Category — General

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

Site # 1

http://www.law.ualberta.ca/research/aboriginalculturalheritage/

The website for the “Protection and Repatriation of First Nation Cultural Heritage” research project has valuable information concerning how First Nations use the Web to disseminate information about their culture, as well as advance a political agenda. It has four main objectives:

1)     To disseminate information concerning the legal regime

2)     To serve as a platform for respecting and understanding First Nations concept of law and property

3)     To help First Nations partners to collect and develop archival educational materials

4)     Analyze provincial and federal legislation and provide First Nations with reform recommendations

Although the actual research was completed in 2006, the site offers an overview of the research with links to the two volumes. This site is important as it raises awareness about law reform, but also provides a voice for First Nations.  This web site also offers many other important resources, such as news and events and other carefully selected links to North American Native and/or Aboriginal sites. I found some of the links had been modified, but using the titles I easily found the sites through Google.

Seeing how much information was available on this website, I will come back to explore other links, but I decided to first explore Aboriginal sources.

Site # 2

http://www.aboriginalcanada.gc.ca/

The Aboriginal Canadian Portal is a site run by the Canadian Federal Government in collaboration with the Assembly of First Nations, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, the Métis National Council, the Native Women’s Association of Canada, and the Council for the Advancement of Native Development Officers. The topics covered are quite varied, but because of the nature of my research I was particularly interested in the language, culture and heritage segment, which proved to have a wealth of information on various Aboriginal organizations, as well as various articles that harbor collective memories.

Site # 3

https://www.itk.ca/publication/5000-years-inuit-history-and-heritage

This essay provides an overview of the last 5000 years of Inuit history.  The essay covers the culture and language, the early history of the Inuit ancestors from first contact with the Europeans to modern day Inuit.  The essay also incorporates the history and culture of the four regions of Inuit Nunangat. I was not able to determine who exactly wrote this document, but found that the information herein was well written and is suitable for a general readership. The document often refers to “We . . .”, thus was written from an Aboriginal perspective for an Aboriginal audience, proudly outlining their history and accomplishments over the years. This type of essay contains information that could be used in schools during history classes to diffuse information about Inuit.

Site # 4

https://www.itk.ca/

This Website represents the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, which is the national Inuit organization in Canada. It represents the four Inuit regions,  Nunatsiavut (Labrador), Nunavik (northern Quebec), Nunavut, and the Inuvialuit Settlement Region in the Northwest Territories. On the site historical events from 903 until the present are documented.  The president’s blog appears to be a new addition to the site and is run by Inuit leader Terry Audla. This blog offers viewers a platform to voice their opinion. This website also offers podcasts on various issues and events concerning Aboriginal life. This web site is rich with text-based information, but particularly audio feeds.  I was particularly interested in the audio from a 2011 conference called “From Eskimo to Inuit in 40 Years”, which marks the work Inuit Tapirisat of Canada has done over the last 40 years. The site offers audio files of the seven panel discussion sessions held during the conference. The site also offers links to publications on Inuit issues.

Site # 5

http://www.inuitknowledge.ca/

This website offers the newly established Inuit Qaujisarvingat (kow-yee-sar-ving-at). I found it most interesting to discover that the goal of the Inuit Knowledge Centre, is to bridge the gap between Inuit knowledge and western science. I find their vision of building capacity among Inuit to respond to global interests in Arctic issues daring and avant-garde. This website offers Inuit a platform to impact and advance sustainable Arctic science and policy making within a Canadian and global context. I was impressed with the way the information was diffused, with a good balance of text-based, visual and audio. It even offers a game called Niquiit (under construction) destined for Inuit youth to teach them about the dangers of contaminants in the Arctic. The Website is well laid-out and menus simplified to help users navigate and get the information they seek. Overall it appeared to be a great community resource run by Inuit for Inuit.

Statement Connecting Research Interests and Weblog

A cursory search of the internet reveals low numbers of indigenous people involved in medicine. In an effort to invite more to the study of medicine, colleges have offered scholarships and entry programs with some success but the question remains, what else can be done to increase interest in a vital discipline? How best to retain the students actually enrolled? And how best to reflect native traditions within a curriculum that must teach what it must teach?

The healing arts would seem to offer groundedness and a sense of community for the indigenous but maybe their tradition of healing takes a different path than the Western tradition. Can the paths exist side by side, learning from each other, or must the streams be separate in a yet unthought version.

So far, my search of health care providers reveals indigenous nurses and doctors but veterinarians and veterinary technicians are less represented. My research will focus on the former with an eye out for the latter. I have worked as a veterinary technician for 37 years and can see a place for indigenous workmates. It is worth a look.

Hello,

The following web page:

http://www.olsn.ca/fnplw/index.aspx

…represents the Northern portion of Southern Ontario (hopefully this makes sense to you).

The webpage is meant to describe and draw attention to the yearly celebration of First Nations Public Libraries, given the acronym FNPLW. I’m not sure of the exact scope of the event but it seems to be celebrated within Ontario for sure, and it looks like its been going on for the past three years during the first week in February.

I think this sort of event is a great opportunity to showcase opportunities provided by a public Library where access is not an issue. This kind of event will also hopefully break down any imaginary walls for First Nations people regarding accessing literature in a plce that encourages use of materials.

I currently work in a secondary school library for one block, and since beginning this new area of teaching there seems to be an overwhelming amount of information distributed regaridng the incorportation of technology into teaching and learning. During my research of First Nations libraries so far there hasn’t been too much discussion of any incorportation of technology or possible uses that work best with oral traditions. Still searching though…

Thanks.

-Regen

#2 Saskatchwan Ecological Network

This website has general information for Ecological Issues in Saskatchewan, but has a great section on Eco-Education and Indigenous Education. In particular, one of their focusses is using technology in a way that supports Indigenous values.

Of particular interest was an interview with the Director of Cultural Resource Development and Publications for the Saskatchewan Indian Cultural Center which provides an overview of how educators (particularly non-Indigenous educators) can teach in a respectful manner about sustainability including an Indigenous perspective. There are some great resources, written by Indigenous Educators, interviews with other important community members and links to other schools and organizations that might be useful for individuals (Indigenous or not) who have an interest inrespectfulIndigenous Education.

http://econet.ca/eco-ed/indigenous_resources.html

#3 Rekindling Traditions

From the Saskatchewan Eco-Network I found myself on a particularly interesting website which included units that combined TEK and Indigenous values with “Western Science”. Their goal is to provide resources so that “students are not expected to set aside their culture’s view of the material world when they study science at school”. The project is funded through 3 school divisions, the University of Saskatchewan, the Dr. Stirling McDowell Foundation and the Cameco Access Program for Engineering and Science and is called the Cross-Cultural Science and Technology Units Project.

One of the things I particularly liked about this website was that the way a user moves through it. For example, in the units menu you pick an animal to enter a section. The animals are in a circle. Whoever designed the website made a concious effort for it to be aesthetically more holistic (less linear) and perhaps more meaningful to Indigenous users. Even entering the website requires that you click on the raven, instead of an “enter” sign.

The resources specific to certain grades/topics and are very well laid out, providing additional resources for teachers and students in a print or web-based format. Contributors include teachers, elders and community members. A collaborative process like this, where the correct sources and individuals participate in a meaningful way, is a good example (or starting point) for how technology education can include Indigenous values in a respectful and meaningful way.

http://www.usask.ca/education/ccstu/

Hello again,

Found this pdf document to help individuals build advocacy for ‘Tribal’ libraries.

The document is at the following address:

http://www.ala.org/offices/sites/ala.org.offices/files/content/olos/toolkits/tribal_toolkit.pdf

The document gives individuals key points & people to write to and present with in order to gain popularity for First Nations Libraries. 

This is the first American article I have read and it seems some of the terms were different when compared to general Canadian perspectives.

As for future websites and research, it seems that there is much more information and resources for the province of Ontario which makes me wonder why? I will further look into Reserve populations for each province and see if there are large differences from province to province. I will also look into if Ontario is just being more inclusive than other provinces.

Thanks.

-Regen

Hello,

Again, after conducting some online searches, I found a link to the home page for the Mississauga First Nation Public Library. The site can be accessed at the following address:

http://www.onlink.net/~mfnlib/library.htm

The site itself is nothing fancy but the successful implementation of the library itself is incredible. From the website, the library opened in 1986, and currently serves an on-reserve population of 465 people. Among lending all sorts of materials, the library also produces a Firts Naitions Newsletter that helps to inform the on and off Reserve populations.

This library represents the need and popularity of  library services in light of current access issues for First Nations populations within Canada. Establishing such libraries can only help to strengthen the community ties and involvement to each other and a common place of recreation.

Thanks.

-Regen

Hello all,

This is my first post here on the ETEC 521 weblog. I usually teach secondary math (8-11) but am fortunate enough to have one block of library this semester.

I therefore want to conduct my research on the current state of Library Services for First Nation’s people within the Province of BC.

Within an online search I initially came across an article which commented on the passing of the 1994 Library Service Act in BC, granting First Nations people use of public libraries without a fee to do so.

The link is as follows: 

http://www.bcla.bc.ca/fnig/page/library%20services.aspx

From the BC Library Association website, this article discussed hurdles to access for First Nations in previously accessing library services.

Prior to the Act passing, Reserves were not granted access to library materials without a fee because the laws stated that since tax dollars were not collected from Reserves to help fund non-reserve public libraries. This reasoning was shocking and quite surprising considering the year was 1994 when access was granted. Unbelievable!!!!

This article was obviously an eye-opener into some of the politics that surround library access, and other potential access obstacles to learning for First Nations people.

Thanks.

-Regen