“We're not returning to the past to return to the past to stay there, but to learn from that, to continue to be able to grow and to do what's best for our people here today,” says TJ Warren. He is Dene, originally from Red Mesa, Arizona, but has been visiting Saskatchewan all his life. He moved to Saskatoon 15 years ago and his wife is a member of Big River First Nation. They have two daughters. Working as a cultural consultant, knowledge keeper and Indigenous support to bring more Indigenous content into schools, teachers asked about his credentials, so he decided to go back to school. He took the Indian Teacher Education Program at University of Saskatchewan and then a master’s program. He was motivated to support communities, Indigenous people, by his children, what they might experience and the legacy he wants to leave.

After high school, Warren almost completed an associate’s degree. Instead, he travelled the powwow circuit across North America and even across Europe, appreciating his culture and history and sharing that as part of a twelve year break from school. He came home to participate in ceremonies, fell in love and ended up in Saskatchewan, volunteering, playing in drum groups, teaching dance, connecting with youth and elders and sharing Indigenous youth perspectives and histories in schools. He presented at conferences, promoting Indigeneity, language, ceremonies, and cultural identity to youth as cornerstones of success.  That youth work inspired him to work in schools and to return to university.

Warren’s advice to Indigenous students leaving their home communities to pursue their education is to research their destination and what to expect. Culture shock can be intense, especially without support. He recommends leaning into their upbringing and beliefs and finding cultural support in their new schools. In educational settings, he tries to build connections with students like relatives, often attending to needs like groceries, shoes and clothing.

When it comes to obstacles, Warren faced racism and stereotyping. Being aware of the opportunities available to him and his value, being determined, proud was crucial. “I didn't want to go to school because it was a place that I feared that I didn't belong,” he recalled.  He was bullied for his long hair but his parents affirmed his choices so he kept growing his hair. Even the school discouraged his hair, accent and suggested different clothes as integral to success. He brings how that felt to his work as an anti-racist Indigenous scholar.

“We can't always be doing the work as victims of what we've seen committed on us.”

Warren believes racism can be addressed in education by calling it out and identifying it. While many schools pursue professional development in racism, he believes people need to speak the truth when they see it inside themselves also. He talks about the need to move from allyship to accompliceship “to try to change those ideologies and to show them that education has always been, and is still is at the expense of the Indigenous people.” He reflects on how education has been made more difficult for Indigenous students and the fragility that those in power need to overcome as they implement change.

Looking ahead to the future of Indigenous education, Warren hopes for proper representation, individualized to specific communities and that communities participate in crafting including all subject areas. He hopes schools stop assuming what students are capable of. “I guarantee you there's a student somewhere that has been removed from a school for poor attendance or bad grades that's going to change the world in the future, and those are the kids that we need to continue to support,” he asserts.  

“Education for us looks that way. It needs to represent us, needs our culture. It needs our practices represented. It needs to be brought from that perspective, and again, not utilizing a framework that exists in other parts of the world implemented on us. We need to return back to our stories. We need to rely on those stories to continue to do the work we need to do today and to be successful in contemporary societies. People don't understand a lot of what we experience today has been experienced by our generations before us, and it's in our stories. It's in our oral traditions. We need to value our oral stories and our narratives,” Warren shares.

When it comes to formal and informal education, Warren says, “We need to be able to utilize both, because if we don't have an understanding of either or then we won't be able to be successful as Indigenous people today, because there has to be a balance.” As far as cultural experiential learning, Warren warns of the danger of culture becoming part of a “show”, but recognizes the value of representation in the classroom. He hopes youth will have their identity, perspective, and worldview developed at a young age so they aren’t looking for it in university programs later in life.

Something Warren reinforces is the need to leave space for growth, sharing, “We're continuing to evolve as Indigenous people, even in the realm of education, in today's sense. We have to continue to remember it's ongoing, we're continuing to learn from our faults prior, and we're celebrating our successes today. Everything around us is ever changing, and so we need to continue to evolve in our thought and our practices and all of that too, but it's on the foundation of our old stories, our histories, things of the past,”

To inspire Indigenous youth, Warren shares how he thinks about what he was taught to consider, “what am I doing to support my community, to be successful, to leave something for the generations after me? What am I leaving for my children? How am I representing myself? Am I being a good relative? Am I being a good ancestor and being able to continue to advocate for those advancements of what it is that we want for our people?”

As Warren undertakes this stressful work, he strives for holistic wellness. He sees how many educators burn out trying to change things from the inside. He advises Indigenous educators, “Let those philosophies from our communities, those teachings guide our work we do and remember not to stray too far away from those teachings that have been embedded in this and remember our stories, our histories and build upon those foundations to continue to do the work we need to do today.”

Anchored in his cultural teachings and empowered by what he learned in his academic studies, TJ Warren is part of Indigenous education transformation. With the benefit of nuance and the wisdom of all he has learned, he is doing what he can for future generations. He didn’t find belonging at school, but he can be part of creating it because he knows why it matters so much.

Thank you to Alison Tedford Seaweed for authoring this article!