Listening is the key to Indigenous education, says 2017 Indspire Award winner

To Judy Whitford, winning an Indspire Award isn't just recognition of her own work as an educator, but recognition of the work of everyone across the Yellowknife Catholic school district.  

Whitford, the district's Indigenous education coordinator, is the recipient of a 2017 Guiding the Journey: Indigenous Educator Award. The award acknowledges her innovative teaching practices, culture-based curriculum and her work advocating for resources.

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She said she feels both overwhelmed and appreciative about winning the award.

"When I look at past recipients, the things they've done in the North are actually really outstanding, so to know that people feel that I'm moving in that same direction was a great honour," she said.

Whitford has been in her current position for four years. Before that, she worked as a teacher at Yellowknife's École St. Joseph School, as an art therapist, and as a part of the Indigenous Leadership and Resiliency Program.

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Whitford said she took her current position because she felt it was the next step in her career to further Indigenous education and promote understanding in the North about elders, land, and resources.

It's her hope to instill in her students a willingness to keep learning and trying.

"[I hope to instill] an understanding that they're part of this land, that they're part of the North and that they're comfortable in learning," she said.

"Whether they're northern students, whether they're Indigenous students, [I hope] that they have pride in the North, that they have pride in the culture."

According to Whitford, part of what makes her teaching practice innovative is working with staff to help them gain a fuller understanding of Indigenous culture before bringing students on on-the-land field trips. She also has elders come to schools to help prepare students before they head on the land.

Last year, Whitford started the Regional Youth Hand Games Tournament, which she said was a career highlight.

"Being able to see the boys in this region be able to celebrate culture and have such pride in what they were doing and having elders come in from their communities to celebrate the boys and having all the drummers there changed people's perspective, I think, in Yellowknife on what hand games is," she said.

Whitford said the key to creating effective Indigenous education to listen. 

"The elders have lots of great wisdom," she said. "Learning from elders, stopping to listen, is the best thing to do."