Category Archives: Overview

Government apologizes for Indian Residential Schools

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Prime Minister Harper offers full apology on behalf of Canadians for the Indian Residential Schools system. June 11, 2008.

The video below is an apology from Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper in a speech from parliament. In it, he apologizes on behalf of Canadians for Indian Residential Schools and the damage that they have caused first nations people.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qo5cG-RjE8Y[/youtube]

The video below is an apology from Canada’s NDP Leader Jack Layton in a speech from parliament. His speech as an oppostion member is largely in support of the apology to first nations.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVAxVhnqTaw&feature=related[/youtube]

Here are some quotes from parliament by the Prime Minister:

“Mr. Speaker, I stand before you today to offer an apology to former students of Indian residential schools,”

“The treatment of children in Indian residential schools is a sad chapter in our history.”

“Today, we recognize that this policy of assimilation was wrong, has caused great harm, and has no place in our country,”

“The government now recognizes that the consequences of the Indian residential schools policy were profoundly negative and that this policy has had a lasting and damaging impact on aboriginal culture, heritage and language,”

“While some former students have spoken positively about their experiences at residential schools, these stories are far overshadowed by tragic accounts of the emotional, physical and sexual abuse and neglect of helpless children, and their separation from powerless families and communities.”

Canadian Journal of Native Education

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This journal (Website) that is published by UBC’s Faculty of Education and University of Alberta’s Department of Educational Policy Studies provides a wide range of interesting and timely topics on indigenous education, with particular reference to a Canadian context. The full-texts are available via UBC Library service. Avaiable via ProQuest
Ky.

Imposing Western Educational Goals on Indigenous Groups

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This week we have discussed how Indigenous communities have different educational goals than Western cultures. 

I have found two online articles that critique the One Laptop Per Child program based on this foundation that Indigenous educational goals are different:

An article titled, “It’s Time to Call One Laptop Per Child A Failure” was published online in Bloomberg Businessweek: http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/NussbaumOnDesign/archives/2007/09/its_time_to_call_one_laptop_per_child_a_failure.html

Another article titled “OLPC: a different type of disaster altogether” was published online at humanitarian.info: http://www.humanitarian.info/2008/05/19/olpc-a-different-type-of-disaster/

Tribally Controlled Education (refined topic)/ Technology-Enhanced Language Revitalization (initial topic)

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EDIT!

After some deep reflection this week regarding Aboriginal educational goals and values, in the context of Canadian/westernized euro-centric education, I have decided to refocus my ETEC521 research from language revitalization to a broader spectrum of Tribally Controlled Education. I think the underlying line of query in the following post still holds true in many ways. How are Aboriginal communities re-establishing their right to culturally appropriate educational contexts?

Original post:

The goal of my research will be to find ways in which technology can be woven into effective and pedagogically sound methods of language revitalization. Living and working on Haida Gwaii in northern British Columbia, the language I am personally involved with is HlGaagilda Xaayda Kil, the Skidegate dialect Haida Language. I will be looking locally, nationally and globally for exemplary models of technology-assisted language revitalization.

It seems that often times, technology is portrayed as either counter-culture to traditional Aboriginal values, or as a “solution” to engaging with the culture of modern-day Aboriginal youth. Rather than being dichotomous, I think these two viewpoints may be placed in a shifting continuum in which there are no absolutes. In what ways are Aboriginal peoples using technology to revive and revitalize their languages? What novel methods of language revitalization are on the forefront? In what ways might technology reconcile with traditional Aboriginal culture?

Throughout this course I will keep an eye towards how this research relates to Skidegate’s language revitalization initiatives, which are currently in their infancy. During this term I will participate in the Breath of Life Institute, an indigenous language revitalization conference which will likely be reflected in my weblog postings.

Truth and Reconciliation Commission

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http://www.trc-cvr.ca/

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada website contains some resources related to residential schools in Canada. The Commission was created after the Government of Canada did a formal apology for the Indian Residential School system in 2008 for the harm that it propagated upon First Nations people. The Commission has been taking submissions of accounts from people who attended these Residential Schools. The goals of the Commission are:
(a) Acknowledge Residential School experiences, impacts and consequences;

(b) Provide a holistic, culturally appropriate and safe setting for former students, their families and communities as they come forward to the Commission;

(c) Witness, support, promote and facilitate truth and reconciliation events at both the national and community levels;

(d) Promote awareness and public education of Canadians about the IRS system and its impacts;

(e) Identify sources and create as complete an historical record as possible of the IRS system and legacy. The record shall be preserved and made accessible to the public for future study and use;

(f) Produce and submit to the Parties of the Agreement a report including recommendations to the Government of Canada concerning the IRS system and experience including: the history, purpose, operation and supervision of the IRS system, the effect and consequences of IRS (including systemic harms, intergenerational consequences and the impact on human dignity) and the ongoing legacy of the residential schools;

(g) Support commemoration of former Indian Residential School students and their families in accordance with the Commemoration Policy Directive (Schedule “X” of the Agreement).

Map of North American Indigenous Languages

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Wikimedia Commons provides a map of North American Indigenous language families including Canada’s largely distributed Eskimo-Aleut, Na-Dene and Algic to language families across small areas such as the Haida in British Columbia and the Beothuk of Newfoundland. It also includes isolate languages such as the Ktunaxa in British Columbia, Idaho and Montana. The map is available in German, Spanish and French.

This site provides many hyperlinks to Wikipedia for further information about the map content, languages and links to maps and information about languages in Mexico, Latin America and South America.  The site also provides a link to the Aboriginal Mapping Network which is a great resource for mapping and Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

This is a great site to visit before doing research on broad or specific topics related to indigeneity.

Center for World Indigenous Knowledge and Research

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Center for World Indigenous Knowledge and Research

This website is housed and maintained by Athabasca University. The Center for World Indigenous Knowledge and Research has the following goals:

  • Meet academic needs of Indigenous students, scholars, nations, communities, institutions and organizations
  • Improve the development and delivery of Indigenous Education at Athabasca University
  • Strengthen the research undertaken for, by and about First Nation Metis and Inuit People at Athabasca University
  • Acknowledge and develop the role of traditional knowledge in academic settings
  • Support, protect and preserve Indigenous Knowledge, Education and oral traditions

Athabasca University is Canada’s open University offering over 700 online courses and 90 degrees, diplomas and certificate programs with flexible start times.

The Center for World Indigenous Knowledge and Research provides a support and resource network for indigenous students taking Athabasca University courses and programs in their homes, communities or Nations.

Aboriginal Education in British Columbia

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British Columbia Aboriginal Education Home Page

Even if you’re not from British Columbia, I’m sure that aboriginal education in the UBC region will be of interest to you.  The government of British Columbia tracks their support of aboriginal data with qualitative reports, which I found interesting.  Obviously any government website will be political in nature, but I’m sure there are a number of important items to be extracted from this informative website.

Neil Postman

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Postman, N. (1993). Technopoly: The surrender of culture to technology. New York: Vintage Books.

http://teach.boxwith.com/context/postman-technopoly.pdf

Neil Postman  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Postman  , in his book Technolopoly, emphasizes the dangers of assuming that technology is neutral suggesting that, although a useful tool, the effects and potential changes that it can have on society and culture should not be underestimated.  While he is not writing from a First Nations perspective, we can extrapolate that all cultures are affected by global changes brought on by technology and our rapid and often unchecked adoption of it. While he does not describe himself as a technophobe he does underline the importance of spirituality, morality and the human narrative which can often get lost in our race towards globalization and technological advancement.

Module 1: The Increasingly Mediated Experience of Web Browsing

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Bowers, Vasquez and Roaf (2000) cite Don Ihde’s three fundamental experiences of technology: as a background relationship, as an physical interaction, and as a mediated experience that amplifies certain individual or cultural experiences while reducing others. In this TEDTalks video, Eli Pariser elaborates on how the experience of web browsing is becoming less of a community reality and more of an individualized experience, mediated in the background by internet conglomerates with little to no input from the individual.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8ofWFx525s&feature=channel_video_title[/youtube]

With the identification of this “filter bubble,” internet consumers of all types, including academic researchers and grassroots activists, must be conscious to actively search out information and angles that may be otherwise buried due to their personal/digital profile. In our journeys as”cyber-travellers,” the road on the information superhighway that we choose could potentially preclude information superhighway off-ramps reflecting information that does not flow in the same direction we have been looking. If Pariser’s “Filter Bubble” is an accurate representation of web browsing experience, a series of web searches on one topic could conceivable reduce the number of search results we find that provide an opposing or challenging view.

In the similar vein, if the web browsing preferences and interests of Aboriginal activists or community members flow in opposing directions, people who may be united in a commonly defined goal may find vastly opposing (or totally irrelevant) online resources unless certain links are consciously looked for or provided by friends, family or colleagues. The algorithm that regulates an invisible shift of information flow on the internet could prevent community connectedness necessary for tribal nations to promote individual or common causes. When Bowers, Vasquez and Roaf stated eleven years ago that the spoken word could not be recovered with the same accuracy of the printed word, how could they predict that the digitally printed word could become more insidiously fluid than the spoken word?