Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig to offer bachelor of education degree

Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig (SKG) in Sault Ste. Marie has taken another step toward the establishment of an Indigenous teachers’ college.

Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig in Sault Ste. Marie has taken another step toward the establishment of an Indigenous teachers’ college. A photo of the exterior of the Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig campus. (Mike McDonald/CTV News Northern Ontario)

SKG began working with Algoma University last year to establish an Anishinaabe land-based teacher education program.

“It’ll be the first of its kind in Ontario,” said Dianne Roach, SKG’s director of operations.

“It will be rooted in our culture and our language, and we’ll be using all of what we can do outside in order to teach our children a new way of learning, experiential learning.”

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If all goes according to plan, SKG will have full degree-granting authority as of 2025 – with a four-year Bachelor of Education program set to commence the following year.

“This is going to be a brand new teachers education program that’s just now taking life,” said Dean Sayers, the chair of the SKG board.

“It’s part of our pursuit of our accreditation, our degree-granting here at Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig as one of the new post-secondary institutes in Ontario.”

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In order to build the foundation for this program, SKG is hosting an education symposium, featuring a number of keynote speakers, elders and knowledge keepers. Dan Longboat, a professor at Trent University’s Chanie Wenjack School for Indigenous Studies, was one of the speakers.

“It just really illustrates the resilience of Indigenous nations in really two things,” he said.

“Number one is furthering the idea of taking care of themselves, of having self-determination. And the second part is really just the strength of the culture on language and our traditional teachings.”