A British Columbia school board on the Sunshine Coast that aims to “decolonize” public education is proposing updated protocols for graduation ceremonies which would have the national anthem sung after an Indigenous land acknowledgement and a “welcome song.”
A document on ceremonial protocols before School District No. 46’s (SD46) Board of Education details the plan.
“(The graduation) ceremony shall begin with the acknowledgement, followed by the welcome song, followed by O’ Canada,” the updated policy stated as of Monday.
The following day, the graduation ceremony protocol was updated to no longer include the welcome song.
“We are committed to Truth and Reconciliation and proud to celebrate Canada through tradition and protocol. We believe this to be one and the same and not mutually exclusive,” the executive assistant to SD46’s superintendent Stephanie Murawsky told True North.
Several acknowledgements of First Nations are provided by the document.
“Before any other comments or introductions which are directly concerned with the ceremony itself, acknowledge the First Nations territory where the ceremony is being held,” the policy instructs.
“I would like to acknowledge that we are on the unceded lands and waters of the Skwxwu7mesh uxwumixw.”
According to British Columbia’s School Act, boards are required to ensure that the Canadian national anthem “shall be sung at each school assembly” and that said assemblies “promote loyalty to the Crown, respect for Canadian traditions, laws, institutions and human values.”
It is unclear whether singing the national anthem at the end of a sequence violated these requirements.
SD46 is one of many school boards that have undertaken efforts to “decolonize” public schooling in Canada. A recent pedagogical approach adopted by SD46 entitled “Ensouling Our Schools” details a ten step path to “decolonized instruction.”
Some of the labels on the diagram cites “deconstructing otherness, anti-racism, two eyed seeing, personal and professional medicine walks” and the impact of “privilege on relationships and social justice.”
Debates about the singing of the national anthem at schools have come to a head following national conversations around reconciliation exacerbated by claims of residential school graves in Kamloops and elsewhere.
Last year, the Ottawa Carleton District School Board debated whether making students sing O Canada was distasteful or whether it should be replaced.
“With respect to standing and singing of O Canada during opening exercises in school, (educational assistant Lili Miller) expressed the opinion that this practice is distasteful and should be replaced with something more healthy and positive,” the council meeting’s minutes describe.
“Chair Manatch suggested that Indigenous students be permitted to sit and not participate in the singing of O Canada. Elder Dumont expressed the opinion that the government of Canada needs to hold people accountable for the deaths of students at residential schools.”
