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Welcome!
This section is designed to help teachers find resources for teaching Indigenous histories, cultures, languages, and contemporary issues in respectful and meaningful ways. Whether you’re just beginning or looking to deepen your practice, you’ll find lesson plans, books, videos, and professional development tools here.
Why Indigenous Content Matters
Including Indigenous perspectives in the classroom supports truth, reconciliation, and respect for the diverse Nations across Canada. Indigenous knowledge systems are essential to understanding history, the environment, governance, and identity today.
Getting Started.
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Explore "Books about Residential Schools for Kids" to find Indigenous-authored children's literature.
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Check the "Teaching Indigenous History" for resources and lesson plans.
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Check out the general "Teacher Resources" tab in this guide.
Lesson Planning
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A Broken Flute
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Call Number: E 77.4 B76 2005ISBN: 0759107785An annotated bibliography of the Native experience in children's books.
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Indian Residential Schools and Reconciliation ResourcesFirst Nations Education Steering Committee resources for classrooms. Focus is on British Columbia.
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For Teachers - CBC Digital ArchivesA Lost Heritage: Canada’s Residential Schools.
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Where are the Children?A virtual exhibition of photos, with a timeline and bibliography that lists books for children and adults.
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First Nations Child & Family Caring Society of Canada: Bring reconciliation into the classroom Website developed to support educators to engage children and youth in peaceful and respectful processes of reconciliation.
Books About Residential Schools for Kids
When searching the library catalogue for books try the terms:
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Children’s and young adult books about residential schoolsThis list is a starting point to discovering resources on the topic of residential schools for children and young adults.
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Sugar Falls
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Call Number: PZ 7.7 R6347 Sug 2021ISBN: 9781553799757Inspired by true events, this story of strength, family, and culture shares the awe-inspiring resilience of Elder Betty Ross. Abandoned as a young child, Betsy is adopted into a loving family. A few short years later, at the age of 8, everything changes. Betsy is taken away to a residential school. -
As Long As the Rivers Flow
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Call Number: E 99 C88 L39 2002 -
Not My Girl
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Call Number: E 96.5 J65153 2014Margaret's years at school have changed her. Now ten years old, she has forgotten her language and the skills to hunt and fish. She can't even stomach her mother's food. Her only comfort is in the books she learned to read at school. Gradually, Margaret relearns the words and ways of her people. -
A Stranger at Home
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Call Number: E 96.5 J652 2011The powerful memoir of an Inuvialuit girl searching for her true self when she returns from residential school. -
Indian Horse
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ISBN: 9781553659709Saul Indian Horse is dying. Tucked away in a hospice high above the clash and clang of a big city, he embarks on a marvellous journey of imagination back through the life he led as a northern Ojibway, with all its sorrows and joys.
