Education News | Page 31 the provincial government on curriculum .
May also has a heart for reparation work . She belongs to three groups dedicated to this work : the Intercultural Grandmothers Uniting ( IGU ), which is made up of Indigenous and non-Indigenous women working toward building bridges of understanding , respect , trust and friendship ; the Aboriginal Non Aboriginal Relations Community ( ANARC ); and a TRC committee , with the Catholic Church . “ They are hoping to repair the wrongs done by the church to Indigenous people , so that is why I joined that group .”
In her role as Elder-in-Residence with the Faculty of Education , May hopes to continue her work of changing the narrative about Indigenous people . She says , “ I hope I can tell the wider society about Indigenous people , that we are part of society and we feel the way they do : We have our joys and our sorrows , our hopes and our dreams . I want them to know about our history , our Indigenous history . Many of them wonder about and have so many stereotypes about Indigenous people , that ‘ they ’ re lazy , they don ’ t want to work , or they are alcoholics ,’ and those are the ones you see . The majority of us are okay , we are successful . This is what I want to tell the general public . The government has made us invisible in the past , through residential schools
and restricting us from leaving our reserves , and they told the wrong story about us .”
Being made invisible damages Indigenous people ; May says , “ They don ’ t know the damage they are doing to our person ; it makes it so you ’ re not proud of yourself as an Indigenous person . I always tell my students to be proud of who you are ; I know you can ’ t be successful until you are proud of who you are . Otherwise you are always trying to hide who you are .”
“ I want to tell the right story . But not just me , I will have a hard time trying to educate society . Canadians will have to go out and educate themselves , read books , and find about our history and they will know who we are and can be our allies , and help us move forward and walk with us .”
Elder May Desnomie replaces the former Elder-in-Residence , Elder Alma Poitras , who retired recently .
Faculty members gathered for a meet-and-greet of our Keteyak ( Old Ones ) May Desnomie and Joseph Naytowhow on October 17 , 2022