Our High School – Prince George Secondary – has a large population of First Nations students from the Lheidli T’enneh and Carrier Sekani First Nations communities. We have a number of Aboriginal Education teachers and teacher assistants, funded by both School District #57 and the Aboriginal community. The students are exposed to many elements of their culture, and some of them only learn of these cultural activities once they get to High School. Out of the 1300 students in the school, there are several hundred students who First Nations, and a number of other students of mixed descent who have First Nations connections.

Prince George began an interesting initiative a few years ago. The school district in association with many other agencies set up an Elementary “Aboriginal Choice School” It began operations in 2010, and is the first Aboriginal school within the public school system in British Columbia.

I believe that if this is the right way to proceed. In a ground-breaking partnership, Aboriginal Peoples control the education of their children. It will go a long way towards stemming the loss of culture and the corruption of the cherished values of the First Nations peoples. A tradition of Oral history, language, and connection to the land are focuses that will allow the students to retain their identities.

References

http://www.lheidli.ca/

http://www.carriersekani.ca/

http://aboriginalchoice.com/

www.sd57.bc.ca

photo: Prince George Citizen, by Brent Braaten, April 12, 2011

Continuing my search for information related to the environmental issues surfacing in Alberta, I have stumbled upon an interesting case regarding harvesting rights of the Metis.  Harvesting refers to the rights of the Metis, First Nations, and Inuit to collect foods by fishing, hunting, and farming.

Metis Nation of Alberta Harvesting Policy

Garry Hirsekorn was found guilty of two counts under the Alberta Wildlife Act and fined $700 after killing a mule deer in southern Alberta.  It is argued that his case was a planned action by the Metis to bring attention to the harvesting rights established (Section 35 of the Canadian Constitution) by the Alberta government.  The court proceedings started in April 2009, and the ruling was

Fish and Wildlife was aware of the planned hunt, but it is argued that the hunt was used for political purposes and not for traditional purposes.  Furthermore, it is argued that there is no historical Metis community in southern Alberta, therefore Hirsekorn is guilty of illegal hunting.

News Article for Hirsekorn’s Verdict

The decision has been appealed (in August 2012), but there are 25 other Metis charged with illegal hunting and are currently awaiting trial.

Hirsekorn’s Appeal

This case refers frequently to  the case of Steve and Roddy Powley, who killed a moose in October of 1993.  They identified the moose with a Metis card, specifying it was intended to be food for the winter.  Despite this identification, Ontario Conservation Officers charged the Powleys for hunting without a license and unlawful possession of a moose.  The judge ruled that the Powleys have a right to hunt, based upon Section 35 of the Constitution Act (1982).  Charges were dismissed, but the Crown appealed.  In February of 2001, the Court of Appeal upheld the early decision, but the Crown appealed to the Supreme Court.  In September of 2003, the Supreme Court supported the initial verdict as well, and supports the Metis right to harvest year-round.

The Powley Test 

My final research paper will be focusing on First Nations K-12 youth and their access to public libraries within Canada. School aged students typically have access to libraries within their schools, so I am therefore more concerned with student access to libraries outside of a school campus.

From what I have discovered thus far, it seems Canada’s First Nations population is only allowed to rent resources from ‘on-reserve’ libraries and not allowed to rent resources from publicly funded libraries. Since reserves typically do not raise tax dollars for use within non-reserve bordering cities, residents of reserves are therefore not permitted to use the available resources available for people who pay city taxes.

Again, I am just in the initial stages of research for my final paper but it seems as though this legislation does not make entire sense in regards to youth access to libraries. Since youth living on or off a reserve within Canada do not pay city taxes it seems strange to restrict access to public libraries.

Regardless of the fairness of the legislation, it is a shame that First Nations people cannot exploit the great resources and technology that libraries can offer. Finally, the paper will also try and match possible uses of technology to First Nations culture that may preserve and present First Nations culture in a unique and timely manner.

Thanks.

-Regen

Hello,

This fifth resource:

http://www.library.on.ca/links/clearinghouse/firstnations/index.htm

….provides hundreds of links to content concerning First Nations Library resources titled ‘Clearinghouse of Professional Information.’  Again, this site does represent the Ontario’s Library Service (OLS) but provides links for websites all over North America. Sub-topics for the website include: general information, advocacy, reading circles programs, libraries, planning, and special public funding programs.

The ‘libraries’ section is great in providing links to various First Nations library websites. This gives great ideas to other First Nations groups looking to establish or better support a library within Canada.

This website also does a great job in identifying Canadian content within the links by including a small logo of a Canadian flag beside the links that offer Canadian content. It is also useful to view American content in order to compare and contrast problems, ideas, and solutions with other countries First Nation’s groups.

Thanks.

-Regen

I explored some of my own country’s literature on cultural issues, ICT and Indigenous Australians. I have combined these three weblogs because of their similarity.

Dyson (2004) focused on the reasons for low adoption of ICT with Indigenous Australians and concluded that access was the major issue and that ICT was embraced by indigenous Australians and able to be adaptable to other cultures provided people from that culture have input into ICT design and management.

Samaras (2005) identified similar access issues to Dyson (2004) and argues that the digital divide for indigenous Australians stems from socioeconomic inequalities. She concludes that more needs to be done by government and the information profession to ensure a more socially inclusive information society for all, but especially for indigenous Australians.

Now over 5 years later this concern about the digital divide here in Australia was again  identified by the University of Adelaide Dean of Aboriginal Education Professor Lester-Irabinna Rigney speaking at the Australian Council for Educational Research national conference on indigenous education in very strong terms:

“Most Indigenous communities have had a decade of lag time in accessing and effectively using online services. ………. Policymakers need to act now or risk condemning indigenous Australians to digital ghettos.”

It would appear that we may still have a long way to go……

References

 Dyson L,E. (2004) Cultural issues in the adoption of information and communication technologies by indigenous Australians. Sudweeks F., Ess C. (eds). Proceedings cultural attitudes towards communication and technology. Murdoch University, Australia. 58-71.

Samara K. (2005) Indigenous Australians and the “digital divide”. Libri 55: 84-95.

Indigenous digital divide widening due to wrong education. Sourced from news.com.au on 23/09/12

I am toying with two potential areas of research, one of which is the complexities presented when trying to find balance between modern environmental issues and indigenous traditions.  After reading about the struggles that surface during traditional whale hunting practices, I began to wonder what issues are present in good old, land locked, Alberta.

The issues surfacing are a bit different.  Instead of traditional practices conflicting with modern animal rights issues, Albertans are facing conflict related to the oil industry – Northern Alberta is “ground zero” for the Tar Sands Gigaproject, in which more than 20 companies are currently operating.  The Mikisew Cree First National, Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, Fort McKay Cree Nation, Beaker Lake Cree First Nation Chipewyan Prairie First Nation, and the Metis are facing destruction of land, ecosystems, cultural heritage and community health.

Canadian Indigenous Tar Sands Campaign

When I was feeling overwhelmed by the negative impact of the Tar Sands, I checked out the other side of the issue, visiting the Alberta Government’s web site.  Alberta’s First Nations Consultation Policy on Land Management and Resource Development is working to balance resource development and Treaty rights, using feedback from First Nations, “providing a voice for Aboriginal people in the province’s regional land use planning”.

Alberta’s Oil Sands (Government Web Site)

Other Sites I found:

Turtle Island Native Network

Rights of Mother Earth: Restoring Indigenous Life Ways of Responsibility and Respect

Tar Sands Action

I have been looking into the curriculum resources for Alberta teachers and students.  According to Alberta Education’s web site, they are “leading the infusion of First Nations, Metis, and Inuit perspectives” in Alberta curriculum.  At the high school level, a clear curriculum has been developed for Aboriginal Studies and approved resources to support Aboriginal language and culture are available.  There are also supporting documents for the Social Studies program.

http://education.alberta.ca/teachers/fnmi.aspx

In regards to addressing how technology relates to supporting Aboriginal language and culture, Alberta Education provides a link to their technology conference, which occurred in August (in Banff).

http://www.destinationinnovation2012.ca/

Alberta Education outlines several projects and initiatives intended to support First Nations, Metis, and Inuit students.  Just some of the projects outlined are:

• MOU for First Nations Education
• FNMI Education Partnership Council
• Parent and Community Engagement
• Learning Together for Success Conference
• Successful Transitions for First Nations, Métis and Inuit Youth Workbook

UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education developed a policy brief in 2011 ICTs and Indigenous People.

It outlines the importance of Indigenous knowledge, and acknowledges that ICTs can be viewed as a “double-edged sword” with the potential to accelerate erosion of indigenous culture and knowledge but also the ability to empower and support resources and environments for indigenous children.

The paper describes some examples of how ICTs can be used positively by indigenous people to strengthen and reinforce indigenous cultures and knowledge. Here are three of these:

The Four Directions Project (USA) which includes:

• Restructure of curriculum in schools – art, mathematics, science, fine arts etc
• School-home and school-community focus
• Networked virtual communities of indigenous teachers and students
• Network database of culturally appropriate teaching resources

Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA)
The aim of this project is to research and development network is to improve the quality of, and extend access to, teacher education in Sub-Saharan Africa. It has an open education resources to support culturally-based teacher education adn training. 120 African countries are involved, 700 teachers have participated and the resources are available in 4 languages on the TESSA website.

Honey Bee Network – India
This project has multi media/multi lingual database of primary educational resources in native languages and supports exchange of ideas and innovations around horticulture, biodiversity and herbal medicine. They have public access “kiosks” in remote villages so that geographically disadvantaged people can share across the country and also globally.

The document outlines a number of policy recommendations which include:

• Provide a policy framework that enables indigenous communities to have control of their schools
• Encourage and fund research in use of ICTs to support culturally based education Develop educator professional development programmes designed to help non-indigenous educators to understand and support the culture of the indigenous community and the ways that ICTs may support access to indigenous content, expertise, and cultural resources
• Develop online educator development programmes to prepare indigenous peoples to become teachers
• Develop policies to use ICTs to provide continuous and adult education, retraining, life-long learning, and distance learning

The Indigenous Position Paper for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was the draft version submitted for the World Summit on the information Society (WSIS). This was a two summit UN conference and the WSIS is now in its implementation phase. It has now been followed up by the Internet Governance Forum.

The Indigenous position paper is interesting to read and consists of a number of statements and recommendations about being part of the global Information Society that focus on Indigenous Rights in the Information Society in the specific fields of:

• Traditional Knowledge
• Information and Communication Technology (ICT) applications
• Education and Language
• Health
• Youth
• Environment
• E-business
• Media

I have copied the general principles here as I think they underline the importance of technology for indigenous people as we have begun to read in module 1.

1. We, the Indigenous Peoples, affirm our right to be part of the global Information Society on our own terms.
2. We note that the Information Society, as it is currently evolving, has become another instrument for colonizing, assimilating and marginalizing Indigenous Peoples in a new and subtle way.
3. We therefore emphasize that our participation in building and implementing the Information Society must be based on our right to self-determination and the recognition of our cultural diversity and distinctiveness as Indigenous Peoples.
4. Moreover, our full and effective participation in the evolution of the Information Society must take place in equal partnership with its non-Indigenous actors.
5. We therefore demand to be represented with our own visions, philosophies and concepts in the conceptual framework of the Information Society and its action plan for implementation.
6. Furthermore, we strongly request the worth of our cultures and the value of our traditional knowledge to be fully acknowledged for past, present and future positive contributions to global human progress and sustainable development.  We particularly call for recognition of our historic contributions to human development.
7. We stress that the Information Society and its core elements – knowledge, information, communication and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) – are cultural concepts and expressions. We therefore demand that our own culturally defined approaches, protocols, proceedings and obligations are respected by non-Indigenous actors when implementing the Information Society.
8. We recall that our peoples, no matter where they live, are affected by the digital divide. We assert our right of access to ICT applications and strongly call for recognition of our right to bridge the digital divide on our own terms.

This cyber-traveller is starting in  her own backyard.

Site #1. The Cowichan Tribes are a strong presence in the Cowichan Valley but through sheer laziness, I do not know much about their culture.  The opportunity is there but until now, I never investigated. It pays to snoop around. Their website is well laid out with general information about their history, tribe, government, and education, last updated 2010. There seems to be a couple of  scholarships for medical education. http://www.cowichantribes.com.

Site#2. The Province newspaper featured an article by Suzanne Fournier on May 24, 2012. She featured Dayna Briemon, one of the twelve First Nations physicians graduating from the UBC Medical Program this year, the “largest number of First Nation graduates in the history of the UBC faculty, and possible in all of Canada”. It is a light article, serving as introduction to the topic.  http://www.theprovince.com/business/First+Nations+doctors+going+rural/6670603/story/html.

Site#3. There is an Indigenous Physicians Association of Canada (http://www.ipac-amic.org/). On their site, a section on becoming a doctor, very general, very vague.

Site 4. The IPAC did, however, host the Pacific Region Indigenous Doctors’ Congress (Pridoc) at Whistler, B.C. in 2010.  Their entire proceedings are available online: http://www.pridoc.org/2010presentation1.aspx. Since one day’s presentation concentrated on the education of indigenous medical students, I felt it was a goldmine of information. I will return!

Site 5. There is an Aboriginal Nurses Association of Canada, founded in 1975. Sadly, their 2012 National forum was cancelled due to budget cuts. In 2007, only 8 schools had aboriginal specific access/bridge way/transition program to encouragement enrollment in nursing. Nevertheless, the number of Aboriginal nursing students in Canada increased from 237 to 737 within the past five years (posted 2006). http://www.anac.on.ca/