Tag Archives: Aboriginal

Mod 3:3 Gift of Language and Culture Project

The Gift of Language and Culture Project website was created in collaboration by four Bands in Saskatchewan. In 2005 a language curriculum was created for students from PreK to grade 9. There is a core curriculum and an immersion curriculum as well as resources for teaching First Nations languages.

The curriculum is well laid out and easy to follow. It would be beneficial for any teacher of Cree students however it could also serve as a starting point for teachers whose students speak a different language.

http://www.giftoflanguageandculture.ca/history.html

Mod 3:2 First Nations Languages Online

I am more and more interested in language preservation. I know there are things going on in Saskatchewan to aid in language preservation but I had no idea that there were opportunities to learn FN languages online.

The website below is the Saskatchewan First Nation Speaking Project. It has free material for teachers on FN languages and it has more than 800 audio files so people can listen and learn online.

http://www.allanadam.com/Saskatchewan%20First%20Nation%20Speaking%20Project%20overview.pdf

Module #3-1: Aboriginal People in Canada

This post returns to the basics. According to Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC), the Canadian constitution recognizes three groups of Aboriginal people: Indians (commonly referred to as First Nations), Métis, and Inuit. More than one million people in Canada identify themselves as an Aboriginal person. These three distinct peoples have unique histories, languages, cultural practices, and spiritual beliefs. Their cultures are displayed online by numerous organizations and museums.

The First Peoples’ Cultural Council supports the revitalization of Aboriginal language, arts, and culture in British Columbia. They monitor the status of B.C. Aboriginal languages, cultures, and arts, and facilitate and develop strategies which help Aboriginal communities recover and sustain their heritage. They also provide program coordination and funding for Aboriginal language and cultural preservation and enhancement.

Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK) is the national Inuit organization in Canada. They represent and promote the interests of the Inuit on a wide variety of environmental, social, cultural, and political issues and challenges facing Inuits on the national level. ITK does not deliver or fund programs and is instead a national advocacy organization.

The Metis Culture and Heritage Resource Centre Inc. (MCHRC) is a Métis managed and non-profit membership-based charitable organization in Winnipeg. They publish a quarterly newsletter, hold cross-cultural workshops, and offer various community outreach programs, etc. As for Métis culture, the Virtual Museum of Métis History and Culture is a good resource. They chronicle traditional Métis history and culture and contain a wealth of primary documents such as oral history interviews, photographs and various archival documents in visual, audio and video files.

Module #3 – Post #1 – Healing Through Creative Arts

The document “Dancing, Singing, Painting and Speaking the Healing Story: Healing Through Creative Art” written by Linda Archibald with Jonathan Dewar, Carrie Reid, and Vanessa Stevens provides a summary of research conducted between 2009 and 2010. Commissioned by the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, the study emerged out of a desire to address the effects and legacy of the residential school system. The study was built upon the notion that research “points to evidence that cultural activities are legitimate and successful healing interventions,” perhaps even more so for a population that had for generations been largely robbed of its ability to maintain and connect with aspects of their cultural identity.

The core research question the authors posed was: “What happens when art, music, dance, storytelling, and other creative arts become apart of community-based Aboriginal healing programs?.” The research involved surveys and interviews with Aboriginal participants from across Canada, and also included an art-therapy workshop.

The premise of the research is also rooted in Western-based art therapy, with the notion that due to the impact of colonial practices on Aboriginal peoples in Canada, that they suffer from “historic trauma,” and a collective post traumatic stress disorder. By reconnecting Aboriginal groups with their language, traditions, spirituality and knowledge, the hope is that a process of healing can begin.

Check out the full details and findings of the research here.

Module 3 Post 2 – Redefining How Success is Measured in First Nations, Inuit and Metis Learning

This report looks at current data and indicators in redefining how success is measured in First Nations, Inuit and Metis Learning. http://www.ccl-cca.ca/pdfs/RedefiningSuccess/Redefining_How_Success_Is_Measured_EN.pdf

Limitations to Current Research and Measurement Approaches that’s covered in this report includes:

  • most research on Aboriginal learning is directed at the learning deficits of Aboriginal people and overlooks positive learning outcomes.
  • current research on Aboriginal learning often does not recognize or address the fact that economic, health and social challenges inhibit Aboriginal people’s opportunities for lifelong learning far more than they inhibit non-Aboriginal Canadians.
  • Current approaches to measuring Aboriginal learning focus on high school and post-secondary education and do not monitor the progress across the full spectrum of life long learning.
  • Measuring Aboriginal learning focus on years of schooling and performance on standardized assessments – the cognitive domain of learning, and not the purpose or nature of holistic learning – engaging the physical, spiritual, mental and emotional dimensions.

In contrast, the report suggests a more holistic approach to measuring Aboriginal learning which includes redefining what is meant by “learning success”, and to develop an appropriate framework for measuring it. The Canadian Council on Learning (CCL) and it’s Aboriginal Learning Knowledge Center at the time this report was published is working in partnership with First Nations, Inuit and Metis learning professionals, community practitioners, researchers and governments to define what is meant by learning success – and to identify the indicators needed to capture a holistic view of lifelong learning that reflects Aboriginal needs and aspirations.

Although there is no holistic framework for measuring progress in lifelong learning for First Nations, Inuit and Metis, redefined measures of learning success should do the following:

  • Identify the partners needed to address data gaps and challenges
  • Foster a dialogue on data gaps and challenges in measuring Aboriginal learning
  • Develop comprehensive information and data strategies to fill the data gaps on Aboriginal learning

CCL will continue to:

  • Improve its understanding of the factors that impract holistic lifelong learning for First Nations, Inuit and Metis
  • Work with these groups to develop and implement a national framework for monitoring and report on Aboriginal learning
  • Work with Aboriginal Peoples and federal, provincial and territorial governments to develop a national information and data strategy
  • Use the Holistic Lifelong Learning Models to foster a dialogue in Aboriginal learning

Source:

Canadian Council on Learning. (2007). Redefining How Success is Measured in First Nations, Inuit and Metis Learning (pp.1-44). Retrieved November 18, 2007, from http://www.ccl-cca/CCL/Reports/RedefiningSuccessInAboriginalLearning/Language=EN

Module 3 – Post 1 Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change

Reading this weeks readings reminded me of a documentary I had seen a few years back.  It is entitled “Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change”.  The documentary was written, produced, and directed by Zacharias Kunuk, is presented almost entirely in Inuktitut, and features interviews with Mary Simon as well as many Inuit elders.  In the documentary the Inuit present their observations that prove that climate change is happening.  The Inuit elders have hundreds if not thousands of years of traditional oral history that they rely on in order to provide food for their families through hunting and fishing.  Unfortunately, the climate is changing, and hunting and fishing are becoming harder to do.

The Inuit present evidence for the following:

  • later freeze up
  • earlier break up and melt
  • decreased thickness of shelf ice
  • change to weather patterns and prevailing winds
  • change in behaviour of seals and polar bears
  • change in the earth’s tilt, changing star navigation and position of sun on horizon
  • increase in pollution in the north

Also presented are alternate reasons for the decline of the polar bear population (although the Inuit assert that the bears are not in decline) and the seal population.  The Inuit elders feel that the wildlife biologists are to blame for the decline in the animal populations, and that the methods of tracking with helicopters and tagging is causing more harm.  In a few well presented and passionate speeches, the elders present their love for and kinship with the animals and assert that the Inuit are not and could not ever bring harm to the animals.

The Inuit know that climate change is happening, but fell powerless to do anything about it. Their hope is that by presenting this information that more people will sit up and take notice.  The video is approximately 54 minutes long and is well worth a view.

View the video for yourself here.

Mod 2:5 Saskatchewan Indian Cultural Centre

The Saskatchewan Indian Cultural Centre is committed to helping maintain the languages and cultures of First Nations people. Their website has information on the various First Nations in Saskatchewan as well as a section on how to respect Elders. The website has information that could easily be used with students.

http://www.sicc.sk.ca/elders_faq.html

Mod 2:4 First Nations Education Reform

According to a recent media release, First Nations education is funded at 40-50% less than non-First Nations education in Saskatchewan. The discrepancy is due to First Nations education being funded by the federal government while non-First Nation education is funded by the provincial government however the gap is putting First Nations students at a huge disadvantage.

The first link is to the media release. The second link is to the report on the state of First Nations education. The second link is valuable because part of the document sets the stage for the discussion on First Nations education with a section on history including pre-contact, the mission and residential schools period, and integration. I would be tempted to use this in a high school setting on First Nations history.

http://www.fsin.com/index.php/media-releases/894-first-nation-students-still-not-funded-the-same-as-provincial-counterparts.html

http://www.fsin.com/images/stories/fsindownloads/education/2012/Aboriginal%20Senate%20rep03dec11-e.pdf 

Entry 7: Canadians increasingly reporting aboriginal identity

 

Gloria Galloway and Travis Grant published this article in 2013 in The Globe and Mail  The authors report on the phenomenon where many Canadians are now claiming to be aboriginal.   Galloway and Grant cite Wayne Smith of Staistics Canada, who discovered “an unexpectedly high number… who claimed to be aboriginal”  in the 2011 data from the National Household Survey. Yet, many of these Canadians did not report aboriginal identity in the census of 2006.

I find this article worrisome on the basis of comparing data from 2006 and 2011. Having worked with Staistics Canada for the 2002 census, I was told, and in turn relayed, that nams on the census were simply for keeping track of households completed.

The authors comment that aboriginal leaders believe the trend to be partly a result of social media and a new sense of pride.  Betty Ann Lavallee, National Chief of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples states that young people ” are no longer afraid. They know they have the basis of law behind them and they’re becoming extremely vocal.”

Wilf falk, Manitoba’s top statistician,  indicated that ‘the number of  people who self-identified as Metis at both the national and provincial level went up about 60 percent… He attributes the shift to increased awareness of identity.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/native-people-boldly-standing-up-to-be-counted/article12912056/

 

 

 

Module 2 – Post #2 – “Return of Treasures”

While contemplating the ideas of culture and commodification in this Module, I discovered a website that has been compiled by the U’Mista Cultural Society. The website associates the meaning of U’Mista with the return home of captives who may have been abducted in raids. It then identifies the return of artifacts or treasures of the Kwakwaka’wakw people from foreign institutions and collections as a form of U’Mista.

A wonderful link from this site is the Story of the Masks. This site uses text, images, video and simple games/quizzes to introduce and share the stories of the Kwak’wala speaking people of the Northwest Coast of B.C.  The site includes many personal accounts of how masks and/or regalia, along with their stories, have been passed along through generations.

This site is also part of a much larger, quite interesting institution known as the Virtual Museum of Canada. This initiative seems to me to be a wonderful way to allow a diverse range of communities and groups to share their stories and educate others about their culture while at the same time protecting the things most sacred to those cultures and ensuring that they are physically located in the places where they belong.

The Story of the Masks has given me much food for thought as I pursue my research regarding digital stories and indigenous knowledge and culture.