School board adding Aboriginal content to curriculum

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Public education systems across the country are currently in the midst of significant changes, as educators address the need to develop curricula that better deal with the cultures and beliefs of Canada's large and growing Aboriginal community. With the highest proportion of Aboriginal youth of any province, Saskatchewan continues to lead the country in these changes, by introducing many diverse and innovative initiatives that give all students the opportunity to learn about the Native way of life. And within the province, the Saskatoon Catholic School Board is arguably doing more than any other local authority to push this trend forward.

"We've been tinkering with Aboriginal inclusion for some time, but it has come in at a very cursory level," said Gordon Martell, superintendent of education for Saskatoon Catholic Schools. "In the school division, we're now saying it's time to embrace it, and put Aboriginal inclusion fundamentally into the curriculum."

On Jan. 21, a large group of teachers and administrators from the division gathered to put the finishing touches on their latest initiative-eight teacher's resource kits on hoop dancing. Containing a step-by-step instructional video, a DVD, a resource manual, and 50 actual hoops that students can use to practice the traditional dance, the kits are now available to teachers in any of the division's 45 schools.

"This is just the embodiment of what has been going on in our division for a long time," explained Martell. "St. Mary's community school is really the birthplace of hoop dance as a form of cultural expression in Saskatchewan's elementary schools. It's the granddaddy of the hoop dance troupe, and now there are many, many schools around the province that have successful dance troupes."

The hoop dance was a natural choice for the first of the division's Aboriginal-themed resource kits (of which there are several more in varying stages of completion). World-renowned hoop dancer Delvin Kennedy works for the division as a cultural advisor, and with the demand for his instructional sessions constantly growing, the Catholic School Board's Aboriginal education team decided to capture his knowledge in a more permanent and easily accessible form.

"We jokingly call the kits the clone of Delvin Kennedy," said Sharon LaFlamme, the division's co-ordinator of Indian and Metis education. "Delvin can't always be in all the schools that want him, but this kit will help teachers share his skills."

With work on the hoop dance resource kits now completed, the team is shifting focus to its other projects, which include resources devoted to the construction and significance of the tipi, to the history and culture of the Metis, and to the unique Aboriginal relationship with the environment. In all these projects, the school board's primary consideration is that the new materials must be easy to incorporate into the existing curriculum.

"We shouldn't have to divert from curricular work to achieve Aboriginal inclusion, it should be a part of the staple of what we do in the classroom," noted Martell.

"These aren't add-ons, because we've looked at the curriculum and made sure these resources support what's already being taught," LaFlamme added. "Add-ons sit on the shelf and collect dust. These kits will be useful and teacher friendly."

All students, not just those of Aboriginal descent, will feel the benefits of this increased focus on Native themes, activities and beliefs.

"We're doing this so that non-Aboriginal people can learn about Aboriginal people, and learn to coexist peacefully in this province," said Martell. "But more than that, we do it so Aboriginal students can see a glimpse of themselves, their families and their communities reflected in their school experience. It's about Aboriginal students finding identity and belonging within our schools."

If the resource kits are as popular as Martell and his team expect them to be, it will also be about one thing further. Itwill be about leading the way toward change, and demonstrating to educators across the country that there is no need or reason for a separation of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal topics.