Educational model sought at Calgary symposium

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First Nations' control over education was the subject at a two-day symposium in Calgary at the end of May.

Co-sponsored by the Assembly of First Nations and the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, the symposium featured think-tank discussions with more than 150 delegates from across the country. In the process, the delegates turned the co-sponsors into students eager to learn from people with first-hand experience.

"It's the regional activity that stimulates the process-executive directors, education directors and so forth-they're the front-line workers, they know how it feels," said Wilson Bearhead, AFN vice chief for Alberta. "They bring forward concerns and recommendations, and some are included in the [symposium's] final report."

That report will be studied by the AFN executive, chiefs' committees and the assembly before a decision is made about how to move forward.

The Calgary symposium was the last in a series of regional meetings that began in January and that stemmed from a conference held in Vancouver in May 2000.

For the AFN, the symposium was also an important show of strength in negotiating with the federal government.

"We've collected data; from that data we have principles; and from those principles we'll engage in negotiations," Bearhead said. "I guess what these conferences are all about is increasing leverage for us."

Gilles Rochon, director general of community development at DIAND, said "A one-size-fits-all approach will simply not work. It is clear that educational jurisdiction is a complex issue, not just in scope, but also because there are a variety of related issues including governance and resources."

According to Bearhead, the issue of resources, or funding, is crucial because of experiences in the 1980s when government downloaded responsibilities to bands without the necessary funds to handle them efficiently.

In addition, a panel of Elders at the symposium's first day brought up issues from more distant times.

Frank Weaselhead, a Kainai Elder, said "We had a fine education system that taught traditional values. I lost those values when I went to school. I'm one of those who lost his identity."

Weaselhead dropped out of school in Grade 11 but his education continued when he returned home. "Since 1961 when I cared for my first medicine pipe bundle, all my education came from Elders."

Weaselhead's stress on traditional values and spirituality was echoed by other Elders and by Bearhead, who said these concerns are at the heart of the AFN's discussions of educational jurisdiction. "We need to design it where people can purify themselves at the school level, and pray and understand, because academics is one thing but spirituality is another. I think if you use them both well they can go hand-in-hand and give you internal strength."

The goal of First Nations' educational reform goes beyond blending traditional and modern teachings, however. AFN Vice Chief for Saskatchewan, Perry Bellegarde, said the aim is also to contribute to the curriculum of non-Aboriginal schools.

"Peaceful coexistence and mutual respect start in school. Our treaties need to be taught not only to Indian kids, but to our non-Native brothers and sisters. That's how to breed peaceful coexistence."

Bellegarde illustrated his point with the story of his eight-year-old son's recent experience in his Grade 2 class. For Show and Tell, the boy brought sweetgrass into the classroom and Bellegarde was relieved to find the teacher was accepting of Aboriginal culture. "Our way of teaching our kids is just as good, and our children need to know that."

Bearhead concluded, "We need to develop structures that will help us and that we are a part of, something we can call our own. It's been a long time since we've called something our own. I think that starting point alone kind of sets the vision for the future."