Episode 4: Building Trust and Partnerships

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Jessica Sass

This is Jessica Sass and you are listening to one of four parts of a series titled: Collective History: Reconciliation, Knowledge, & Justice. Over the course of several months, semi-structured interviews were conducted with Indigenous educational partners of Facing History and Ourselves Canada, an international education organization that creates supplemental materials for teachers that “stand up to bigotry and hate.”  Educators and elders shared their vision of what educational partnership looks like and how it impacts not only their classroom but generations of students who will uplift and uphold true narratives of history. In this conversation, we focus on the theme of Building Trust and Relationships. Building partnerships within education spaces are an integral part of Facing History and Ourselves Canada’s pedagogical approach to curriculum creation. The organization’s credibility is built on their partnerships with Indigenous educators and knowledge holders. We explore how these relationships were fostered and nurtured over time. We begin with Grandmother Kim Wheatley, Annishnaabe wisdom Keeper, who explains how her values align with Facing History and Ourselves.

Kim Wheatley  00:00

I want to change the world, one heart at a time so does Facing History. From a true space, not from a deliverable space, or it's always heart connected, it's always heart-centered. They speak from the heart, and everybody who gets to be an employee or work with them blooms. It's almost flawless sometimes in how it goes about doing things. Meeting them and then working with them has been a seamless, mutually gratifying experience in some ways, but, and a relationship of honor. A high level of honor, where I can see people who are like me, that are not from my nation, you know, not from my culture. And yet, it doesn't make a difference, because we get that human connection first. That's brilliant.

Jessica Sass

Elder Shirley, Anishinaabe wisdom keeper, and Jasmine, senior programs associate at Facing History, and Ourselves, share similar sentiments around how they view their partnership. 

Elder Shirley  08:36

Because I work with that one that gives us the breath of life and I'm being channeled to do the work that I need to do. Facing History staff that I work with have been working with for the past six years now. I enjoy the time with the staff. We listen, we laugh. We know each other's moments that we are not feeling well in our minds and in our hearts that something has happened with our families in that we are like a big family that we can share anything we want. But the wisdom goodness and not that they will thrive no matter where they are just like I'm going to move forward, that I have planted seeds with them that they need to help them grow and that they will take those with that they are we will take with us you know. 

Jasmine Wong  02:18

There is such incredible value to be had from working in partnership with individuals who think deeply, you know, connected to culture, to those particular histories. And, so I think we've taken that notion into the work that we do around residential schools. I think the emphasis on how important it is, I think, you know, learning what works with each individual person, and knowing where their goals are, and where our goals intersect, knowing where each person sort of holds space. Yeah, I think it's, you know, there's that first like relationship and meeting. And then there's we've got a goal to work together and then you strike up a conversation and you know, start to see each other as colleagues and then as friends. You share your personal family life. And then it becomes something that there's no real effort to sustain because these people are people who you want to work with, you want to talk to them. You joke about things we've shared a lot of laughs and you know. What could be more sustained than doing really important sort of mission-driven work with people who you can laugh with and grow with and who you can be completely yourself with and who can be completely themselves with you?

Jessica Sass

Leora Schaefer, executive director of Facing History and Ourselves Canada shares how the organization has evolved through the strength of relationships. 

Leora Shaefer  01:08

People like Andrew and Kim. And Lori, Elder Shirley, and Chief Theodore Fountaine, all of these individuals trusted us, and the relationships that we have with them have completely informed the way we work. So they're real authentic relationships, we have relationships where someone can say to us, that's not right. And more importantly, we have relationships where we can say like, is this right? That trusted relationship and we're always thinking now about our work within the construct of sovereignty. And also within, like, really what it means to be in a reciprocal relationship.

Leora Shaefer  03:59

We are valuing everyone’s voice and role is being held up. As executive director where I can come into this role, you know, I am not interested in owning Facing History will not own this content, which is also like turning it upside down. It will be co-owned, not something that's gonna have like the Facing History logo. This is funded by this foundation. Like we're just not doing that anymore. Every writer will be honored and named with their credentials, how they want to be named, like, you don't see an author on stolen lives. It's Facing History, right? Most of our resources don't name the people that wrote it. That's not the current practice and we won't be working like that anymore.

Jessica Sass

Andrew McConnell, the Indigenous education coordinator of York School District, acknowledges Facing History’s transformation of co-collaboration. He explains how organizations typically extract information from Indigenous people and how the approach of Facing History and Ourselves is an anomaly in the world of curriculum development. 

Andrew McConnell  04:59

This happens a lot with Indigenous folk, is basically you get mined for information. So somebody is making something that serves their purposes. And they come to you and they hit you up for your information. And then they say thank you very much. The end and they leave, and then you see it months later, or years later, and it's being reused in different ways in different shapes. And of course, it's earning profit for somebody, which has been pretty much the settler way, since 1492. And so at this stage now, you know, eight, nine, ten generations in, we have no time for that we're very much aware of it. So we look for those projects, if we're going to be involved, the ones that are actually working in serving the needs of the community. Whereas, Facing History really is talking about, you know, what are the practical pieces, and connections to Indigenous people, and they're never mining us for traditional knowledge, that's the other piece. 

Jessica Sass

Andrew discusses the building blocks necessary for a solid relationship and partnership.

Andrew McConnell  05:54

You have to allow for time and relationship building. And sometimes I find that it is difficult for non-Indigenous people to wrap their minds around it. They don't have the patience for it. And I always remind them, it's like, you know, you've got all this time set aside for this project. If you spend the time in the beginning, creating the relationship, the rest will flow, and it will flow very quickly. Because once they trust you, they actually have everything you need already.

Jessica Sass

As Andrew said, you have to allow time for relationship building. Kim explains how much care Facing History puts in truly making her feel heard. 

Kim Wheatley 19:11

A lot of people will engage with me, but they don't hear me. They already have their own ideas about what they're going to do, and they just want me to fit in a slot. And I never feel like a slot with Facing History. I feel heard. And I see responsive action based on perhaps, dialogues we've had or suggestions I've made or observations that I have held. And there's been a respect for that, where I'm not being judged, and I don't feel judged in return. And for me, it's a validation. I only do this work because there is room for it.

Jessica Sass

Grandmother Kim feels the support through both Facing History and her ancestors. Both the cultural support and accommodations she receives from Facing History ultimately let’s her “embrace a sense of wellness” both physically and emotionally within these educational spaces.

Kim Wheatley  06:23

So I like the word tethering, but I love the word grounding. Because I come I never come in alone, right? I come in with all my ancestors, whether you can see them or not, they're there. And they're, you know, they're the cheerleading squad, like, yes, tell them yes, and don't forget this and, and say it in this way. And, and I can hear them, you know, through what, what I actually say it's like, there's this transmission that happens. But having the cultural supports in place and having Facing History make the preparations to accommodate that in my invitation, because it's not just me, I'm bringing the whole community in different ways, right, seen and unseen. So that the teamwork environment is they make sure that I understand why I'm there, that they refresh me, they may do things like taking care of my body. I always have some sort of food to eat and drink without asking for it. There's such great care there, that helps me want to not, you know, get drained and get tired, but also, to be at my best, you know, to embrace a sense of wellness, in the work that I do. And Facing History puts me in a position of educating educators, which is, it's a powerful position. Sometimes I work with, you know, the educated themselves, but mostly, it's what the educators and they're the, you know, that the first line of entry into making change, in an institutionalized environment that is completely resistant to it. They don't want to change. And yet Facing History is an interface for me to be able to say, This is why you can change, this is how you can change. This is how it can feel. This is what it can sound like. This is what it can feel like in you know, tangible ways that you can carry away and you can remember and you can actually do. So there is an empowerment that happens through Facing History for me that is very meaningful.

Jessica Sass

To hear everyone’s full interviews, head over to the “people” tab and click on each individual you’d like to hear more from. You will see their biography, along with the full video, and transcription. Thank you for listening.