Indigenous speaker series aims to tell untold history of Edmonton

A group of Indigenous Edmontonians says their stories haven't always been told properly if at all.

The Amiskwaciy History Series was created to correct that.

Community members came together Thursday at the Telus Centre as part of the Indigenous grassroots initiative.It features a series of lecturesthat highlight the history of Edmonton, as told by the ancestors of the first people to inhabit the area.

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"We need to understand Indigenous history as lived and told by the people," said Larisa Kreider, a social worker with the City of Edmonton, which is a partner with the history series. "I feel that many times, we don't even know the history of the land we stand on."

We have to understand that there were other people here prior to colonization.-LarisaKreider, social worker

The unknown history Kreider refers to is connected to Amiskwaciy Waskahikan, or Beaver Hill House the Cree name for the Edmonton area.

"We have to acknowledge where Edmonton was built from," she said. "We have to understand that there were other people here prior to colonization."

The speaker series aims to have Indigenous people help spread that understanding.

Elder Charles E. Wood is one of those people. During Thursday's event, the former chief of Saddle Lake First Nation said Indigenous people need to be responsible for telling their own stories.

He highlighted the Alberta public school curriculum as a potential outlet for Indigenous history telling.

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"The Indigenous people have to be recognized in playing a meaningful role in that regard," he said, adding that government officials shouldn't be the only people responsible for re-writing the curriculum.

"All along, the whole issue has been that the visitors to our land knew what was good for us," he said. "Well, they don't."

Residential schools and the "Sixties Scoop" are two historical events widely regarded as examples ofthe government not knowing what was best for Canada's Indigenous communities.

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'We're trying to fill that void'

Terry Lusty, a residential school survivor and one of the history series committee members, said a better understanding of those events came about after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was founded in 2008.

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"There's so much there that people didn't know, people didn't understand," he said.

"Here in Edmonton, there are so many people that do not know even amongst our own that don't know the history of First Nations people, Metis and Inuit."

Lusty said despite the hardships Indigenous people have faced, progress has been made. He highlighted how more Indigenous people are graduating university compared to when he graduated in 1979.

"We have to keep that cycle going of our people being able to meet anybody else in society at the same level as they are," he said. "And it's happening."

But Lusty said many Indigenous and non-Indigenous people still need to learn the history of the Edmonton area.

"We're trying to fill that void of providing the historical background of our Nations."