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Recent Additions
The following resources have recently been added to the Resource Database.
Elijah Nicholas Wilson. The White Indian Boy, University of Utah Press
Richard Wagamese. Indian Horse, Douglas & McIntyre
David Treuer. Rez Life, Atlantic Monthly Press
Brian Wright-McLeod. Red Power: a graphic novel, Fifth House
Kathy-jo Wargin. The Voyageur's Paddle, Sleeping Bear Press
The purpose of this committee is to elaborate a process of collaboration among community groups, Aboriginal organizations and university researchers toward a common goal: improving the graduation rates of Aboriginal youth.
Initially our discussion focused on the scope and nature of the challenges, and later moved on to exploring funding opportunities to support a project that would allow us to work together in a formal capacity. That search led to an application to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), to the Community-University Research Alliance (CURA) program. In December, 2004, we received notice that our application, entitled Community-Based Aboriginal Curriculum Initiatives: Implementation and Evaluation had been successful!
This website has three primary purposes: first, to outline the nature of that research and its progress to date; secondly, to communicate how our team worked together to write the proposal and how it continues in its ever changing and growing capacity and implementation, thirdly to show it has expanded to include many more community people, the challenges we face, and the celebrations we cherish. In our work we do not talk about ground rules for communication; we spend time together. In our work, we take the time to understand, to reflect, to dialogue, and then our program emerges from within the communities.
Working together in this project, our evolving team will gain strength in the knowledge that we can create a lasting forum for the giving of gifts for the community. We have chosen the very venue- the school - that has played such a devastating role in the lives of Aboriginal People. It is only fitting, for just as the ancient Greek term pharmakon means poison, it also means remedy. So we choose the school now to serve as a medium for strength and for growth, for cultural understanding and for harmony.
Through the embracing of our weakness, we grow stronger; through the growth of our community we realize and celebrate the gifts of our individuality; through the devoted following of a common purpose we nourish our strength as leaders;; through the determination emerging from a history of misunderstanding and mistreatment we forge lasting bonds of mutual affection and humanity; and through giving we truly learn what it means to receive.
The most important lesson that we will ever teach our children is that they count, that they matter, that they are important gifts that the community needs. And we teach that lesson to our children primarily through the lived example of our individual and our collective autobiographies. Our project is about gifts, about finding them and activating them in one another as researchers, teachers, administrators, artists and children and integrating those gifts in classrooms, as "we work together for kids and communities."