In 1867, Canada’s federal government became responsible for the education of Indigenous peoples: Status Indians and some Métis would attend schools on reserves; non-Status Indians and some Métis would attend provincial schools. The system set the stage for decades of broken promises and misguided experiments that are only now being rectified in the spirit of truth and reconciliation.

Knowing the Past, Facing the Future traces the arc of Indigenous education since Confederation and draws a road map of the obstacles that need to be removed before the challenge of reconciliation can be met. This insightful volume is organized in three parts. The opening chapters examine colonial promises and practices, including the treaty right to education and the establishment of day, residential, and industrial schools. The second part focuses on the legacy of racism, trauma, and dislocation, and the third part explores contemporary issues in curriculum development, assessment, leadership, and governance.

This diverse collection reveals the possibilities and problems associated with incorporating Traditional Knowledge and Indigenous teaching and healing practices into school courses and programs.

Sheila Carr-Stewart's profile page

Sheila Carr-Stewart is a professor emerita at the College of Education at the University Saskatchewan and teaches in the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta. A former teacher, she has worked extensively in the area of Indigenous education, particularly on issues related to jurisdiction, administration, funding, and local control of community schools. In 2013, she received the University of Saskatchewan Provost’s Award for Teaching and Research Excellence in Aboriginal Education.

Contributors: Jonathan Anuik, Michael Cottrell, Karlee D. Fellner, Rosalind Hardie, Darryl Hunter, Harry Lafond, Solange Lalonde, Brooke Madden, Yvonne Poitras Pratt, Jane P. Preston, Larry Prochner, Noella Steinhauer

Readers who are new to the topic, such as practicing teachers who wish to enhance their responsiveness to Indigenous students or undergraduate history majors, will gain accessible historical and policy context, alongside complex and nuanced representatios of the challenges that pervade Indigenous education today.

Historical Studies in Education

This book provides innovative reflections on long-standing issues in Indigenous education in Canada and suggests possible pathways to address the educational debt that Canada owes Indigenous peoples. I recommend it to educators, students, and administrators, to anyone interested in learning about the history of residential schools, and to all readers who are interested in reconciliation and decolonisation.

British Journal of Canadian Studies

There is no doubting the importance of the subject tackled by this edited collection... In eleven highly diverse chapters, plus a substantial introduction by editor Sheila Carr-Stewart, this collection seeks to shed light on the mechanisms of educational exclusion and sound out the prospects for a different kind of education in the future.

University of Toronto Quarterly