Travelling more than 9,000 kilometres by car across Turtle Island, this Faculty of Education professor spent part of his academic leave gathering stories, acting, and reflecting on what it means to be a good guest on this land in relation to its First Peoples.
**Story from https://www.uottawa.ca/faculty-education/news-all/truth-reconciliaction-birch-bark-basket (September 30, 2025)
A birch bark basket placed in the Oodena Celebration Circle, Winnipeg. Image credit: N. Ng-A-Fook
With a birch-bark basket dedicated by Indigenous leaders from Kitigan Zibi, Professor Nicholas Ng-A-Fook embarked on a journey across Turtle Island (an Indigenous term referring to North America, but in this case referring to a Canada-wide road trip) this past summer.
Accompanied by his youngest son, Ng-A-Fook visited more than a dozen former Residential School sites across many treaty territories, travelling through Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and, finally, to Kamloops, B.C. Each stop was an opportunity to honour the generations whose lives were affected and to reflect on the ten years since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission final report and 94 calls to action in December 2015.
For Ng-A-Fook, expanding the term reconciliation to reconcilia(c)tion is more than a play on words — it’s a neologism that emphasizes sustained, measurable responses to the calls to action. Part of his work as a professor in a faculty of education is to equip future teachers to support their own students’ engagement with the 94 calls to action and to challenge ongoing settler colonial practices in schools.
Teaching truths before reconcilia(c)tions
“We offered asemaa (tobacco) at each residential school site we visited and invited contributions to the basket—reflections, stories, teachings and offerings—to bring back to Kitigan Zibi and continue the circle of relational accountability,” Ng-A-Fook says.
“On July 17, 2025, we opened the birch basket with everyone who attended that first gathering a year prior and discussed what they would like to do with the gifts. The basket will be used as a teaching bundle with future teacher candidates, teachers and students across the Kitigan Zibi Anishnàbeg unceded and unsurrendered territories,” he added.
The Faculty of Education has a longstanding partnership with the Kitigan Zibi Anishnàbeg, grounded in community leadership, land-based learning and reciprocal knowledge exchanges with community leaders, teachers, elders, knowledge keepers and students. The Faculty helps co-design courses and practicum experiences hosted in the community, including co-taught seminars, seasonal land-based activities and classroom placements that highlight Algonquin histories, knowledge, language and contemporary issues.
Teacher candidates who participate in these activities often leave the program with practical experience collaborating, relating and (un)learning alongside, with and from Algonquin Anishnàbeg community partners, with a deeper understanding of ethical relationality (an Indigenous concept referring to our interconnectedness) and the professional confidence to integrate First Nations, Inuit and/or Métis histories, perspectives and contemporary life with care and humility in relation to the guests they might host in their future classrooms.
Left: A birch bark basket in front of the Monument at The Forks, in honour of Manitoba’s missing and murdered women and girls. Right: A birch bark basket in front of the Residential School Monument in Spanish, Ontario.
Strengthening relational connections
Conversations with survivors, elders, knowledge keepers, and other educational researchers during Ng-A-Fook’s journey were part of a larger, SSHRC-funded project with the University of British Columbia, Okanagan, titled Co-Co-Curricular Making: Honouring Indigenous Connections to Land, Culture, and the Relational Self.
The focus throughout Ng-A-Fook’s travels across seven different Numbered Treaty areas was the importance of collaborating to rewrite certain narratives taught in public schools by revisiting historical sites and engaging with local communities. Through this work, truths can be shared even when they may challenge the dominant settler colonial narratives around the nation-state formation of Canada. Many of the conversations from his trip are featured in his FooknConversation podcast series.
“These visits embodied land-based education as an ethical relational praxis,” Ng-A-Fook says.
“Elders, scholars and knowledge keepers shared teachings that reoriented us toward understanding treaty as ongoing, sacred and lived kinship relations rather than as historical relics. My son and I were fortunate to learn alongside and from different colleagues, elders, knowledge keepers and survivors about the intergenerational impacts settler colonialism has had and continues to have on communities. And how their local, provincial and national advocacy continues to fight for truth, commemoration and justice,” Ng-A-Fook says.
Ng-A-Fook plans to continue his historical research on residential schools in relation to the wider intergenerational impact of Canadian settler colonial policies, including the Indian Act, Numbered Treaties, Lands Dominion Act and construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway.
On being a good guest
Power dynamics on this land were once different. Travellers moved through territories as guests, responsible to seek permission and build good relationships that honoured different First Nations’ protocols to be welcomed. Travel was not a right; rather, it was a privilege earned through respect and relational reciprocity.
So, what does it mean to be a good guest?
“For me, it’s personal. My last name is Ng-A-Fook, and the origins of the Haka people trace back to the concept of being ‘guest people.’ It’s an idea with deep significance,” he says.
Ng-A-Fook adds, “I think we can carry that understanding into teacher education and schools. What does it mean to be a guest as part of a school community and within a teacher’s classroom? What does it mean for educators to welcome and care for students as good hosts? And how do we move forward towards relationships built on mutual respect and care?”
“Migwech, Migwech, Migwech, Migwech,” says Anita Tenasco, a member of the Faculty of Education’s Advisory Circle.
“Thank you from the Four Directions, Professor Ng-a-Fook. Bravo on your journey across the many territories of Indigenous peoples. Your work has made connections between peoples, between non-Indigenous research and traditional knowledge, and between academia and spirituality. Keep pushing the boundaries as you attempt to open doors for Indigenous peoples,” she adds.
About Nicholas Ng-A-Fook
Nicholas Ng-A-Fook is a full professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa. He is actively engaged in responding to the 94 Calls to Action put forth by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, in partnership with local Indigenous and school board communities. He is the creator and host of the FookNConversation podcast series. Several of his doctoral students working with the A Canadian Curriculum Theory Project are also exploring the theme of “Truth before Reconcilia(c)tions.”
For example, Madelaine McCracken, a Red River Métis scholar, Indspire’s 2025 Métis Youth Award Winner, and part-time professor, is using podcasting in her research to highlight Métis contributions to truth and reconciliation education. She is the creator and host of Research Time, a podcast that shares academic work through accessible conversations.
Another student, Nyein Mya, a first-generation immigrant from Myanmar, is researching how treaties can shape ESL classrooms as spaces for citizenship education. Her work aims to move beyond viewing treaties as just historical content, rethinking their role in newcomer education and Indigenous-Canadian relations.
We recognize that conversations about the history and legacy of residential schools can be deeply distressing. If you or someone you know is triggered or in need of emotional support, the National Indian Residential School Crisis Line is available 24/7 at 1-866-925-4419. This service provides immediate, culturally appropriate crisis support to former residential school students and their families across Canada.