MET Course Weblog

http://www.scidev.net/en/policy-briefs/raising-awareness-of-indigenous-knowledge-in-scien.html

Reflecting on the students in my elective senior science courses that I taught, there were very few if any Aboriginal students in the classes. I never had any conversations with our Aboriginal Support Teacher about students in those classes, not because they weren’t requiring support, but because they weren’t there. I hadn’t really thought about it with the rest of the busy life of a teacher going on I didn’t always reflect on the class makeup. I had many other Aboriginal students in jr science courses that were required or computer courses that were electives. I wonder now if the reason for that is that our western based science classes are terribly disengaging for Aboriginal students?

The SciDev policy brief looks at whether Indigenous Knowledge should be added into western science lessons. It speaks to global sustainability issues, resource rights of Indigenous peoples, globalization, colonization, collaborative partnerships, local validity and accuracy of IK.

After completing our final paper I did look into the inclusion of IK into science courses from a Elementary Science Literature Review (

http://education.alberta.ca/media/571606/elemscilit.pdf) and see quite clearly that this is a direction that education needs to go to to serve the needs of all of our students. While it will certainly serve the needs of our Aboriginal students, it is another way to tell the story of science which helps any learner who is having difficulty. Teaching of science, especially abstract or microscopic kind of concepts requires great story telling. Being able to access another source of stories or analogies would make me a better science teacher for all of my students.

Is I quickly approach the end of my MET program I thought of looking for something celebratory. So this came up with a search for Aboriginal celebration.

I’ve often used or suggested to other educators that there is something for any classroom on CBC archives as well as Aboriginal Studies.

http://archives.cbc.ca/society/native_issues//topics/3531/

This page holds 15 audio and video clips that feature notable Aboriginal personalities as well as Aboriginal culture. I’m currently enjoying listening to Buffy Sainte Marie talk about her experiences as an Aboriginal person in mainstream media as well as other Aboriginal people. I enjoyed her story of insisting that any of the Aboriginal characters on a television program should be played by Aboriginals, she said she hadn’t been asked to do a television program since.

Along with Ms. Sainte Marie they have Architect Douglas Cardinal, Matthew Coon who paddled to New York to protest the Great Whale Project, Georges Erasmus and his view of the future, Phil Fontaine who discusses residential school and his life in politics, Elijah Harper and his vote that blocked Meech Lake, Tom Longboat a marathoner, Alanis Obomsawin an Abenaki singer and activist, Bill Reid and his beautiful art, Louis Riel, the legend of Nokomis, Winona and the birth of Nanbozho, History of baggataway (lacrosse), and a look at the first Arctic Winter Games.

Some are short clips, and some are longer. All have some profoundly important person or events with respect to Canadian and Canadian Aboriginal Society.

This is only a selection of the clips available on the archive. There are several other links on the page that lead to an in-depth CBC piece on Aboriginals, National Aboriginal Achievement Awards, National Aboriginal day, and more. I think I’ll spend a bit more time here before looking for other links and watch and listen to some amazing people and the events that have shaped my understanding of our Canada.

http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ap/ss/index-eng.asp

Look and listen to these short videos featuring the success of First Nations, Inuit, Métis and Northern communities. Whether it’s about education, culture or governance, they all have the same goal – improving the quality of life of Aboriginal people across Canada.

Home

The Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, (CAP), is the national voice of off-reserve Aboriginal people throughout Canada.  We are a grassroots-driven, national voice for our communities, advocating for the rights and interests of off-reserve and non-status Indians and Métis people, living in urban, rural and remote areas of Canada.  The Congress is at the leading edge of issues and opportunities that impact Aboriginal peoples across Canada.

Founded in 1971 as the Native Council of Canada, our initial goal was to re-establish recognition of our constituents as Aboriginal people, and to obtain fundamental Aboriginal and human rights for them.  Our work continues today as the effects of urbanization and globalization are increasingly felt in social and economic trends that have direct bearing on off-reserve Aboriginal peoples.

Seventy-nine per cent pf Aboriginal people live away from Indian Reserves, while Aboriginal policies and programming in Canada is directed to on-reserve “First Nations” people at a ration of over 8:1.

The goals of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples are targeted to achieving social and economic equity for its constituents in housing, health care, education, employment and economic development.  A key component of CAP’s mandate continues to be advocacy for Aboriginal and treaty rights for Métis and non-status Indian people.

The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) serves the interests of on-reserve Indians.  The Métis National Council (MNC) represents some Métis people. The Inuit are represented by the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), and Aboriginal women, by the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC).

Yet, there remains a large gap in program and service delivery once individuals leave their on-reserve communities, or in the case of the Métis, if they cannot trace their ancestral lineage back to what the MNC term as the “Métis homelands” in Western Canada.

The Congress of Aboriginal Peoples is the organization that advocates on behalf of the “Forgotten People”, those who are otherwise voiceless at the National level.  We have a distinguished thirty-seven year history of undertaking research and program/service delivery, as well as carrying out ongoing government relations.  All these efforts seek to build mutual understanding and broader acceptance of the off-reserve status, non-status and Métis constituencies.  The Congress is also a recognized non-governmental organization (NGO) with the United Nations.

We are here to amplify the voice of our people at all levels, from local to global.  We are committed to ensuring that Aboriginal people attain a standard of living equitable to all Canadians.  We seek to engage others – to participate, contribute and to gain benefit – to consider and influence the effects of our collective decisions on behalf of future generations, so that our children and grandchildren can inherit healthy and sustainable communities and enjoy the prosperity they so richly deserve.

http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ap/nsi/index-eng.asp

“Non-status Indians” commonly refers to people who identify themselves as Indians but who are not entitled to registration on the Indian Register pursuant to the Indian Act. Some of them may be members of a First Nation.

The Office of the  Federal Interlocutor works with Métis, non-status Indian and urban Aboriginal organizations, as well as with provincial governments where appropriate, to find practical ways to improve the quality of life of Métis, non-status Indians and urban Aboriginal people.

http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ai/ofi/uas/index-eng.asp

The Urban Aboriginal Strategy (UAS) is a community-based initiative developed by the Government of Canada to improve social and economic opportunities of Aboriginal people living in urban centres.

Through the Urban Aboriginal Strategy, the Government of Canada partners with the Aboriginal community and local organizations, municipal and provincial governments and with the private sector. These partnerships support projects that respond to local priorities and advance the UAS national priority areas of: improving life skills, promoting job training, skills and entrepreneurship and supporting Aboriginal women, children and families.

http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ap/uap/index-eng.asp

The term – Urban Aboriginal people – refers primarily to Inuit, Métis and First Nations currently residing in urban areas.  According to 2006 Census data, off-reserve Aboriginal people constitute the fastest growing segment of Canadian Society. In 2006 a full 56% of Aboriginal people lived in urban areas, up from 50% in 1996.  The cities with the largest Aboriginal populations were Winnipeg (68,380), Edmonton (52,100), Vancouver (40,310), Toronto (26,575), Calgary (26,575), Saskatoon (21,535), and Regina (17,105).

The Office of the Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians works closely with provinces, national Aboriginal organizations, federal departments and organizations towards improving the services available to off-reserve Aboriginal Canadians.

http://www.sd62.bc.ca/Aboriginal_Education

http://www.aboriginalroundtable.ca/sect/index_e.html

The Canada-Aboriginal Peoples Roundtable took place in April 2004, with a follow-up session in November 2004 and a policy retreat in May 2005. Of particular interest are the Facilitators’ Reports from the November 2004 meetings, with links to summaries of flip charts from the break-out groups, profiles of status and non-status North American Indians in Canada and a variety of background papers on such stakeholders as the Government of Canada and the Assembly of First Nations.

One of the areas addressed in the Lifelong Learning – Inuit breakout groups is the issue of improving access to Post Secondary Education. Specific recommendations included “Flexibility of program delivery” via broadband, language of instruction, modular delivery, distance education delivery in communities, continue to support learning (by) disabled students, and co-op work experience.

Instituto Lingüistico de Verano en Mexico

Web Site address http://www.sil.org/mexico/ilv/eInfoILVMexico.htm

I thought twice about putting this site into the weblog, but the discourse in Indigenous languages is so lacking, that I can’t be picky nor let my prejudices get in the way.
The Summer Institute of Linguistics in Mexico is an organization that studies Indigenous Languages. It produces, dictionaries, grammars, didactic aids, translates traditional stories and last, but by no means least, translates the protestant Bible.
It works with Indigenous students, teaching them to write their Indigenous languages and helps them to produce Bible translations.
There is a branch in Oaxaca and I have met the director. They have excellent, highly qualified American linguists and their output is very impressive. Unfortunately, I am uncomfortable with the Indigenous evangelization aspect.
The site houses many, many excellent documents on the linguistics of Indigenous languages, but I am more interested in the hundreds of traditional stories written in Indigenous languages. It is a gold mine!

An example of a story in Zapotec: http://www.sil.org/mexico/zapoteca/yaganiza/L124c-GallinaBlanca_Leer-zad.pdf

An example of a story in Triqui: http://www.sil.org/mexico/mixteca/sotlaxiaco/L139c-ChivoHuerfano_Leer-meh.pdf

Trikis en Movimiento

Web site address http://trikisenmovimiento.org/triquis-en-movimiento/

This site is in Spanish and is run by a Triqui Movement, in Oaxaca, Mexico. It is maintained by just one person Fidel Hernandez, a young Triqui.
The aim of the movement is to contribute to the development of the Triqui culture, towns and people. The web page is a Blog with sections on music, images, essays, poems and videos. There isn’t much written in Nanj nïin’in, the Indigenous language of the Triquis, except a small vocabulary section. The site contains several links; the most interesting are:

http://triquis.org/
Another Triqui web page for the Triqui towns of Baja –Copala Media_ Itunyoso and Alta- Chicahuaxtla. This site has only 14 registered users and certain sections are restricted only to them. However, anyone can register. There is information about Triqui history, music, culture and Indigenous justice.

http://www.triquicopala.com/index.htm
Another Triqui web page that contains a lot of information about the Triqui and has information on Triqui history, Triqui stories, the Triqui language, Triqui radio, a good collection of Triqui videos. It also has connections to Triqui migrant groups in the US. Again the site is in Spanish.

http://indigenasdf.org.mx/ami/index.php
A web page run by the Asamblea de Migrantes Indigenas de la Cuidad de Mexico (The Indigenous Migrant Assembly of the city of Mexico)

http://www.redindigena.info/
The Web page of the Red Indigena (The Indigenous Network)

http://www.reduii.org/
The Website of the Universidad Indigena Intercultural (Intercultural Indigenous University)in Bolivia

The Toledo Family Web site

Web Site address http://www.biyubi.com/did_canciones.html#naila

This website is run by a Binnizá (Zapotec) family living in the state of México, but originally from the Isthmus of the state of Oaxaca. The family are in the computer hardware business and much of the page is about computers, but there are also many songs, sayings and poetry in Isthmus Zapotec, as well as a Zapotec Spanish dictionary with 15,800 definitions and a Zapotec/ Spanish translator, both created by the family.

The page can be viewed in Zapotec, Spanish or English.
There are 357 134 speakers of the Zapotec family of languages (INEGI. II Conteo de Población y Vivienda 2005) and Isthmus Zapotec is very much a living language. However, once again, there is very little digital discourse by Indigenous Zapotecs in Zapotec on the Internet.

There are no Zapotec related links from this page.

ÄYUUJK WËNMÄÄ´NY

Web Site address http://www.pensamientoayuujk.blogspot.com/

This is the only site in Mixe, an Indigenous language from Oaxaca, México that I have been able to find.
This Blog is bilingual, with poetry in Mixe accompanied by a translation in Spanish. It has only been running for half a year and all the posts seem to be by the same person. On the right hand side, there is a section for new Mixe words, where the author has added the Mixe words for Snail, Stairs, and Venus. My search during this fourth Weblog is for evidence of Indigenous discourse in Indigenous languages from my state, Oaxaca, which has a very large Indigenous population. According to the National Statistical Department, Oaxaca has the highest percentage of speakers of an Indigenous language in the Republic. 35% of the inhabitants over 5 years of age speak an Indigenous language and 5% are monolingual in that language (INEGI. II Conteo de Población y Vivienda 2005). There are 103,089 speakers of Mixe in the state (INEGI. II Conteo de Población y Vivienda 2005), but the digital discourse is virtually nonexistent.

There are no links from this site.

Watch this video
Chimamanda Adichie: The danger of a single story
Chimamanda Adichie speaks of her personal search for her culture. She points to how media defines a culture with a single story… a single story that narrowly defines cultures. For Chimamanda, a single story does not define a culture. She warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.
Aboriginals also need to tell their stories. They need to find global voices so they don’t become one story… the story the media creates.

If you haven’t experienced TED.com then you really must visit. It several videos with diverse topics presented by our leaders/innovators.

Learn more about TED.com

The Native American and Indigenous Studies Association was founded in 2008 as a professional organization dedicated to supporting those who work inside and outside the academic world in the scholarly field of Native American/American Indian/ First Nations/ Aboriginal and Indigenous studies. On this website you will find information about the association’s annual meetings, governing council, and announcements. The website also provides online membership signup, documents, and links to a forum that members and others can use to discuss issues regarding Native and Indigenous studies.

The above description was taken directly from their homepage.  The most useful resource this website has to offer ETEC521 students is the forum although the documents could be useful as well.  As this is a new website, they assure visitors that it will grow.

E-Pustakalaya is a digital library produced by OLE (Open Learning Exchange) Nepal.  The bilingual (English and Nepali) library is categorized into the following seven areas: literature, are, course related materials, reference materials, other educational materials, teaching support materials, and newspaper and magazines.  Most of the downloadable material is in English and in .pdf format.  Although all the material in English is useful for students of ETEC521, that material in the teaching support section are more relevant to this class.  As subcategories, there are journals, articles on educational theory, professional development, etc.

There is also a highlights section offering further resources such as maps, videos, a Nepali dictionaly, etc.  At the bottom of the home page, they have included the logos of their contributing partners which are actually links to the corresponding organization’s website.

“Reconciliation Australia is an independent, not-for-profit organization… building and promoting reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians for the well being of the nation.”  This is taken from their description in “Who is RA” under “About RA.”  If you are interested in anything to do with Indigenous Australian issues, this site will surely not disappoint.

As there is simply too much information available on the website to mention here, some of the highlights are: reconciliation resources and action plans, their current projects, facts and figures, films and music, learning tools for schools, and what might be the most useful for research, their publications.  In their links section, they have divided them into nine different categories including media, documentaries, government, and stats & facts.

“The Native Nations Institute for Leadership, Management, and Policy (NNI), housed at The University of Arizona’s Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, serves as a self-determination, governance, and development resource for Indigenous nations in the United States, Canada, and elsewhere.”   This is the short description on their homepage of who they are.  Most of the content on the website is organized into the following three pages.

• “What We Do” includes their programs such as policy analysis and research, executive education and curriculum development.
• “Resources” included publications, curricular resources, their own TV/Radio program, research reports, etc.  These resources would be very useful for research of Indigenous issues.
• “Who We Are” includes an overview of the organization, staff, international advisory council, collaborators, their logo, etc.

Finally, on their links page, they categorize many helpful links into three sections: academic departments and research centers, nonprofit organizations and other resources.

The Indigenous Research Center of the Americas (IRCA) is housed in the Department of Native American Studies at the University of California, Davis. Based on a hemispheric perspective, IRCA seeks to understand and express both the local and global dimensions of indigenous peoples in the American hemisphere. IRCA is an interdisciplinary, inter-institutional research program established with an interest in and commitment to the demographic, social, economic, political and cultural importance of indigenous peoples and the issues of self-determinatation, sovereignty and self-development. The Center has a particular interest in the global and transnational connections of indigenous peoples as well as their growing participation in the reshaping of local, regional and national identities and communities. IRCA provides an open forum for indigenous scholars, indigenous community, spiritual and political leaders and non-Indigenous researchers who are concerned with developing a hemispheric and interdisciplinary approach to the past, present and future realities of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.

The previous description was taken in its entirety from their homepage, as I would not be able to succinctly paraphrase it without leaving out meaningful details. The information presented on the site is indeed limited, but potentially very useful and will most likely grow.  There are currently six research publications available, which are posted in one of the following categories:

• Culture and identity
• Health and food
• International agreements
• Technology and communication
• Territoriality

The quote on the home page of the The Black Book site reads, “It’s taken sixty thousand years, but finally the portal to Indigenous media and the arts in Australia is here.”    This is one of many sites that features Indigenous communities in Australia using the Internet and multimedia to share their traditions, stories, and arts to inform local communities and the broader global audience.   The Black Book has two main sections: the directory and the library.  The Directory includes over 2700 listings of  Indigenous organizations that work in the arts, media and cultural areas.  The library contains over 2000 pieces of artistic work including work from the 1890s to now. The work is categorized into publications, music, screen productions, documentaries, plays, features, and albums sections. The site also serves as an up to date information portal about events in the country, jobs and training, and leading Indigenous artists.  The Black Book site was inspired by the The Brown Pages, a similar site created by the Maori community.

The Inspiration page on the site links viewers to the following “trailblazers”

Oodgeroo Noonuccal
Bob Maza
Russel Page
Emily Kame Kngwarreye
Michael Riley
Kevin Smith
Pauline McLeod

The Black Book logo [Online Image]. (n.d.). Retrieved November 18, 2009, from The Black Book website. http://www.blackbook.afc.gov.au/default.asp