Page 50 - Restorative Journey: Indigenous Educational Wellness

Residential Schools & Indian Day Schools: Survivors, Current Learners, and Future Generations
Included are narratives, poetry, and statements that illuminate
an ongoing dialogue, around disclosure, self-preservation, survival, healing, and hope.
From the Land of the Peacemaker:
According to the Two Row Wampum Treaty, the ancestors envisioned us to be in a canoe. I am paddling, healing, and learning. I did not grow up in my maternal home community, Tyendinaga at the Bay of Quinte, the birthplace of the Peacemaker. My educational experience was one
where I did not see myself, nor others like me. As a child from a blended cultural background (my mother is Mohawk, and my father is Italian), this experience was not questioned but it did carry heaviness. As an adult, I have only recently started
to unpack the many generations of educational experiences that influenced my own learning. There are many valid reasons why so many Native families do not share their stories, with each other or with the children in their lives. I have come to understand that this is done with the intentions of the truest love.
As an Indigenous woman, parent, and as a person that works within the education system, my responsibility is to support Indigenous youth, learners, families, and communities in educational spaces by helping to vision and redesign the places, spaces, and experiences that were not designed for us, nor for our well-being.
The concept of Indigenous educational wellness recognizes that the keys to healing and wellness are within our own knowledge systems.
This is where I am steering my canoe and how I am preparing to hand over the paddle.
– Kristina Zito, MSW, RSW Mohawk Turtle Clan, Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory Indian Reserve #38.
42 Commemoration • Education • Healing/Wellness