Nestor Wu / Edge reporter

The First People’s Principles of Learning are reflected in many levels of Canadian society: personal, scholastic, and worldwide.

The principle I felt the most connection to is, “Learning involves recognizing the consequences of one’s actions.” Basically, to learn, you need to understand the outcomes of your actions, whether it is on a personal, societal, or environmental level, and take needed steps to improve.

Personally, I can relate to this principle, since everything I’ve learned up to this point has involved learning from my mistakes.

For example, during my first semester of grade ten, I decided that I would challenge myself by trying cross country. When I initially started, I developed problems with my legs as my shins would frequently hurt whenever I ran long distances. The pain escalated to such a degree that I couldn’t participate for the first couple of races, until I figured out that my shin splints were directly caused by the way I ran. I found that the pain was an immediate consequence of my misaligned feet when running.

From that point on, I created a running strategy where I would run using the sides of my feet. Combined with training my body physically, I was able to finish my first cross country race.

Speaking of training, I had never actually run a four kilometer race before. I realized that for my body to run this race, I also needed to be in good physical shape. This reminded me of the well known saying, “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” because to run a race like this, I required preparation and consistent effort.

Scholastically, I found this principle apparent in aspects of my social studies classes because most of the topics reflect the many mistakes we’ve had to learn from during Canada’s history.

During Canada’s early history, European settlers created Residential Schools to erase indigenous culture, replacing it with European culture by assimilating Indigenous children.

Image of the Kamloops Indian Residential School, one of the many residential schools across Canada.

These residential schools have since revealed many horrible things that happened to the children, and have created intergenerational trauma for many of the survivors who have went on to have families of their own.

While Canada can’t go back and fix the past, Canada has recognized and continues to learn from consequences, with actions such as, truth and reconciliation, indigenous land acknowledgements, as well as incorporating indigenous knowledge in our school system with the First People’s Principles of Learning.

Image of a memorial created outside of the Vancouver art gallery, after the discovery of 215 buried children at the Kamloops Indian Residential School.

On a worldwide level, this principle is reflected in environmental issues like climate change.

Climate change is the constant warming of our planet, sped up by industrialization. This can lead to extreme weather patterns, rising sea levels, droughts, and forest fires.

Global surface air temperature chart from 1940 to 2023.

For the longest time, people didn’t see a problem, or didn’t realize the consequences of industrial practices. Consumers and conglomerates overlooked the dangers of polluting our environment, prioritizing money and convenience instead.

The climate crisis is described in a famous quote from Indigenous filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin.

“When the last tree is cut, the last fish is caught, and the last river is polluted; when to breathe the air is sickening, you will realize, too late, that wealth is not in bank accounts and that you can’t eat money.”

“Who is the Chairman of This Meeting? : A Collection of Essays”. Book by Ralph Osborne (p. 43), “Conversations with North American Indians” by Ted Poole, 1972.

The principle of learning from recognizing consequences applies as more people recognize the environmental impact of mass industrialization worldwide, with our ongoing efforts to reduce the negative effects on our planet.

The First People’s Principles of Learning is an important aspect of indigenous culture that applies to much more than just in schools. These principles can help teach us a lot about ourselves, our pasts, and our world.

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