On-Reserve Education: Transitioning From Damage-Centered Policy Practices to Desire-Based Reforms

• In Event: English Learners and Indigenous Education Policy: Community-Based Reform

Abstract

From focusing funding allotments in crisis situations to initiating patronizing policy without community consultation, governments continue to view Indigenous populations as child-like, and formulate strategies around what Eve Tuck would describe as “damage-centered interpretations”. (2009, p.413). Communities call for community consultation and collaborative policy-building, but continue to receive education policy that questions their ability to deliver programming. I will describe Canada’s First Nations Control of First Nations Education Act and the resistance that led to its withdrawal, and its implications on future indigenous-focused policy. I will use Eve Tuck’s work on “damage-centred research” to look specifically at Canada’s Bill C-33 as colonialist policy in the guise of autonomy. Finally, I will discuss alternative modes of creating constructive policy.

Author

• Miranda Huron, The University of British Columbia