division, U of W and Indspire Canada — is to mentor and train Indigenous high school students to help them develop a path to become teachers. She’s also an advocate for the cre- ation of an Indigenous education program at the post-secondary level, which is another one of the collect- ive’s calls to action. Currently a Grade 12 student in the Building From Within program, Siemens said she often thinks back to how she felt in Smith’s classroom in Grade 3. Between Smith and the elders in her life, she said she has had a number of educational role models that have influenced her confidence as a learner. She plans to graduate in June and study to become either a teacher or professor in the future. “I hope to represent all the people who haven’t felt that they have been represented and seen and heard and valued in education and in their learn- ing experiences,” Siemens added. maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca Culture in the classroom MAGGIE MACINTOSH Report aims to increase representation of Indigenous people as educators RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Grade 12 student Malaihka Siemens says educational role models in her life have influenced her as a learner and inspired her to pursue a career in education. ‘I had this vision of me being in her position and I kind of vicariously lived through her in her classroom because I was so fascinated with the way she incorporated our culture into her lessons so eloquently’ LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE REPORTER B_01_Oct-06-20_FP_01.indd B1 2020-10-05 9:32 PM ;