EXCLUSIVE: I enrolled in the BC Teachers’ Federation anti-racism training so you didn’t have to

NEW WESTMINSTER — When I signed up for the BC Teachers’ Federation’s self-paced online anti-racism course, I expected tools for dealing with racism in schools. Instead, I got an indigenous creation story about a Skywoman falling through a black hole onto a turtle’s back, followed by a poem telling me I live on “stolen indigenous lands," along with instructions that I obey and actively support DRIPA, UNDRIP, and land-back efforts..The course, offered through the BCTF’s Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression Office, is promoted to the more than 45,000 public-school teachers the union represents. It presents itself as a foundational anti-racism education tool inside the union. I enrolled by pretending to be a BCTF union member to see what the training actually contains..Predictably, and fittingly, it begins with a land acknowledgement — an entire section on land acknowledgements, actually.The module delivers not only a land acknowledgment, but also a lengthy explanation for the creation of the universe itself, drawn from conversations with an indigenous support worker named Genísilexws, BCTF staff members Chris Stewart and Mayana Ambers, the Aboriginal Education Advisory Committee, the Seven Grandfather Teachings and the Anishinaabe story “Skywoman Falling” from Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book Braiding Sweetgrass.The text recounts the story in detail: in the beginning of time, there was no land, only water.A Skywoman fell through a hole from Skyworld carrying a handful of seeds. Geese caught her and placed her on the back of a turtle. Animals tried to dive for mud and only the muskrat succeeded. Skywoman spread the mud, danced in thanksgiving, and voila! Turtle Island — North America — was born.Genísilexws is quoted explaining the lesson: “This story teaches us the belief of respecting femme and the land, ‘because mother earth is our mother, and we are part of her and therefore have a responsibility to care for her.’ This is why many indigenous societies are matriarchal.”The module moves on to the Seven Grandfather Teachings, which it says guide “good relationships with one another.” When visiting another territory, indigenous people introduce themselves by name, lineage, where they came from and what brought them we are told. The training presents this protocol as the model settlers should follow.One unnamed BCTF union member is quoted: “I expect there to be a land acknowledgement at every meeting that I go to and if there isn’t one, then when it is my turn to speak, I make sure that I say one. It’s the first thing that I will do because I want to bring them back to that action of reconciliation.” .Then, right on cue, comes the indictment of colonization.Non-aboriginal people are framed as “guests” on the land who "must respect aboriginal rights, women, girls, femmes and land."The next section deepens the lesson with a poem titled Beyond “Thank You for the Real Estate” (seriously). Participants are told the learning draws on "indigenous pedagogy" and are invited to listen to a recitation “to encourage a deeper understanding of land acknowledgments.”Before the poem, the training asks participants to acknowledge “the intentional complicity of settler systems in genocide and ecocide as the basis for assuming responsibilities towards the land and Indigenous peoples.” Without that admission, it warns, statements about the “pleasure and privilege” of living on the land risk echoing the poem’s title.The poem itself is direct, explicit, accusatory and demanding. It asks listeners to “take a moment to remember the genocides and the ecocides that have happened on the land and to the people of the land so that you could have the pleasure and privilege to live, love, work and play on stolen Indigenous lands.”.After the recitation comes a series of “post recital questions.” Teachers are asked: “Whose lands are you on?” “What is the history of how you came to be on this land?” and “How are truth and reconciliation and anti-racism connected?”For non-indigenous participants the questions are not open-ended. The training has already supplied the uniform answer: use your platforms to advance DRIPA, UNDRIP, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action, and Section 35 of the Constitution.No explanation is offered of what those instruments actually contain, nor is any direction given on how a teacher might examine them for themselves. The prescribed response is simply to affirm and promote them..At this point a basic question remains unanswered: when does the anti-racism training begin?So far the entire introduction to the first module has framed non-indigenous teachers as unwelcome guests on “stolen” land, required them to acknowledge complicity in genocide and ecocide, and directed them to advance land-back, DRIPA and UNDRIP — all before any practical discussion of racism in schools has appeared.This is the first instalment of an exclusive Western Standard series examining the BCTF anti-racism training. Further modules will be covered as reporting continues.

EXCLUSIVE: I enrolled in the BC Teachers’ Federation anti-racism training so you didn’t have to

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