Topic: Education

VICTORIA, BC – With traditional drumming, singing, dancing, and food, Camosun unveiled the new name and purpose for its Aboriginal Education department: Eyēʔ Sqȃ’lewen – Centre for Indigenous Education and Community Connections.

“Eyēʔ Sqȃ’lewen – pronounced Eye. Sh-KWAW-leh-win – is a term offered to the college by Lkwungen Elder Elmer George,” explained Indigenous Education Co-Leader Janice Simcoe. “It references ‘good heart, good mind, good feelings’ – the experiences we want students to have during their journey here.”

Along with the new name, Simcoe explained how the new model is based on the Camas flower, which has always been important to local Indigenous people as a staple food and trading item, and which also is a symbol of beauty and survival. The six petals represent the six purposes of the new Centre: services to students, community connections, courses and programs, special projects, Indigenization and research. Students are at the centre of the petals, the roots represent Indigenous knowledge and caring and the stems provide the relationships that hold it all together.

The naming ceremony took place September 26 in Na’tsa’maht, Camosun’s Aboriginal Gathering Place at the Lansdowne campus. More than 200 people witnessed the celebrations which included prayers, songs, dancing and words of welcome, and concluded with a traditional gifting ceremony and a meal that included barbeque salmon and bannock.

Camosun has been providing education for First Nations/Aboriginal students and communities since the 1970s but significant growth began in 1991 when the college formed a First Nations Advisory Council and hired a full-time First Nations Coordinator. Since then, the Aboriginal student population has grown from 125 to more than 1,000 Aboriginal students from 50 different Nations.

Camosun is now recognized as a provincial leader in Indigenous education, service, programming and community engagement. Camosun offers 10 different Indigenous-specific programs from Indigenous Studies to Indigenous Business Leadership, in addition to strong partnerships with the Indigenous areas of the University of Victoria, Royal Roads University and other organizations on Vancouver Island. The Camosun College Student Society also supports an Aboriginal student events and advocacy group called the First Nations Student Association.

Territorial Acknowledgement

Camosun College serves the communities of southern Vancouver Island and the south Gulf Islands located in the traditional territories of the Lkwungen (Esquimalt and Songhees), Malahat, Pacheedaht, Scia’new, T’Sou-ke and W̱SÁNEĆ (Pauquachin, Tsartlip, Swawout, Tseycum) peoples. We acknowledge their welcome and graciousness to the students who seek knowledge here. The college’s name “Camosun” (pronounced Cam-O-sun) is originally a Lkwungen name for an area of Victoria “where different waters meet and are transformed.”

“As you know, we have various stereotypes in our community of inner-city east side teenagers, of Aboriginal youth, of alternate-program students, etc. And some of our students have internalized these stereotypes; we start to believe the stereotypes. For example, we start to believe that inner city students and First Nations students have lower graduation rates.

Actually, if we look beyond the superficial statistics and adjust for the effects of class and income, our students have among the highest grad rates (all things considered) and are among the most resilient students in the city. So, us teachers are forever looking for ways to challenge the stereotypes—it’s in our professional blood. The other stereotype is that alt-program kids are not quite as good or able as regular-program students. This is silly. We all learn differently, and we are all unique. But communities define and self-define ourselves. In this case, alt-program kids define themselves as ‘on the margins’ and they ‘look in’ on mainstream/regular-program students. We want to shift the margin to the center of achievement; we want the students on the ‘margins’ to achieve something that no other public school kid has ever achieved. We feel that this kind of transformative experience is what public education should really be all about; in fact, it is what public education is about,” says Andrew Schofield, vice-principal of Britannia Secondary.

Several Native students attending the Streetfront Alternative school at Britannia Secondary have been selected to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. The trip is the first in a series of expeditions that the Street2Peak students will participate in over the next decade. The purpose of the trips is to give disadvantaged students an opportunity to share their stories of struggle and success with the rest of the world. Kilimanjaro was chosen because of its size and scope. The trip had to be of such significance that the world would take notice of their accomplishments. The students would learn that it doesn’t matter where you come from; it matters where you go.

Vice-Principal Andrew Schofield was responsible for choosing the destination. “It would be pointless to simply go to Tanzania, climb the mountain, and come back. Near Kili is the town of Moshi. What if we did volunteer work at an AIDS orphanage? The Serengeti plains are quite close, along with Olduvai George, the Cradle of Humanity. Perhaps we should try to expose our students to these sites of great ancestral resonance. Lastly, a short flight/bus ride from the Serengeti/Moshi/Kilimanjaro area is Dar-es-Salaam and the Slave Forts of East Africa. This was the site of one of humanity’s great tragedies: the center of the slave trade and the great African Diaspora. Our students, representatives of a colonizer and colonized family histories, would surely benefit from travel to these sites. The education that really shakes up our kids and our communities must start with a dream. Our dream is to really transform the lives of these students and their families. One way to do that is by putting them on top of Kilimanjaro and on the Serengeti.”

Most of the students headed for Kilimanjaro have not had the opportunity to travel anywhere; taking an airplane will be a new experience. Alannah Wong, one of the students making the trip, told the Vancouver Sun, “I think this trip to Mount Kilimanjaro is not just sending a couple of kids from the alternative school to go to Africa. We’re actually showing people you can rise up above whatever’s going on in your life.” The trip will last 19 days (seven days on Kilimanjaro, three nights on the Serengeti, five days of volunteering in an AIDS orphanage, three days in Dar-es-Salaam). The trip will make an impression on the students, and Schofield believes it will help the students on many levels down the road. “Self perceptions changed, inter-generational transfer of narratives of despair and defeat disrupted, vision of self worth and agency emerges. We can already see these transformations occurring among the students as they meet fundraising targets ($24,000 raised at first Family fun run event thanks to community support) and fitness targets set by Streetfront.”

Britannia Secondary has been very sensitive to Aboriginal issues. Their administration deserves recognition for coming up with original and ground breaking solutions for Aboriginal education. Last year, 24 out of 26 Aboriginal students graduated thanks to the assistance of private mentors, and now Aboriginal students are getting ready to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. “To take away a man’s hope is the cruelest of evils,” Winston Churchill once said, but to give people whose souls have been trampled on not only hope but also a sense of self and a belief that anything is possible if you truly want it is a major contribution.

The number of Aboriginal students attending post secondary institutions, university, or college has been on the rise for several years. Unfortunately, it is still far short of what the numbers should be, and the solution seems to have eluded Native leaders and education ministers. The most obvious problem that has prevented Aboriginal students from moving on to post secondary is the low percentage of Aboriginal students who actually graduate from high school. A shocking 40% of Aboriginal people in Canada did not finish high school, according to a report from TD economists Francis Fong and Sony Gulati. “There is a crying need to boost high school completion rates.”

The Vancouver School Board started a project last year that might increase the number of Aboriginal students who make it through high school. The VSB started helping students on a personal level, students like Gerald Angus who was having problems but was given assistance. “They make sure I’m always attending class and I’m always working.” The school calls home if Gerald is absent, and teachers and counsellors work with him to make sure he passes courses that are problematic.

In 2013, the Vancouver School Board looked at 26 Aboriginal students from the Britannia Secondary School, which has a high Aboriginal population with poor marks in certain courses and who were destined to not graduate. The students were given special assistance from teachers and counsellors who made sure they were ready for the tests. Personal problems were discussed, rides to school were arranged, and a lot of diligent work and a will to succeed resulted in 24 of the 26 students graduating.

Special care can make a huge difference when it comes to Aboriginal students. “Every individual has a different story,” Superintendent and chief executive officer of the school district Steve Cardwell told the Globe and Mail, “and we need to be attuned to that individual story to ensure that they are successful, rather than trying to provide blanket support that can sometimes be hit and miss.” The personal support approach should be adopted by schools across the country or given special priority, but it may solve only part of the problem. “The first priority should be on much-expanded pre-kindegarten, early childhood and early primary in schools-reserve and provincial with high Aboriginal student cohorts,” Simon Fraser Professor John Richards told the Globe and Mail. “It can make quite a difference.”

Warren Williams, an Aboriginal education worker at Britannia Secondary School, has noticed the powerful effects of the personal approach of the Britannia staff and the support that was generated to make it happen. “It focused people’s work, energy, and attention throughout the district. It’s about regaining that trust. It’s a slow process but the more people are working towards it, the quicker the process will happen, and that’s what we’re trying to do here.”

A police career is a high calling, one that demands total commitment, strong will, and a cultivated sense of discipline to live up to the expectations of police departments in every major city of Canada. Vancouver has more than the usual crime problems such as homicide, theft, gangs, and drugs. The city is home to people of many ethnicities, with large Asian and Indian populations as well as three First Nation Reserves within the city. The VPD has done an excellent job recruiting police officers from Asian, Indian, and Aboriginal backgrounds to enable better communication and ensure that issues within the different communities are dealt with sensitively.

Desiree Craig is of Métis descent. She was born in Renfrew Ontario and spent some time in Alberta before coming to Vancouver. From an early age, she wanted to help people, and by the time she was 15, Desiree had set her sights on a police career. She studied criminology at Quantlen Polytechnic and prepared to join the Vancouver Police Department. It was not the easiest decision in her life because of domestic problems that had plagued her childhood. “I had to leave my biological family and most of my friends behind. They were either bad role models, into drugs, or had drinking problems. I knew I could not be associated with them, especially with wanting to be an officer. I made the best choice of my life by leaving, and it was healthy. I don’t regret any of it.”

Her career has just started but she knows she is on the right track. She has received support from her fellow officers and enjoys her work. “I don’ t know if I can make a change. I know I want to help people. A lot of the population in the Downtown Eastside are Aboriginals. I can relate to them, as I’ve had to live through physical and mental abuse just like some of them have. So I would be approaching them on a level of understanding. I could tell them that there is more to life and they do not need to have limits on their aspirations. If I can change just one person’s life in my career, it will make everything worth it.”

Desiree’s offers this advice to anyone who is thinking of a career in the VPD. “Honestly, any program they want to take will be fine. A lot of people take criminology, but that isn’t necessary. Psychology degrees are good. Sociology and any programs that will interest them, they should take. There is also the Aboriginal Cadet Program, which is aimed at mentoring and coaching Aboriginal youths from 19 to 29 years who have demonstrated a desire to become police officers with the VPD. The cadet program runs through the summer, and selected students are exposed to many aspects of policing, including ride-alongs. The program is not on a volunteer office; students are paid a salary for attending the program.”

Representatives from Manitoba First Nations communities, public foundations, the private sector, and government gathered at the Victoria Inn in Winnipeg on September 25th to announce a province-wide effort to provide Aboriginal pre-school kids across the province with free monthly books for five years from a US-based foundation run by legendary country superstar Dolly Parton.

Based in Nashville, Tennessee, the Dollywood Foundation will provide a new, age-appropriate book each month for every child (ages 1 to 5) enrolled in the program in 55 of the 63 First Nations of the province. Each child will receive a book on the third week of each month, addressed in their name from Canada Post. Right now, the total stands at about 10,000.

The province-wide strategy was initiated by early childhood development worker Karen Davis of the Ebb and Flow First Nation in 2003 when Davis took a 45-hour bus ride to Nashville to watch Inuk hockey player Jordin Tootoo play his debut NHL game with the Nashville Predators on October 3, 2003. While in Nashville, Davis visited the Dollywood Foundation and told them of her desire to start a literacy program for preschool Aboriginal children in Manitoba. The chance meeting initiated the formation of a local First Nations steering committee to oversee the effort and at least nine trips to Canada by David Dodson, who is now secretary of the Dollywood Foundation of Canada. “This has been a long time coming, and I’m thrilled this day has finally arrived. But this is only the beginning,” said Davis.

Support for the province-wide effort has been led by the Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre, with significant financial contributions from the Winnipeg Foundation, Hugo Munro Construction, and the Frontier School Division, adding up to about $1 million. Another $250,000 in additional funds is needed to secure support for the eight remaining First Nations communities for the five-year distribution period.

There are plans to add culturally specific books printed and distributed by the First Nations Education Resource Centre as well and an initiative to enhance current efforts to inspire parents to become more involved with the education of their pre-school children. Davis sees this as a natural progression of the program because the books are addressed to the children themselves as they build their own personal libraries. “I hear from parents all the time. These children are so excited because they know these books belong to them, and they know Dolly Parton sent them. It’s like it’s their birthday on the third week of each month,” said Davis. “This will plant a strong seed for family literacy,” Davis continued. “In our communities, we don’t have libraries or access to pre-school books, so this gives us an opportunity to promote literacy, language, and learning.”

The first book the children will receive is I am a Rainbow, signed by Dolly Parton herself, and the last book they receive is Look out Kindergarten, Here I Come, completing a personal library of 60 books. In Canada, the Dollywood Foundation’s efforts focus on rural and isolated communities and includes a territory-wide program in the Yukon and a large program in Fort McMurray, AB. “We’re hoping that what is happening in Manitoba will have a ripple effect in other provinces that they can replicate,” said Davis.

Davis said the success of the program lies in the low cost of the books. Each book costs just $3.80, including shipping. “That’s the gift of the program. It’s very easy to replicate,” said Davis. Since it’s founding in 1988, the Dollywood Foundation has provided over 50 million books to children in the USA, Great Britain, Australia, and Canada. Find more information at [ca.imaginationlibrary.com].