MET Course Weblog

http://www.dlib.org/dlib/may02/sullivan/05sullivan.html

This website explains how intellectual and cultural property rights are being protected in Aotearoa, New Zealand with the launch of the “Toi Iho” trademark. Elders and leaders of the art world and the indigenous local tribe (Maori) gathered to celebrate this innovative physical reality of an idea/passion/signifier that had been discussed in various guises by Maori for decades.

A  variety of cultural materials can be digitized including stories, legends, maps, etc. However, when digitizing cultural materials, there are important questions to consider such as: How to send a message that strengthens the holistic context of each cultural item and collection? How to ensure that both indigenous and non-indigenous peoples receive the message? How to digitize material taking into account its metaphysical as well as its digital life?

Some of the guiding principles for digitalizing contemporary cultural information include:

1. Affirm indigenous communities as equal partners in future collaborations.
2. Uphold cultural intellectual and property rights of communities.
3. Ensure cultural integrity.
4. Interpret, analyze, and synthesize information for general audiences.
5. Require that digital libraries be developed and controlled by indigenous peoples and self-determined.
6. Understand the importance of community-based guides [to digitization] that express tribal values.

http://www.3909.cupe.ca/In_A_Voice_of_Their_Own%5B1%5D.pdf

This article is essentially a review of the documentary video In Their Own Voices, by award-winning Aboriginal film-maker Coleen Rajotte. This documentary tells the stories of 26 Aboriginal community leaders and the barriers they overcame to achieve success.

The journey to overcome colonization is still ongoing, as many Aboriginal people still feel the effects of past injustices, such as residential schools and the false belief in the inferiority of their people and cultures.

Consequently, in order to heal from the damage of colonization a strong sense of community is imperative. There are many thriving Aboriginal organizations in the Winnipeg area that are working to rebuild collective identity and create pride in being Aboriginal.

Copies of  In Their Own Voices can be obtained from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives – Manitoba.

The Aboriginal Education Research Network or AERN is a voluntary forum of educational stakeholders and academic institutions in Saskatchewan whose goal is to foster collaborative research in Aboriginal Education.

The objectives of AERN are to:

• forge stronger links between research and educational practice and research and policy development;
• develop a comprehensive research agenda and identify provincial research priorities in education;
• develop a code of ethics and research protocols for shared research initiatives;
• build and promote the building of capacity in the area of Aboriginal education research;
• communicate research findings among members, the wider educational community and the general public;
• collaborate in specific research projects through joint grant applications and pooling of research resources;
• identify sources of funding for research; and,
• uphold high ethical standards and levels of research expertise in the province.

The network has been developed with the help of numerous government groups and educational institutions throughout Saskatchewan and has amassed a wealth of Aboriginal research including some of the following articles which I found of some relevance to course materials:

• Aboriginal Identity and Learning: An Assessment of Educational Practices in a Rural Saskatchewan Collegiate (2006)
• Aboriginal Knowledge and Perspectives: Identifying, Deliverying and Assessing Best Practices With Middle Years’ Students (2006)
• Factors That Contribute To Aboriginal Students’ Success in School In Grades Six to Nine (1999). Executive Summary.
• When Aboriginal and Métis Teachers use Storytelling as an Instructive Practice, (2006).
• Strengthening Community through Science Curriculum Actualization, (2006).
• Towards Full Engagement of First Nation, Inuit and Metis Students: A Study to Support Learning of Students in Transition, Executive Summary, 2008

These articles apply well beyond the context of Saskatchewan and delve deeply into Aboriginal Education in Canada.  Anyone looking for relevant and engaging research in any of these topics should explore the resource and see if these articles are useful for current research.

The BC ministry of education has assembled a page summarizing some of the research conducted in BC related to Aboriginal youth and Education.  The page can be found here:

http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/abed/research.htm

The site contains numerous relevant research reports relating to career transitions, student performance, Aboriginal education policy, behavious disorders among aboriginal students and  information on partnership projects.  Here are some of the more applicable research articles found on the site.

• Learning and Career Pathways
• Sharing Our Success: Ten Case Studies in Aboriginal Schooling
• Student Performance Data and Research Tools to Ensure Aboriginal Student Success
• Over-Representation of Aboriginal Students Reported with Behaviour Disorders
• The Current Position of Aboriginal Support Workers in the BC Education System
• Readings and Research from BC

I think these resources contain a great deal of information related to current research in Aboriginal Education.  These links would be a great starting point for any student still search for a topic to research in this course.

Spawned by our discussion about questions to consider before researching in Aboriginal communities I started digging around for more information about Aboriginal research.

One site that turned out to be quite relevant is the Government of Canada’s Panel on Research Ethics (PRE) and more specifically their article on the Aboriginal Research Ethics Initiative (AREI).  The site outlines the following framework for research involving Aboriginal Peoples:

• a commitment to building on local, national and international initiatives
• engagement of and partnership with the community
• application of  PRE’s First Principles to this initiative

These general guidelines provide a great basis for research in this field and the following reseources provided by the site offer a deeper look into the Ethics of such research:

Update on PRE’s Aboriginal Research Ethics Initiative (AREI)

Draft 2nd edition TCPS Chapter 9 Research Involving Aboriginal Peoples

Research Involving Aboriginal Peoples in the TCPS

Anyone actively involved with research in Aboriginal Communities should definately consider visiting this site as there is a lot of great information for researchers.  For example here is a quick list of guidelines from the Research Involving Aboriginal Peoples in the TCPS:

B. Good Practices

Researchers and REBs involved with Aboriginal communities should consider the following “good practices,” which have been drawn from the documents referred to above:

• To respect the culture, traditions and knowledge of the Aboriginal group;
• To conceptualize and conduct research with Aboriginal group as a partnership;
• To consult members of the group who have relevant expertise;
• To involve the group in the design of the project;
• To examine how the research may be shaped to address the needs and concerns of the group;
• To make best efforts to ensure that the emphasis of the research, and the ways chosen to conduct it, respect the many viewpoints of different segments of the group in question;
• To provide the group with information respecting the following:
  • Protection of the Aboriginal group’s cultural estate and other property;
  • The availability of a preliminary report for comment;
  • The potential employment by researchers of members of the community appropriate and without prejudice;
  • Researchers’ willingness to cooperate with community institutions;
  • Researchers’ willingness to deposit data, working papers and related materials in an agreed-upon repository.
• To acknowledge in the publication of the research results the various viewpoints of the community on the topics researched; and
• To afford the community an opportunity to react and respond to the research findings before the completion of the final report, in the final report or even in all relevant publications (see Section 2 on information disclosure). Aboriginal Peoples may wish to react to research findings. It is inappropriate for researchers to dismiss matters of disagreement with the group without giving such matters due consideration. If disagreement persists, researchers should afford the group an opportunity to make its views known, or they should accurately report any disagreement about the interpretation of the data in their reports or publications.

I have been spending some time researching different materials that are aimed at bringing Aboriginal knowledge and history into the classroom.

There are a lot of resources out there and I becoming surprised by the number of them that are developed by educators who are attempting to reach their Aboriginal students through relevant content or promote cross-cultural understanding among their students.

This site is simply a blog article which provides links to a complete First Nations Identities Course.  An overview of this course can be found here.  Feel free to browse these great resources which are all in printable pdf form.

• Ojibwe language handouts and games
• More Ojibwe stuff
• nish bingo
• Syllabics
• More handouts!
• The Great Indian Bus Tour of Toronto: student version
• Final project/summative

There is a lot of material here and would be very useful for any teacher looking for quality Aboriginal Identity focused materials for the classroom.

Developed by the Heritage Community Foundation this site is an “edukit” which is designed to enhance student understanding of the knowledge developed by Fist Nation people throughout history.

http://www.edukits.ca/aboriginal/contributions/index.htm

This resource was developed in conjunction with numerous agencies including Alberta Aboriginal Affairs, Museums, Schools, Aboriginal researchers, historians and elders such as Billy Joe Laboucan and Laura Okemaw.

The site features a student and a teacher zone.  In the student zone you will find numerous activities, biographies, puzzles, games, links and a photo gallery.  The resources contain a great deal of information about Aboriginal people and honours the contributions made by such historical figures as Alex Decoteau, Pakan and Star Blanket, as well as present day people like Allen Sapp and Jordin Tootoo.  In the teachers zone you can find activities and lesson plans for integrating these resources into the classroom.  There are both junior and senior high sections containing links to curriculum outcomes, teacher information, a full lesson plan and related downloads.

Here is an example of the resources available for a Grade 12 Lessons on Aboriginals in Business:

Generalization & Rationale

Objectives

Introductory Activity

Main Lesson

Download

Anyone who is trying to incorporate more Aboriginal history and knowledge into their classroom should consider checking out this site.  Also it gives a good idea of how such traditional First Nation knowledge can be weaved into the curriculum.

http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/library/PRBpubs/prb0338-e.htm

This is an informative and relevant website from the publications List of the Canadian Library of Parliament (prepared by Tonina Simeone). Information is organized under the following sub-headings:

• Introducation
• How Does Indigenous Traditional Knowledge Differ from Western Science?
• Why Protect Traditional Knowledge?
• How to Protect Traditional Knowledge
• Limitations of the Intellectual Property Rights Regime in Protecting Traditional Knowledge
• International Initiatives to Protect Traditional Knowledge
• Selected References
• Endnotes

I like how the content of this website is concise and well-researched. It helped me to better understand how traditional knowledge has been exploited, and how awareness of this injustice has recently led to improvements, such as the development of the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC).

http://colours.mahost.org/articles/burke.html

Devin Burke, of the Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Movement (IPSM), presents his views on colonialism. He feels that Canada has been “waging a war” against Indigenous people since 1867 in working towards “assimilation and extermination”. Burke goes on to explain how “this war has often been waged by institutions, through the bureaucracy of Indian Affairs, in residential schools, through the imposition of band councils, and more recently by notorious multinational corporations and the likes of global trade regimes, such as the World Trade Organization”.

My first impression of this article being negative and biased started to change as I reached the part where Burke suggests ways that we can ally with Indigenous people by owning up and taking responsibility for our history. Further, Burke identifies himself as a non-native and states that all Canadians have been affected by colonialism and that we all must assert our autonomy in order to more towards decolonization.

Although I don’t agree with some of the points expressed by Burke, I read his article with interest and feel that it does have an important message regarding the unjust treatment of Indigenous groups.

The purpose of this project is to ensure “the survival of cultural knowledge and “opportunities to demonstrate practices that have the ability to ‘innovate’ 
    contemporary management and community outcomes for the benefit of all
 generations to come.”

A crucial element of this project is that it is community based.  The community owns and control’s the research data that is collected as well as other resources the project produces.

The following link is a Youtube clip regarding the TKRP, its purpose to ensure the survival of cultural knowledge and the benefits of using multi-media to achieve the above stated goals by using youth to film, Elder to inform others of traditional practices, and children to sit and observe, thus learning from both generations.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnOS9FX1VEo[/youtube]

In addition the site has a link to several other TKRP movie productions, as well as case studies.

Other TKRP SERVICES

Mentorship

Presentations

Land Management

Film and Production

Topics Include:

Identities, Conflict and Cohesion

“Identities affect patterns of exclusion and solidarity, and provide a basis for both social cohesion and conflict. This programme aims to assess how processes of development and social change, as well as public policies, shape identities.”

Identity, Power and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

“This project theoretically and empirically traces the structure and interlocking nature of relations between governments and international organizations in order to analyse how these links impact on the identity, rights and livelihood of indigenous communities.”

Programmes and Areas of Research 2005 – 2009:

Social Policy and Development

Democracy, Governance and Well-Being

Civil Society and Social Movements

Markets, Business and Regulation

Identities, Conflict and Cohesion

Gender and Development

Published Papers Include:

Transnational Governmentality and Resource Extraction: Indigenous Peoples, Mutlinational Corporations, Multinational Institutions and the State

http://www.unrisd.org/unrisd/website/document.nsf/(httpPapersForProgrammeArea)/DD4690C7DCC1A303C1257512003066D6?OpenDocument

Natural Gas, Indigenous Mobalization and the Bolivian State

http://www.unrisd.org/unrisd/website/document.nsf/(httpPapersForProgrammeArea)/D96F71885FB60F74C1257512002F471E?OpenDocument

“The world’s most comprehensive independent online magazine: written and edited by professionals, trusted by over 24 million monthly readers!”

This site leads to an article on “Native Right to Self-Identity Reclaiming Indigenous Heritage Can Result in Anglicised Packaging of Aboriginal Identity and Culture” by Tyson Yunkaporta.

The following is an excerpt from the opinion piece.

There are huge challenges associated with re-entry into the Indigenous world, and it takes a lifetime of hard work, unlearning, and relearning.

Many Indigenous thinkers have a problem with this, citing cases of people claiming Aboriginality but still living and speaking from a middle-class Australian point of view. With “new” Aborigines in the public spotlight, such as Sally Morgan (author of “My Place”), it has been argued (convincingly) that this results in a marginalising of “unsanitised” Aboriginal viewpoints in literature in favour of a “white middle-class” packaging of Aboriginality, more easily swallowed by the colonial mainstream without necessitating any real attempts at understanding un-Europeanised Indigenousness.

The posts lend them to some interesting perspectives on the issue.  I’m sure this topic could lend itself to a rather lively discussion forum.

Read more: http://aboriginalrights.suite101.com/article.cfm/native_right_to_selfidentify#ixzz0WPcyzUTc

http://aboriginalrights.suite101.com/article.cfm/native_right_to_selfidentify#ixzz0WPbcR1Ou

Related Topics/Links:

aboriginal rights (general)

african indigenous peoples

american indigenous peoples

asian indigenous peoples

australian indigenous peoples

canadian aboriginal peoples

european indigenous peoples

latin american indigenous peoples

Links to read more:

http://aboriginalrights.suite101.com/article.cfm/native_right_to_selfidentify#ixzz0WPalzwXR

This site has a basic, yet effective layout.  It addresses issue that are salient to Native Women.

“The Native Women’s Association of Canada is founded on the collective goal to enhance, promote, and foster the social, economic, cultural and political well-being of Aboriginal women within the Aboriginal community and Canadian society. In 2009, as we celebrate our 35th year of service, we are proud to continue to speak as a voice for Aboriginal women.”

Front in centre of the site is a link to a page of missing person alert.  The location of the link in the front and centre of the page suggest how these missing family members are front and centre for the Native Women’s Association.  As a side bar, I reviewed all the missing persons, and couldn’t help but feel the pain of these young and older women and their families.

Indigenous Peoples Issues & Resources

Indigenous Peoples Issues and Resources is a worldwide network of organizations, academics, activists, indigenous groups, and others representing indigenous and tribal peoples.  Members of the network consist of a social scientists, activists, scholars, laypeople, indigenous people, and others who all share a combined goal: to provide resources, news, articles, and information on current issues effecting indigenous and tribal peoples around the world.

It has a weekly news section that covers 5 key Indigenous issues/events.  This is a worthwhile weekly read to learn about global Indigenous issues.

• Indigenous Peoples: Culture and Groups
• Military Digital Archives – this page list books covering various wars that included Native American participation in Military actions.
• Journals – it has a page covering a fair list of journals that cover Indigenous topics.

The site has a fair bit of advertising, including UBC’s Met program.

“Nepal Journals OnLine (NepJOL) is a service to provide access to Nepalese published research, and increase worldwide knowledge of indigenous scholarship.” There are 42 academic journals with 139 tables of contents listing 1960 articles of which 1319 are in full text. Unlike the journal selection offered by Digital Himilaya, these journals are all in English. There is also a journal content search option allowing searches by; all, authors, title, abstract, index terms, full text, date, supplementary files, etc.

Of course all the information accessible from NepJOL is specific to Nepal and might not be very useful for research of other areas or Indigenous groups.

The Digital Himalaya website is a project by the University of Cambridge “to develop digital collection, storage and distribution strategies for multimedia anthropological information from the Himalayan region.”

The information offered on the site is essentially divided into two areas: Collections and About the Project. In the Collections is a wealth of information including the Census of Nepal, Films, Journals, Maps, Music, etc. There are links to over 30 different academic journals (of which most are written in English)!

The most useful resource under the About the Project are the links which are divided into three sections: Anthropology, Himalayan/Tibetan/Central Asian Areas Studies, and Digitisation of Cultural Resources. This last area is not regionally specific to the Himalaya and would be of considerable interest in the context of this course.

The United League of Indigenous Nations (ULIN) is based on a treaty between 11 Indigenous Nations in the US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia to join forces and confront common issues such as climate change, trade and commerce among the Nations, protection of their cultural property as well as human rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Their website lists upcoming events such as ULIN annual convention as well as a review of pervious events such as ULIN leadership conferences, National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) and Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians (ATNI) conferences.

In their working groups section, they list their five areas of focus: Cultural Property Protection, Trade, Climate Change, Border Crossing and Indigenous Nations Relations. There are relevant documents available in each of these areas such as “Understanding Maori Intellectual Property Rights.”

They also have a discussion forum as well as a news and updates section where they post press releases and such. Curiously, all of the external links in their links section are devoted to climate change resources. There are many here, but the breadth is limited.

Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals (ITEP) is a research and educational institution supported by Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. It was established in 1992 “with a vision to assist Indian Tribes in the management of their environmental resources through effective training and education programs.”

Their website lists all 12 of their programs which range from the American Indian Air Quality Training Program to the Water Resource Program. The majority of these are training programs and the others are resource management programs. Each program is a link and within several programs, there are additional resources and links specific to that program.

Their resources section offers resources for ITEP programs as well as external resources. These resources range from links to external websites to newsletters and brochures.

The Northwest Indian Applied Research Institute (NIARI) is an organization run by Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. Their website is a great source of information about Native American education and tribal community issues.

NIARI accepts research proposals as well as archives research papers such as Tribal Identity: Fighting for Our Soul and Tribal Curriculum Development: A Tribal Decision-making Model. They also list many projects that they support. Of particular usefulness to the context of this course is Public School Curriculum on Tribal Issues, Cultural Revitalization and Cultural Property Rights.

In the resources section, there are five subsections of links: Web Information on Western Washington Tribes, Regional Native Organizations, State and National Government Resources, Other Resources and Resources at Evergreen (State College).

NAN Decade for Youth  – (M-3 Post #4)                        

http://www.nandecade.ca

Website designed by Nishnawbe Aski Nation’s Decade for Youth & Development Office.   The Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) started this web site to give NAN youth a voice in the decision-making processes that affect our future as a Nation. The website is a resource for young Nishnewbe Aki youth wanting to learn more about youth empowerment or wanting to know more about youth activities.  The information could prove valuable to other young aboriginals as well.  The website contains information on history of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, a section devoted to young aboriginal females, several topics involving aboriginal suicide and prevention and youth council news.   There are other links to pertinent websites and other information.  The site serves as an example to other Indigenous groups as a tool for reaching their young people.