Tag Archives: tradition

Module 4 – Post 4 – Native Canadian Centre

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Native Canadian Centre of Toronto

https://www.facebook.com/nativecentre

Just happened across this one day on facebook. A well developed page for this group out of Toronto. If you’re on facebook, like them today!

http://www.ncct.on.ca/

They also have a website. From the website:

The Native Canadian Centre of Toronto is an Aboriginal community cultural centre. The Centre offers multiple programs including cultural education which I found very interesting as this centre is based in Toronto, urban area. Culture can be kept alive anywhere.

Here is a listing of available programs.

Aboriginal Education Outreach Program

The Aboriginal Education Outreach Program (AEOP) is an interactive project that has been set up to promote and foster a greater understanding of Native People in North America and their distinct cultures.

Aboriginal Circle of Life Services Program (ACOLS)

The Aboriginal Circle of Life Services Program is designed to provide a supportive environment for Aboriginal people residing in the Greater Toronto Area through the delivery of client centred services enabling them to live independently in their homes.

Cultural Program

The Cultural Program here at the Native Canadian Centre plays an important role in educating and providing services for the members of the centre.

Dodem Kanonhsa

DODEM KANONHSA’ Elder’s Cultural Facility is a learning and sharing facility which fosters greater acceptance, understanding and harmony between members of First Nations and Non-Aboriginal People.

Communications & Referral Office

The Native Canadian Centre of Toronto provides Information and Referral Services (C&R) that connect people in the community with service providers, information and/or linkage with other Aboriginal or Non-Aboriginal agencies.

Martial Arts Program

The Native Canadian Centre of Toronto is pleased to offer Okichitaw classes to members of the NCCT.

Toronto Native Community History Program and Bus Tour

The Toronto Native Community History Project (TNCHP) was founded in 1995 and our current work revolves around three key components: Popular Education, Resource Centre and Youth Involvement. We also offer tours of Toronto from the Aboriginal perspective.

Youth Program

We are currently seeking energetic youth from the Native and non-Native community to become involved in our activities. These activities include volleyball, basketball, hockey, and all kinds of other activities.

Module 4 – Post 2 – Living Traditions Living Lands

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Traditional Ecological Knowledge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2LsHHSDiWg

An excellent YouTube video on Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). TEK promotes an Indigenous approach to environmental stewardship. It is the teachings of Elders as taught to them by their ancestors that is TEK. European settlers dictated how land was to be treated after their arrival. The TEK movement is to move towards a more ecologically friendly method of land usage.

Mod2 – Post 5. “Challenging Economies”

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The past few weeks we have been reading many materials regarding the recognition and revitalization of the traditional ways of First Nations people. As I research materials for my course project, I came across this website from National Geographic regarding the Tar Sands of Alberta.

How are the Tar Sands related to the challenges faced by First Nations people? I think that the biggest challenge put in front of First Nations people is how cultures in Canada view land.

The predominant culture sees the land as a “resource” first. Land is meant to be extracted, refined, exported. Land drives economy, creates jobs, and puts Canada on the global map as a provider of raw materials.

Tar Sands Pipe

First Nation groups see land as something radically different from this. It is part of their “self”. Land cannot be removed from the self. It is tied to each of us. It is tied to the air we breathe and the animals that roam over, squirm under, and fly over, its surface. It is part of their economy too. For the land provides that which they need to survive. It is revered and honoured in daily life. There are spoken codes of conduct of how one interacts with the land, and this conduct presents itself in the traditional stories passed down from one generation to the next. As Dr. Nancy Turner spoke of in last week’s podcast… “Most of the people that I have worked with have lived in their community their entire life and so have their family, and their family’s family, going back to the beginning of time. They are situated in a specific place. Their wisdom, stories, language, all sits in that place. A lot of this knowledge of plants, environments, and how to live their lives is situated in these places.”

Enter the indigenous peoples of Ft. McKay, a small community located at the very heart of the Tar Sands. The indigenous peoples of Ft. McKay are literally surrounded by the Tar Sands and have watched their land literally disappear from underneath them for the past 20 years. How will the First Nations people of Ft. McKay save what is left of their culture when huge corporations have invested billions into the extraction, purification, and exportation of those lands?

I believe it is a difference in perspective that is the biggest challenge facing indigenous peoples of North America.

Mel Burgess.