EXCLUSIVE: After Skywoman, BC teachers must answer whose land they’re on

PENTICTON — After an Anishinaabe creation story about Skywoman falling onto a turtle’s back and a poem that told teachers they live on “stolen Indigenous lands,” the BC Teachers’ Federation anti-racism course finally turns to the racism part.But first, learners are required to answer a series of post-recital questions and reflections after listening to the poem titled, "Beyond Thank You for the Real Estate.".The program is titled "From Awareness to Action — Anti-Racism in the Union." It is promoted as foundational training for more than 45,000 public-school teachers. A 2022 Executive Committee motion effectively requires it for Annual General Meeting delegates, Representative Assembly attendees and candidates for provincial elected office. Members are also encouraged to use it in classrooms.I enrolled undercover, posing as a union member, and as such, I answered the reflection questions to the best of my ability — earnestly, and in good faith — in an attempt to best replicate the experience a real BCTF teacher is expected to have. What follows is that attempt..Whose lands are you on?I genuinely don't know. At the time I began the module several months ago I was in New Westminster. Multiple First Nations assert overlapping claims to the same territory. The course offers no guidance on how a non-indigenous teacher is supposed to navigate those competing assertions.What do you know about the culture and history of these nations?Very little. The module assumes a familiarity most working teachers, academics, and reporters do not possess.What is the history of how you came to be on this land?My parents moved here from Calgary in the mid-1990s.How has colonialism supported your arrival? It has not. We arrived through ordinary family relocation.How are truth and reconciliation and anti-racism connected?The module never defines either term with precision. Without those definitions the question cannot be answered on the training’s own terms.What role do you see yourself playing in this work?As limited a role as possible..Only after the post-recital reflection exercise does the course turn to definitions.The first definition videos appear under the slides “What is racism?” and “What is White Supremacy?” Two presenters — black men with conspicuously American-sounding accents identified as Omari and Willis — explain that to understand racism, teachers must first understand race. Race, they say, is a social construct — one that “even white people” can experience..The next video asks what "white supremacy" is. The course text states that “the ordinary and invisible nature of white privilege can make it hard to detect.” It then brings in Dr. Arlo Kempf, an associate professor of equity education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto.Kempf introduces himself as a “Settler Canadian” living in Treaty 13 territory in Toronto. He describes white supremacy as “the cultural work of making Whiteness and white people synonymous with being human or with humanness or with an imagined normal or inevitable or entitled person.”The course notes that, as a “cisgender-heterosexual white man,” people generally treat him with respect automatically and view him as an authority without knowing his experience or credentials..To recap: by this point in Module 1 the course has delivered a creation story, a poem that requires support for land-back, DRIPA and UNDRIP, along with a non-definition of race as a "social construct," and a definition of white supremacy as the "cultural work of treating whiteness as normal."Classroom strategies for racial incidents, bullying or curriculum bias have still not appeared. At this point I am, frankly, losing faith they ever will.This is the second instalment of a Western Standard exclusive series examining the BCTF anti-racism training. Further modules will be covered as reporting continues.

EXCLUSIVE: After Skywoman, BC teachers must answer whose land they’re on

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