Inclusion of valid Aboriginal perspectives, beginning in the earliest grades and integrated across the curriculum to senior high school grades, is a crucial way of starting to address the causes of racism.

For generations, as noted in WIB, Aboriginal educators, leaders, and parents have been calling for improvements to Canadian schooling and curricula. These extant reports, scholarly documents, and books attribute Aboriginal students' high school failure rates to poor self-esteem and resistant stances arising from their social and schooling experiences of personal, institutional, and systemic racism. This view is further substantiated throughout the Final Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP Report).

"Elements of racism are intertwined in history, in the history books, in the library books. It is found in school curriculum."
From the Final Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples: William Tooshkenig, quoted in Volume 4; Chapter 7: Urban Perspectives; pg. 527

According to an action-oriented report commissioned by INAC from a cross-national group of thirteen Aboriginal educators, an estimated 65% of Aboriginal students are educated in provincial or territorial schools. Even those Aboriginal students attending school in their own territories are instructed using provincial or territorial curricula.

As CAAS survey results demonstrate, Aboriginal youth still do not see themselves or their cultures reflected in the Canadian learning environment. These youth require and deserve an education that honours and respects their cultures, traditions, and spiritualities. Further, Aboriginal students would benefit from learning about the vigour and commitment with which contemporary Aboriginal leaders and educators are tackling the plethora of social issues arising from colonization, i.e. social, political and cultural destabilization and redefinition.

In its East and West sections, WIB explains that the identified shortfall in public education is "not uniquely detrimental to Aboriginal students." The infusion of these perspectives throughout the curricula will "help create a strong, balanced Canada," allowing "all Founding Peoples" to offer all "our children a vibrant future."

By increasing awareness about the interwoven histories of the Indigenous Peoples of this land and the Canadian settler and newcomer Peoples, educators will open the pathways for mutually respectful relationships between Aboriginal Peoples and Canadians, and between First Nations societies and Canada.

"From the Commission's first days, we have been reminded repeatedly of the limited understanding of Aboriginal issues among non-Aboriginal Canadians and of the obstacles this presents to achieving reconciliation and a new relationship… Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people alike have a common interest in creating a new relationship based on mutual respect and reconciliation…
From the Final Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples: Volume 5; Chapter 4: Building Awareness and Understanding; pg. 92

Some SAS respondents noted that this learning would aid cross-cultural efforts to address the economic, social and cultural marginalization of Aboriginal Peoples. This is a very significant goal, because in April 1999, the United Nations Human Rights Committee declared this to be "the most pressing human rights issue facing Canadians."

Follow these links to learn more about the WIB findings:

• Learning about WIB is Embraced by Canadian and First Nations Educators
• Canadian Educators Need Support to Include Aboriginal Perspectives
• Strengthening the Capacity of the Coalition for the Advancement of Aboriginal Studies (CAAS) to Support these Changes
• SAS has Transformative Effect
• Student Awareness Survey Questionnaire

Follow these links for ideas that might help you with this work in your classroom or region:

• CAAS Sharing Circles
• Unlearning-to-Learn anti-stereotyping, decolonizing exercises
• CAAS Learning Circle and related Learning Expectations