Teachers can help develop laws

By Kelly Crawford

SUDBURY – First Nations educators need to be actively involved in developing education laws for their own communities.

“When you look forward 100 years from now will you be able to say I did my job?”  guest speaker Diane Longboat asked 120 participants at the Kenjgewin Teg Educational Institute’s Principals and Educators Conference.

“No one First Nation is going to make it on their own…just like no one family will make it…that is the teaching,” said Longboat, Mohawk, Turtle Clan, Six Nations of the Grand River Territory.

In a presentation entitled, “Creating a Nation Law in First Nations Education” Longboat told her audience of teachers that Ontario Ministry of Education standards have failed First Nations people. The solution must be the creation of First Nations Education Law created by First Nations people.

She emphasized the importance of working together to accomplish collective goals. “The time for ego is over. Those that are led by ego will not survive.”

The perfect system will be in place “when the system aligns with the Creator’s vision,” she said.

 “What we fail to do is believe in ourselves.”