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B.C. the latest province to make aboriginal history and culture mandatory in the classroom

Stories from local Aboriginal elders have been preserved for ever, on DVD. Called 'Unsung Heroes', the project celebrates indigenous culture and history, to help younger generations understand where they've come from.

What did you learn in history class about residential schools? About colonialism? Treaties? The Indian Act?

For most Canadians, the answer is likely: nothing.

Changing that is one of the many recommendations to come from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report released earlier this month, and British Columbia says it will introduce a new K-12 curriculum this fall that includes the history and legacy of residential schools.

But education is a provincial jurisdiction and across the country, there’s a wide range when it comes to aboriginal history in classrooms.

“In some provinces, they’re doing really well. Others, they’re failing miserably,” says Carlie Chase, executive director of the Legacy of Hope Foundation, an aboriginal charity that aims to get indigenous history into Canadian classrooms.

In B.C., the new curriculum will include history, culture and First Nations perspectives across subject areas and grade levels.

For example, kindergarten student will learn about aboriginal uses of plants and animals while Grade 5 students will learn about indigenous concepts of environmental stewardship, says education ministry spokesman Scott Sutherland.

“The ministry is also committed to ensuring the history and ongoing legacy of the residential school system is included throughout the new curriculum, particularly when learning about topics such as discrimination, inequality, oppression and the impacts of colonialism,” Sutherland tells Yahoo Canada News.

It’s a step that Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, with their large proportions of aboriginal populations, took several years ago.

It’s been almost three years since the two territories adopted and adapted to their specific regions a curriculum developed by the foundation.

The “100 Years of Loss” curriculum kit includes videos of residential school students’ stories and a teacher’s guide with up to 24 hours of activities to explore aboriginal culture and history.

Demand was so high they quickly ran out of kits. The foundation is now raising money to make more and develop an elementary kit with age-appropriate lessons.

But the demand has been driven largely by individual teachers who have taken it upon themselves to address this gaping hole in Canadian education.

B.C., Nunavut and the Northwest Territories and a few other provinces are the exception, making aboriginal history and culture mandatory in the classroom.

In most provinces, it’s relegated to elective native studies courses in high school, says Chase.

“It’s not mandatory,” says Chase, whose mother and grandmother both went to residential schools and never spoke about it.

It wasn’t until university that she learned a little bit about residential schools.

“Why didn’t I know this before?” she says. “In the United States, no student is going to leave the education system without knowing about slavery. Why in Canada do we let our students leave our education system without knowing about the cultural genocide that happened here?”

Manitoba has a DVD, “From Apology to Reconciliation,” and a teaching guide that’s been available for Grade 9-11 social studies teachers since September 2012.

Alberta has announced that First Nations history, including treaties and residential schools, would be a mandatory part of K-12 education.

“Starting with the youngest members of our society, Alberta commits to residential school survivors, their families and communities that Albertans will hear your stories and know your truths,” the government said last year.

Yukon made a similar announcement in 2014 that aboriginal history, including residential schools, will be taught from K-12.

The eastern provinces, they have “a ways to go,” Chase says.

Ontario education officials did not immediately respond to a request for information. Premier Kathleen Wynne has expressed interest in a revised curriculum.

“It’s great to see B.C. doing this. It’s going to take more provincial leaders to say ‘this is what we’re doing,’” Chase says.

The systemic racism and social ills linked to aboriginal Canada’s history continue today, in high youth suicide rates, the disproportionate number of First Nations children in care and other economic and social challenges, she says.

Reconciliation is the way forward and “you start with knowing the truth.”