Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre scores $90,000 grant for online learning resources

Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre (SRSC) has received a $90,000 federal grant through the Canada History Fund to develop five digital learning modules centred on the residential school system and Canada’s colonial history. 

The modules will be primarily geared toward high school students, and will allow SRSC an opportunity to bring out some of the pieces of the on-site residential school archives and use them as education tools. 

“The Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre has a long history of working with elementary school as well as high school age students to teach about residential schools, and about the broader history of Indigenous and non-Indigneous relations in Canada,” said Krista McCracken, interim director for SRSC. “We’ll be really drawing on that expertise to make the history digestible and something that high school students can relate to.”

Staff at the centre will be working closely with Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association, which means both survivors and intergenerational survivors from Shingwauk Indian Residential School will assist in the development of the digital modules, which are expected to be made available by March of next year.  

McCracken says the project helps satisfy the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, which called on museums, archives, and post-secondary institutions to actively teach and talk about the history of residential schools, while addressing the need for more culturally informed educational resources.  

“I think really it responds to a need that we’ve been seeing from teachers and educators for a number of years who have been turning to the Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre to look for programming and information that they can incorporate into their classrooms,” said McCracken. “It’s really responding to that need.”

More information on the SRSC can be found on the Algoma University website.