In this op-ed, 10th grader and aspiring filmmaker Indygo Arscott explains the importance of uplifting indigenous voices in the classroom.

Monday morning. History class. My tenth-grade class had arrived at that brief blip in the curriculum when we are offered very limited discussions about indigenous history in Canada. Out of a full year of coursework, this history is only afforded three days of study in class — and my non-native classmates made remarks to the teacher like, “The Indians pay taxes and get free college.” It proved to be an uncomfortable, lengthy, and irksome conversation for me, as the only indigenous person in the classroom.

We were learning about residential schools. One piece of information that stood out to me was the fact that Canada’s first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, approved the first residential schools. I was infuriated, and one question in particular flooded my mind: Why had I always been taught that he was a hero?

Macdonald served as Canada's prime minister from 1867 to 1873 and again from 1878 to 1891. During his time in office, he commissioned journalist and politician Nicholas Flood Davin to research industrial schools for indigenous youth in the United States, which were already operating. Macdonald accepted Davin's recommendation, and in the 1880s, the government established residential schools across Canada.

Residential schools were created with two primary objectives: first, to isolate indigenous children from their families, homes, cultures, languages, and traditions in attempts to rid them of such. Second, they were geared to to assimilate indigenous children into a European-dominated culture and society. (Both of these points were recognized by the state in 2008, when Prime Minister Stephen Harper officially apologized for the practice.) Infamously, the creator of the residential schools in the U.S. said they were put into place as part of a campaign to “kill the Indian and save the man.” Children were stripped of their traditional clothing, their long hair was cut, they were given “English” names and assigned numbers, and they were forbidden to speak their own languages. Many survivors have reported that they were verbally, physically, and sexually abused. An estimated 6,000 children may have lost their lives at residential schools in Canada from suicide, disease, and poor health care due to severe underfunding. Many died trying to run away.

Back in my history class, people stopped paying attention to the teacher, but I found myself more involved than ever before, wondering what I could do. How could I effect change? In Canada, there are 13 public schools named after a man who has been called an "architect of genocide", meaning thousands of Canadian children have been told this man was somebody to look up to.

I wonder how many times a student has said, in reference to their school, “I go to Sir John A. Macdonald.” I see schools changing their names to get rid of their Macdonald references, and this is important because names have meanings. Macdonald played a role in Canada’s foundation, but his actions live on in indigenous pain. Thousands of survivors have recounted their stories and said that they will never be able to forget what happened to them. Aside from all the psychological damage, the loss of culture and ongoing effects of colonialism have affected generations of people, and indigenous communities are still suffering from the effects of historical trauma to this day. Despite efforts to control or kill Canada’s indigenous population, despite every single thing that was thrown our way, we are still here.