“The other side of history”: One Indigenous teacher’s fight to keep his culture alive

For Greg Dorey, the story is personal. As a teacher at West Kings High School in Auburn, Nova Scotia, arguably one of the most well-known courses Dorey teaches is Mi'kmaw Studies 11, a course that wouldn't exist without the strenuous efforts of Dorey and a team of Nova Scotia teachers and Indigenous elders that thought Indigenous studies was not being taught properly to students, if at all.
As part of the effort to bring the course to West Kings 11 years ago, he finally achieved his goal three years after putting forth the offer to bring the course to Nova Scotia schools.

"There was a bit of resistance at the beginning, thinking that the school didn't really need a Mi'kmaw Studies course," he says. "We needed the course because the community needed to have more diversity and learn about the First Nations people here and our territory.”

As a Mi'kmaw person of the Annapolis Valley First Nation, Dorey uses the course to teach students about his culture, something he previously was apprehensive about showing to others for fear of facing racism and other difficulties Indigenous peoples face.

"I really didn't expect to be able to [share my culture] at school…to have a positive course looking at Mi'kmaw people really makes a difference," he says.

Following the discovery of 215 unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Residential School in British Columbia, there has been a national reckoning on reconciling the relationship between Canadians and First Nations peoples. Dorey did not attend a residential school but acknowledges the effects it had on First Nations peoples, including people he knew.

"[The effects of residential schools] reach my generation by the fact that a lot of Mikmaw people did not speak Mi'kmaw anymore or were afraid to speak it," Dorey says. Dorey learned to speak Mi'kmaw in New Brunswick while pursuing a post-secondary education, rather than being taught by his elders and family, who were afraid he would be "picked on” for speaking the language.

Ivy Sharp was a Mi’kmaw 11 student in 2020. After hearing about it from previous students, she decided to sign up. Sharp says the course gave her a new perspective on Indigenous issues and encouraged her to continue educating herself on the issues after she completed the course, something she directly credits Dorey for.

“Mr Dorey impacted the way I viewed the issues [during class], especially when it came to Indigenous issues. I always knew that there were inequalities, but he really showed me how huge these inequalities were. I became really passionate about what I can do to help fix these problems, and [learn] more about the culture…I always looked forward to his class because he made it fun to learn,” she tells Charlene Hatcher in an email.

According to Dorey, Mi’kmaw 11 is offered in approximately 75 percent of schools across the province. In some schools, Dorey notes, Mi'kmaw immersion is offered, meaning students can opt to learn solely in Mi'kmaw, similar to the French immersion program offered at most other schools across the country.

However, the vast majority of teachers teaching Mi'kmaw 11 are non-Indigenous, with a few exceptions.

"That needs to be focused and worked on more," says Dorey of the number of Indigenous teachers in the province and Indigenous-based courses offered to students.

Every year, the Mi'Kmaw Studies Lead Group, of which Dorey is a member, comes together to update the curriculum. Consisting of six teachers and an Indigenous elder, the group aims to improve the course to reflect recent findings and information relevant to Canada's First Nations peoples, such as the legacy of residential schools and the lobster fishing dispute in Nova Scotia in 2020.

"[Mi'kmaw peoples] have a rightful place to say our piece and [tell] our own stories, written by ourselves, and not from a colonial viewpoint," Dorey says

In the future, Dorey plans on continuing to share his culture and educate students at West Kings through teaching Mi’kmaw 11. Each year, students enrolled in the course participate in hands-on learning to enrich their knowledge of the Mi'kmaw culture in both traditional and modernised ways, such as by building dreamcatchers or participating in nature walks.

“It’s important to learn about Indigenous culture to recognize the role that our Indigenous peoples have [in] shaping Canada and their contributions to this country,” says Sharp, a sentiment Dorey shares.

"Not only do we have ancient history but [Mi'kmaw peoples are] still here," says Dorey. "Don't look at us as just the past-tense.”