THE GRIZZLIES is based on the inspiring true story of the youth of Kugluktuk, Nunavut - who were transformed by the power of sport, family, tradition, and community, and in turn, transformed their town with the highest suicide rate in all of North America into a model of hope and youth-led resilience. The Grizzlies is more than the usual triumph through sports movie - it is a true story about a group of Inuit students who changed their teacher and eventually their whole community for the better. Driven by remarkable performances by the young, Nunavut -based cast, and seeded with unassailable authenticity because of it’s dramatic location, The Grizzlies proves to be one of the most unexpectedly affirming films of the year. The Grizzlies opens across Canada on Friday April 19, 2019!
Handbook for New Teachers - YFN Resources for Teachers 2020/2021
This is an introductory booklet for new teachers to the Yukon. It introduces our unit staff and explains what we do within Yukon Education. It highlights Yukon First Nations; their traditional territories; the languages of Yukon First Nations people; culturally inclusive education; working with Elders; community contacts and First Nations resources.
Assembly of First Nations (AFN) It's Our Time - First Nations Education Tool Kit
The Assembly of First Nations has launched its free digital education resource for the iPad on iTunes U to the acclaim of many school boards. Titled “It’s Our Time First Nations Education Toolkit,” the package provides teachers with culturally relevant, accessible, hands-on educational tools related to First Nations culture and history. "The Toolkit will help increase cultural competency and understanding of First Nations’ rights, histories and cultures, developed from First Nations perspectives,” commented AFN National Chief Perry Bellegarde. The Canadian Education Association, Canadian School Boards Association, and Canadian Teacher’s Federation all commended AFN on the resource, calling it a “must-have reference for schools” and a “valuable comprehensive toolkit.”
- Plain Talk 2: Pre Contact
The First Nations peoples are the original inhabitants of Canada. Learn about First Nations prior to colonization and occupation by Europeans, a time that is generally referred to as the time of contact.
- Plain Talk 3: Impacts of Contact
The arrival of Europeans in North America is generally referred to as contact. Learn about contact and how it had profound influences on the lives of First Nations peoples, effects that are felt today.
- Plain Talk 4: Treaties
Learn about the kinds of agreements that were made between the colonial powers (mainly English and French) and First Nations, in this brief overview of the challenges, realities, and disappointments.
- Plain Talk 5: The Indian Act
Learn more about the Indian Act of 1876, a legal document and a set of laws that gave the Government complete control over the lives of First Nations peoples.
- Plain Talk 6: Residential Schools
Learn about the tragic history of Canada's residential schools, boarding schools for Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit and Métis) children and youth, financed by the federal government but staffed and run by several Christian religious institutions.
- Plain Talk 7: First Nations Historical Timelines and Maps
Download this Plain Talk to see a timeline that graphically shows a sequence of events in the history of First Nations, Inuit and Métis people in Canada in order of their occurrence, as well as ten maps that show the location of First Nations across Canada.
- Plain Talk 8: First Nations Quality of Life
Learn more about First Nations quality of life, the experiences and activities that are part of normal enjoyment of living.
- Plain Talk 9: Cultural Competency
Cultural competency is a mindset or way of viewing the world. For those who commit to culturally competent practices, it represents a paradigmatic shift from viewing others as problematic to viewing how one works with people different from one’s self in a manner to ensure effective practices.
- Plain Talk 10: First Nations Control of First Nations Education
It is important that educators and the broader community understand clearly why First Nations People feel so strongly that First Nations be able to exercise their inherent right to education by developing their own policies and laws to provide linguistically and culturally-appropriate education that meets the individual and collective needs of their learners.
- Plain Talk 11: Ending Violence Against Women
Current statistics about the incidence of levels of violence against First Nations Women and touches briefly on some of the chronic underlying risk factors.
- Plain Talk 12: First Nations Urban Life
Canadian Constitution Act of 1982. First Nations are a diverse group of about 80 Nations in over 633 communities speaking languages that encompass over 50 distinct linguistic clusters. According to the Assembly of First Nations, in 2006 approximately forty percent of First Nations citizens lived off-reserve in urban settings. The Census indicates that the urban population of First Nations peoples may have risen slightly since then. This Plain Talk attempts to provide a portrait of the First Nations urban experience. However, presenting a clear picture of First Nations urban dwellers is difficult because of ambiguities in the data collected.
- Plain Talk 13: First Nations Economic Growth & Employment
The Assembly of First Nations’ Call to Action on Education will have a direct impact on the capacity of First Nations communities to create sustainable economies that will directly employ First Nation peoples. Strong local economies and employment parity will result in contributing billions of dollars into the Canadian economy.
- Plain Talk 14: First Nations Accountability
First Nations governments across Canada are making progress in improving the quality of life for all our citizens by rebuilding our nations, assuming responsibility and advancing recognition of our inherent Aboriginal and Treaty rights. An important step forward requires confirming a genuine accountability relationship between the Government of Canada, First Nation governments and the citizens they represent.
- Plain Talk 15: Official Documents
• Declaration of First Nations
• Statement of Apology to Former Students of Indian Residential Schools
• AFN National Chief Phil Fontaine’s Response to the Statement of Apology
• United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP)
• The Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action
- Plain Talk 16: Scholarships
The Assembly of First Nations is proud to support First Nations youth through the Heroes of Our Time (HOOT) Scholarships Program. Heroes of Our Time Scholarships are awarded by the Assembly of First Nations to acknowledge and celebrate the success of First Nations students in achieving their educational goals.
- Plain Talk 17: Role Models
Role Models can give us the incentive and drive to develop our talents and abilities. They can give us the strength to face challenges, to carry burdens, to overcome obstacles. They give us the strength to keep going, the wings to dream big, and the confidence to aspire to more.
There are many powerful First Nations men and women who are recognized as Role Models.
- Plain Talk 18: First Nations Holistic Lifelong Learning Model
First Nations people view learning as a continuous process throughout one’s life cycle. The First Nations Holistic Lifelong Learning Model captures this complex, inclusive and integrated process that also incorporates the many forms of intelligence.
- Plain Talk 19: Intelligence
Intelligence, from an Indigenous or First Nations perspective, is an inclusive concept that embraces all of the talents, abilities, skills and understandings that distinguish us as a species. In fact, many researchers and theorists are acknowledging that all forms of human expression have value, are parts of our evolutionary heritage, and should be considered as elements of intelligence.
- Plain Talk 20: Plan for Student Success
The Change Paradigm can be applied to education, with the objective of achieving beneficial changes for both individuals and communities through the creation of a Plan for Student Success.
In order to plan for student success, it is important to measure performance. The simplest and easiest definition of performance measurement in education is that it’s the process of determining how much or how often an event, action, or behaviour occurs. The fact is, we’re always engaged in some type of performance measurement in our daily lives.
- Plain Talk 21: The First Nations Performance Indicators Checklist
The First Nations Performance Indicators Checklist is a culturally relevant tool that communities can use to assess their educational strengths and weaknesses, and to develop programs to enhance educational success from a First Nations perspective.
- Plain Talk 22: Engaging the Community
It takes a village to raise a child.
The idea that children are born into and grow up in a social environment is common throughout the world’s diverse cultures. Part of this idea is that children are naturally connected with everyone in their family, community, and town. First Nations, although they differ in customs, traditions, stories and languages, share this concept of connectedness, and extend it by understanding that the role of community members is to assist and nurture the development and growth of children in their communities.
- Plain Talk 23: Student - Parent/Guardian Agreement
Our Way is a Valid Way - Professional Educator Resource
This resource is intended to enhance all teachers’ understanding of the diverse FNMI traditions, values, and attitudes, and of the historical and contemporary realities of FNMI peoples in western and northern Canada. It is only through the increased awareness, understanding, and appreciation of the rich and long-lasting history, culture, and contributions of FNMI peoples that teachers can design learning experiences for all students that contribute to their analysis, understanding, and appreciation of FNMI issues and challenges within Canada’s political, socio-economic, linguistic, and cultural realities.
Our Way is a Valid Way - Personal Educator Reflections
This Personal Educator Reflections resource is intended to compliment the Professional Educator Resource. Educators are encouraged to work through the activities and record understandings for future reference. As part of an educator’s personal growth and development process, this resource serves as a reminder of new cultural understandings and insights that a teacher can refer to and reflect upon.
Pedagogy of Consequence – Culturally Responsive Teaching for Yukon First Nation Citizens
This website has been created as a professional learning resource for Yukon Education and the Yukon’s First Nations that work together today for their children’s future. Although developed specifically for Tr’ondek Hwech’in, the resource is developed as a call to action in assisting all Yukon teachers to examine their teaching practice, identify areas that they may need to adjust to teach effectively from a YFN perspective, and to evaluate the effectiveness of these adjustments on student engagement, well- being and success. The website includes a teacher self-assessment on-line survey with immediate results, teacher resources including sample units, publications, and videos.
Beyond 94 Teacher's Guide
CBC’s Beyond 94 is an immersive, interactive and comprehensive website created by the CBC Indigenous Unit that monitors the progress of this important tools for change — the TRC's 94 Calls to Action. Explore CBC’s Beyond 94 interactive site at: www.cbc.ca/beyond94
Our teacher guide will help you and your students explore the Beyond 94 site and the TRC Calls to Action. Also check out our Curio.ca Beyond 94 video collection at: www.curio.ca/beyond94
Ti wa7 szwatenem. What We Know: Indigenous Knowledge and Learning
Indigenous peoples agree that their knowledge cannot be defined from a Western orientation. Indigenous knowledge is diverse; there is no "one definition." As previously stated, it is action oriented, not an object or subject. Indigenous knowledge is difficult to define, and it is not a product or object to be defined and studied in isolation (Little Bear 2012). Knowledge is connected to the land where it emerged; it comes with the people, animals, plants, water, earth, sky, and trees. Indigenous knowledge is connected to the spirit and to states of sacredness; it is both thinking and feeling, and reveals itself through physical actions. It is oral and transmitted orally.
A Cultural and Environmental Spin to Mathematics Education: Research Implementation Experience in a Canadian Aboriginal Community
This paper builds on the theoretical framework that a mathematics curriculum fashioned to include Aboriginal learners’ life-world culture that is centered on the environment in which they live, their flora and fauna, their schema, traditional knowledge and values, and their communal experiences and aspirations – would strike a firm cord of harmony with the learners, and help them develop a more receptive attitude toward the study of mathematics. This stance is supported by Shockey and Gustafson (2007) who, in their study of Indigenous students’ passive resistance to mathematics learning, hypothesized that "a contributor to caring less about mathematics has to do with the fact that new knowledge is not built on the existing knowledge of these Indigenous youth" (p. 96).
Yukon First Nations Culture & Tourism Welcome Guide
This new and improved Welcome Guide showcases Yukon First Nations dynamic and evolving cultural and business traditions. Written entirely from First Nations perspectives and including profile spreads of every Yukon First Nation, the guide also features new and specially commissioned photography.
An Introduction to First Nations Heritage Along the Yukon River
The content in this manual is an introduction to the heritage of First Nations people in Yukon. The culture and history of First Nations people is complex and would require volumes and volumes of information to express and understand it in any depth. This manual provides a basic overview of life in Yukon before newcomers arrived, during times of change, and today.
When the World Began: A Yukon Teacher's Guide to
Comparative and Local Mythology.
This guide was prepared to assist English and Social Studies teachers who would like to encourage students to understand and appreciate mythology. More specifically, it was written to accompany a book of Yukon myths narrated by Mrs. Angela Sidney from Tagish, Mrs. Kitty Smith who grew up near Dalton Post but now lives in Whitehorse, and Mrs. Rachel Dawson who was born at Fort Selkirk but lived much of her life in Whitehorse. Their book My Stories Are My Wealth was published by the Council for Yukon Indians in1977 and is available to Yukon schools. Some teachers have suggested that a guide should be prepared to clarify ways in which myth could be used in classrooms. Comparative mythology is presently part of the grade 8 and grade 10English curriculum and this guide draws on some of the themes already taught at those levels.
Aboriginal Worldviews and Perspectives in the Classroom
The inspiration for this project was to support and build upon a regional dialogue that would lead to further strategies and clear commitments from all educators as we work to serve each learner, families, and communities. With a spirit of collaboration, a commitment to transformation, and an “If not here, where?” mindset, we approached Director Ted Cadwallader of the British Columbia Ministry of Education to share our School District 85 (Vancouver Island North) aspirations. Shortly thereafter, the vision and partnership was expanded to include four other school districts to host focus sessions on Aboriginal Worldviews and Perspectives in the Classroom.
Yukon Education Act Recognizing that Yukon people agree that the goal of the Yukon education system is to work in co-operation with parents to develop the whole child including the intellectual, physical, social, emotional, cultural, and aesthetic potential of all students to the extent of their abilities so that they may become productive, responsible, and self-reliant members of society while leading personally rewarding lives in a changing world; and . . .
Nurturing the Learning Spirit of First Nation Students
This report is intended as a road map or pathway forward for improving education outcomes for First Nation elementary and secondary students who live on reserve. It also provides recommendations for improving governance and clarifying accountability for First Nation education.
Old Ways Are the New Way Forward This reflection paper argues that traditional Indigenous ways of teaching and learning are relevant not only for Indigenous people, but for the education of all people. As teachers and practitioners, the authors seek to explore the connection between what is sometimes referred as "new" innovations in education with the forms of teaching that originated in traditional Indigenous education ways. For instance, think of differentiated instruction, daily physical activity, outdoor education, place-based, experiential, embodied, or service learning—pick a pedagogical buzzword—and there is likely some root to be found in the ways that worked for Indigenous communities for millennia. So why not explore how the old ways could be the new way forward?
WNCP Common Tool for Assessing and Validating Teaching and Learning Resources for Cultural Appropriateness and Historical Accuracy of First Nations, Métis and Inuit Content
To better ensure that First Nations, Métis and Inuit content is culturally authentic and historically accurate, the WNCP’s Charter Two Working Group has designed an assessment and validation tool. This tool is used to assess cultural appropriateness and historical accuracy and will, henceforth, be called “assessment and validation tools”. The WNCP Common Tool for Assessing and Validating Teaching and Learning Resources for Cultural Appropriateness and Historical Accuracy of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Content (the CTfAV) has been developed as a common tool for use within the WNCP regions and can be adjusted locally, to reflect each region’s needs.
Accord on Indigenous Education This Accord uses the term Indigenous to include the distinct Canadian terms Aboriginal, First Nations, Indian, Métis, and Inuit as well as the more global context of First Peoples’ epistemologies, ways of knowing, knowledge systems, and lived experience. Indigenous is both an international and local term, reflecting the reality that issues such as the impact of colonization have both global and local implications. Indigenous is the preferred term for the Accord on Indigenous Education; however, the terms Aboriginal, First Nations, Indian, Métis, Inuit, and Indigenous are used deliberately throughout this document to reflect the diverse, complex, and evolving nature of Indigenous identities in Canada. The use of the term Indigenous focuses attention on Aboriginal education in Canada, while at the same time engaging in a movement to address global educational issues.
Community Dialogues on First Nations Holistic Lifelong Learning: Learning As A Community For Renewal and Growth
The learning model represents the link between lifelong learning and community well-being, and was used as a framework for measuring success in lifelong learning for First Nations peoples.
Given the strength of the First Nations Holistic Lifelong Learning Model and its relationship with community wellbeing, the AFN brought this learning model to three First Nations communities to help understand how the
tool could be used to improve the outcomes of First Nations learners and ultimately community well-being.
It is through the ongoing work between the Canadian Council on Learning and the Aboriginal Learning Knowledge Centre that the AFN Education Sector and its vision for First Nation education clearly indicated that this exceptional partnership could advance the use of the First Nations Holistic Lifelong Learning Model.
Community Dialogues were seen as the vehicle to use the model as a culturally appropriate and relevant tool for community planning and development and to work with communities to identify the economic and social benefits that come from lifelong learning.