Article Origin
Volume
Issue
Year
Page 29
If you walk into a classroom anywhere in Canada and pick up a book about Aboriginal people, you're likely to find that the subject is dealt with much differently than it was a decade ago. That's because educators have recognized the need to ensure books used in the classroom are an accurate reflection of Aboriginal people, rather than the Eurocentric portrayal often presented to past generations of students. And the best way to ensure that, the consensus seems to be, is to ensure that Aboriginal people are involved in some stage of the production process of those books.
The department of Alberta Learning, for instance, has drafted up guidelines for evaluating the resources for and about Aboriginal people that are used within the province's classrooms. The first criterion listed is that Aboriginal people must be involved in developing the resource or consulted about its validity. The guidelines also require that the work is accurate, free from stereotypes and presents the Aboriginal point of view.
There are a number of book publishers working to meet a growing demand for books with an Aboriginal voice. One of them is Theytus Books Ltd., the first Aboriginal-owned-and-controlled book publisher in Canada. The company, based in Penticton, B.C., has been in business almost 25 years. Though it doesn't publish books designed specifically for classroom use, a number of their titles are used for this purpose, said Anita Large, Theytus' publishing manager.
"One of our most popular titles that's used in the classroom all across Canada is Slash," Large said. The novel, now in its ninth printing, was written more than a decade ago by Jeannette Armstrong and is used by high schools and universities across the country. Armstrong's second novel, Whispering in Shadows, is used by universities.
"Another book that is also used in classrooms, it's very popular, is called the Circle Game by Roland Chrisjohn," she said. The book provides an Aboriginal perspective on the residential school system, and is based on the author's submission to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.
Large believes there is a demand for more such books, and expects that demand to grow.
"We get a lot of calls all the time from different people who want to publish books, Aboriginal people, because they have written stories and shared their stories with teachers or schools and then the teachers would tell them, 'We need this type of material, written from an Aboriginal perspective, about Aboriginal reality," she said.
"I think the demand is there, and I think it's always going to be there. In terms of the general population, and certainly for Native studies programs, and certainly because different nations across the country are slowly building our own education systems, not only at the primary and secondary levels, but also the post-secondary level, the demand for books written for Aboriginal people by Aboriginal people will increase as well."
The demand for such books seems to be limited to social studies programs, but based on the quality of work being produced, Large said, its just a matter of time before we'll see Aboriginal authors taught in English classes as well.
"We're flourishing, certainly, in terms of their work. Theytus Books has published some of the A-list writers, such as Lee Maracle, and, of course, Jeannette Armstrong, Drew Hayden Taylor, Beatrice Culleton Mosionier, Ruby Slipperjack. So I certainly, definitely see that Aboriginal literature written by First Nations people can fill those other course materials. It's just up to the education boards within each province, and ministries, to change their curriculum and expand it."
Duval House Publishing works to produce Aboriginal resources. And while the Edmonton-based company isn't Aboriginal-owned, all the Aboriginal resources it creates are done in partnership with Aboriginal groups, explained Karen Iversen, a partner in the company.
"Basically, what w do is we assist them. Because we know publishing. They have the content. They're the owners of the content. They're the proprietors of that knowledge. We simply assist in the aspects of publishing it in order to get it into the program," she said.
"It's a perspective that has been largely ignored for some time, or has been based on materials produced by publishers without direct involvement by Aboriginal groups," she said.
"There has been a very strong movement for quite a few years now by the Aboriginal groups to ensure that their world views, their perspectives, are being presented accurately, in a better informed manner, in an appropriate manner.
"There were many concerns for a long time that their knowledge was being appropriated and not being released with their consent or their knowledge or their input," she said.
While there has been progress made in creating resources that more accurately reflect Aboriginal history and culture, for the most part those changes are limited to one course-social studies. And although there has been much talk among educators about the need to have Aboriginal viewpoints represented across the curriculum, for the most part, that has yet to happen.
While this hasn't caused much of a problem in mainstream schools, where the demand for cross-curriculum Aboriginal resources isn't likely to increase until the curriculum itself changes, it does create some challenges in Aboriginal-run schools where, by the very nature of the institutions, all courses include the Aboriginal point of view.
Greg Martineau is the librarian at Amiskwaciy Academy, a junior and senior high school in Edmonton where students can complete their academic studies in an environment steeped in Aboriginal culture, traditions and values. The teachers at the school work hard to incorporate Aboriginal culture into all the subjects taught, but any successes in that area result more from the creativity and ingenuity of individual teachers than the availaility of books on subjects presenting an Aboriginal viewpoint. There are some health resources that look at Aboriginal foods and herbs, some novels, and quite a few books that look at Aboriginal art, but what is available falls far below what is needed.
"There is some material, but the teacher's got to get it and redo it," Martineau said. "You don't have individual units already made up like you do for the regular curriculum, which would be nice. Except for Grade 7 social studies. They do a Cree program, and there is a Cree textbook, because the principal here wrote it. And they have materials."
The extent to which teachers can incorporate culture into their lessons is also limited by the need to follow the province's curriculum guidelines.
Martineau said one of the challenges the school faces is to try to find books that incorporate the Aboriginal perspective, but which are written for students at the junior high and high school levels.
"The easy picture books for elementary students, yes, there's a fair amount as far as that goes. Because it incorporates a lot of artwork, and with the Aboriginal culture being very visual, it lends itself very well to doing legends and myths and all that. There's a lot of that.
"We have a lot of adult written text and literature, non-fiction, which is on treaties and on residential schools and all this stuff. There's a lot of that out there. What there isn't a lot of is that same topic written for junior high and high school students. A lower readability level, but very current event type topics. It's all written at an adult level. So our students, our students traditionally are very poor readers. And so that's one area that we struggle with," he said.
"They do take out our material, and we end up having to help them. Some of the stuff is beyond me. It's quite difficult."
And it's not just on the non-fiction side that these students are being under-served, Martineau said. There is also a shortage of Aboriginal fction being produced for the age group. He's been able to find some books, including poetry and plays, but not enough to meet the demand of the students and teachers.
While having access to books in the classroom that represent an Aboriginal point of view is a problem in Aboriginal schools, it is only one part of the equation within mainstream schools. The other part is providing teachers with the skills, knowledge base and confidence to use them.
Ken Marland teaches Grade 2 at Confederation Park school in Saskatoon. Marland recently chaired the Saskatoon Teachers' Association's annual convention, which took the form of a cultural gathering designed to expose teachers to different aspects of Aboriginal culture. As a non-Aboriginal teacher trying to incorporate Aboriginal culture within his classroom, Marland is facing issues that teachers from across the country can no doubt relate to.
One dilemma Marland faces is trying to strike a balance between his school division's attempts to be more open to families of all cultures and religions by eliminating religion from the schools, while at the same time incorporating more Aboriginal culture, when spirituality is such a big part of that culture.
"The public system is trying to be more of a sort of multicultural, multi-ethnic kind of environment, and therefore not have predominance of one sort of religious viewpoint over another. And so that's kind of affected, you know, the Christmas concerts and it's downplayed a lot of the traditional holiday stuff that has been in school," Marland said.
"The public system is supposed to kind of be looking more at purely academic skills and leaving sort of the spirituality and the value stuff ... and we're getting a sense of pressure from the Aboriginal community saying that if you're teaching our students, an integral part of that instruction has to be spirituality. So it becomes quite a conflict for us."
Teachers are also being given the message that while they need
- 1526 views