Presenter: Natasha Bascevan & Marianne Groat
Workshop Description
This interactive session delves into the role of spirituality and healing in Ontario schools. The workshop is designed for participants to build awareness of the importance of spirituality and recognize the colonial setup; the barriers that persist in our education system. By considering what places of healing are, participants will explore some of the myths of a secular public education. An important aspect of this workshop will be to explore ways to amplify rights in practice and in conversation with gatekeepers (other professionals: colleagues, administrators, parents). Participants will be asked to consider their own resiliency code, given that they are charged with deciding how to curate inclusive spaces for our future ancestors.
Bio
Natasha Bascevan
York University, Course Director
Natasha is Anishinaabe, Métis and French kwe. Her family resides in Sudbury and she currently resides in Georgina. She is a mom of 3, a daughter, a partner, a life-long learner and an accomplice. She worked for the York Region District School Board for 11 years teaching in primary and junior classrooms. Most recently, she was an Indigenous education consultant at Inclusive School and Community Services (ISCS) and a member of the Equity Strategy, Steering and Action Committee (ESSAC). She has completed her Master’s of Education in Leadership, Policy and Change at OISE, and has been seconded to work with the Faculty of Education at York University. She is the co-editor of the Turtle Island Journal of Indigenous Health and she is interested in Indigenous education, Indigenous research methods as well as resurgence and resistance in academia. She has shared podcasts, webinars and workshops in regards to treaty talk, learning from the land, creating place, decolonizing wellbeing, anti-colonialism, planning with the 4Rs for reconciliation and data sovereignty among others. She continues to advocate for community based initiatives through collaborations with Natural Curiosity, Pathways for Reconciliation and Gathering Voices York Region.
Marianne Groat
York University, Course Director
Marianne is a settler/Haudenosaunee woman from St.Catharines, Ontario. Her roots are English and Welsh on her mother’s side and Tuscarora and Mohawk on her father’s side, with many family members coming from Tuscarora Nation in Lewiston, NY. She has lived and worked in Toronto for the last 29 years before recently moving back to the Niagara area. Marianne has been an educator with the TDSB in various roles since 2001. More recently, she worked as an Instructional Leader at the Urban Indigenous Education Centre (TDSB), for three years, before being seconded in the fall of 2019, to work in the Faculty of Education at York University. Marianne has her Masters in Indigenous Education, from York University, and is very passionate about supporting the next generation of teachers to include Indigenous content and strategies into their regular daily practice.