know your students' curriculum

A lifelong advocate for Aboriginal education, Verna Kirkness (1999) claims a radical approach is needed in Indian education and that Natives must put into practice the goals and objectives based on their philosophy of education. She urges that “Aboriginals need to disestablish many of the current educational practices related to institutions failing to meet Aboriginal needs and that Aboriginal education should return to a traditional holistic curriculum approach”. (p.14) When asked how my students begin to overcome educational barriers, here are their responses:

Kirkness (1999) also assesses changes in Native education as a reversal in traditional holistic psychology, where the most common approach to curriculum design is to interject parts of Native culture into curriculum, “rather than having culture as a basis of the curriculum” (p.15). From my own experiences, trying to administer routine learning activities and assessments within an Aboriginal culture can be instructionly fatal. Furthermore, continuing to do so without collaboration can only harbour resentment and further the divide.

During my interview with any Elsipogtog Elder, I asked how important it was for community involvement within designing skilled trades curriculum, like Carpentry. It was evident that developing skilled trades is extremely important to an Aboriginal community and equally important is the contribution from their community throughout the curriculum process and the work place:
“If we (Natives) build our community, we will respect the professional or Elder building it; however, if the white man contractor builds houses on Native land, a sense of pride is lost in the building. Natives need to feel that the building comes from their trees, nature, spirit, people and their community. We use the land and build with the land. This was something that we wanted our men and women to respect and continue learning to respect it. We hope to train them to become trainers for the community; inspiring others to do the same and eventually no longer depending on the white man for assistance” (Lionel Levi, March, 2010).

Getting to know my students meant getting to know the people. Nadia Myre's short documentary film captures exactly what that means to me.