http://www.aboriginalcanada.gc.ca/acp/site.nsf/eng/ao35224.html
A comprehensive list of research publications dealing with Aboriginal issues specific to Canada. It is organized by themes ranging from education to governance to justice and policing. Being able to get a cross-section of research in one place is useful, as we can begin to see the interconnections between issues – for example, how are educational challenges related to housing issues? A site such as this one helps us to take a step back from our focused research areas to see a larger picture context of how topics may be connected. By jumping from this ‘research’ section to the ‘statistics and maps’ section, we can find information such as community profiles, children’s survey and language maps.

Emily

http://www.education.gov.sk.ca/AERN
This site is a central location for coordination of research activities dealing with Aboriginal education in Saskatchewan. Although it appears to be no longer updated (copyright 2007) there are lots of links here to relevant research dealing with Aboriginal education, as well as further links to useful research tools, such as how to conduct action research for teachers, and research journals that have similar research aims.

Emily

http://web.uvic.ca/icwr/imethod.htm
Siem Smun’eem – Indigenous Child Welfare Research Network. This organization is a group with membership coming from Universities, agencies and communities in British Columbia to create a unified vision of best practices in conducting research in Aboriginal communities. The mandate is to move research in the direction of local control and use. The site describes their goal, “to establish a Research Institute in the province of British Columbia to ensure our children and families are nurtured with stories, traditional teachings and practices relevant to our diverse territories, languages and teachings.” There are multiple links to relevant articles dealing with protocols and practices to conducting research within First Nations communities.

Emily

http://aics.wa.edu.au/
Aboriginal Independent Community Schools website out of Western Australia. This site describes the work of the central support unit that works to help with the delivery of education from this network of independently established community schools. These schools are all community-developed and locally run and managed. This site has some interesting information concerning the types of cultural relevance to the programming, as well as common curricular frameworks for literacy and numeracy. It serves as an example of how Indigenous communities may go about establishing their own culturally-relevant school programs, while maintaining common links to secure ongoing centrally-delivered support and funding. The site also features a showcase of projects that have resulted in positive outcomes.

Emily

http://firstnationeducation.ca/home/panel-mandate/
This site concerns the mandate and work of the Canadian National Panel on First Nation elementary and secondary education. It is an ongoing process to gain input from across the country and across communities to come up with ideas and possible changes to legislation to improve education for First Nations students living on reserves. They are seeking input, which can be submitted via attendance at one of their roundtables, or directly through the site. Perhaps students in our course would like to submit their ideas to this ongoing process.

Emily

http://www.lessonsfromtheland.ca/index.asp
An interactive, multimedia resource that allows visitors to engage in a virtual exploration of traditional trails traveled by First Peoples in the Northwest Territories. There are teacher resources available, and the experience is available using a storytelling approach. This journey stops along the route at important cultural sites, taking the time to point out their significance. Local elders were involved in the creation of this resource.

Emily

http://www.ciet.org/en/about-ciet/
This organisation seeks to “build research capacity in communities… .” After the considerable time spent on conversations surrounding research and indigenous communities, this site stood out to me as a possible resource for allowing research to emerge from within communities in ways that are in line with the local traditional knowledge, and yeilding results that are specific and usable to that community. Regarding the topic of Aboriginal youth, there is a targeted project within the site on resiliency among Aboriginal youth, specifically targeting the topic of suicide prevention. There are interesting links from this site, which focuses on health, but seeks to address local problems on a global scale.

Emily

http://tlicho.ca/content/introduction-sunshine-project
How can I not post a link to a project from my own region? Many of our students came in on weekends to take filmmaking workshops and to film these productions. Attendance is a target issue in our region, and this project aims to improve school-community relations and attendance. This is an example of empowering students to address contemporary issues in culturally-relevant ways. Make sure to follow the link to the videos, and while at tlicho.ca, you can see what other information is here. There is an interesting section on cosmology.

Emily

http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/aboriginal_people/index.cfm
This site focuses on helping students to become critical consumers of media, and in this section, points out the ways in which Aboriginal people are typically portrayed (or omitted). There are links within the section to other contexts, including Aboriginal coverage in the news, the development of Aboriginal broadcasting, and a commentary on Aboriginal voices in the arts.

Emily

http://www3.nfb.ca/enclasse/doclens/visau/index.php?mode=home&language=english

A site displaying a number of documentary films by and about Aboriginal peoples. There are lots of interesting films to view here, organized around themes. There is also a section on how to use the films in classrooms, as well as a rationale surrounding the collection. It also includes a lesson plan on an idea of how to use the films in class. The collection is large and diverse, and is conveniently organized.

Emily