Over the days and weeks after WIB was released, this research was covered by national, local and Aboriginal media. Many local print and radio media outlets picked up a Canadian Press wire story on WIB, entitled "Students get failing grade on native awareness; study urges curriculum changes," and prepared by Sue Bailey. Some quotes from that CP story:

...Two-thirds of respondents couldn't recall discussing current native issues in elementary or high school. Eighty per cent said they didn't learn enough about aboriginal peoples to equip them as responsible citizens. Just 17 per cent offered a valid example of how native culture and history helped shape Canada. And fewer than 10 per cent could name one fact about the federal Indian Act that governs most aspects of life on reserves.

"The current provincial curriculum is slow to honour aboriginal world views, histories and cultures," wrote study authors David Anderson and Ann Pohl in a related study published last June in Education Canada magazine.

Nor does the curriculum honestly teach about how natives have managed to survive the "enormous weights" of cultural repression and attempts at eradication...

..."In metropolitan areas, aboriginal issues have not been put forward to a great extent in the schools," said Terry Price, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Teachers Federation. Outside of areas with high native populations: "It seems to be a non-issue."
The federation, a professional umbrella group of 240,000 teachers, is trying to change that. It's holding a first-ever symposium on aboriginal education this week in Ottawa. The gathering is an effort to shake off the remnants of "Eurocentric" curricula that didn't respect or reflect aboriginal perspectives, Price said.

"The aboriginal people didn't move here after we set up a country called Canada. They were here first [said an SAS respondent]." Matthew Coon Come, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, said change should start in teachers colleges. "We need to develop some kind of a native issues guide for all teachers to use as an orientation."

Federal and provincial officials should also co-operate, with input from native people, on course materials that go beyond historical conflicts or social studies, he said. Aboriginal knowledge can be applied to science, environmental studies and other areas, Coon Come added. Fewer native students would drop out if they could see themselves fairly reflected in school, he says. "I think the onus is also on us as leaders not to take for granted that everyone knows our issues. We need to do better public awareness."

...And there have been huge strides made since school children were typically taught how native "savages" were "discovered," said Anthony Nelson, a Coast Salish student at Simon Fraser University. "There's a long way to go," said the 33-year-old.
The myth that Canada was built on two founding cultures, French and English, still endures, he said.

"It was founded on the suppression of many native cultures [said an SAS respondent]."

As noted in the CP story , the Canadian Teachers Federation (CTF) recognizes that much work is urgently needed in this area. In a related initiative, CTF convened a National Symposium on Aboriginal Education, held in Ottawa the week that WIB was released. This event attracted more than 150 educators involved in Aboriginal Studies from across Canada and First Nations. One of the WIB's primary Aboriginal author-contributors, David Anderson, addressed that symposium. Several other WIB authors and CAAS core members also presented at this conference. Thus, CAAS has also built extensive connections within the organized Canadian teaching community.

Interest by the media, the Canadian Teachers Federations (and their affiliated members in provinces and territories), and other education organizations continues today. As well WIB is being embraced enthusiastically within the institutional/organizational settings where CAAS members are found; the following example provides evidence of this.

In early November 2002, a number of the scholars and education leaders were involved in INAC's Working Group on First Nations education. As they were preparing their final report, these individuals were aware of the impending release of WIB and of some of the SAS findings documented in the draft of WIB. This coincidence in timing offered a unique opportunity to both groups to support our mutual objectives around improving extant Aboriginal curricula in Canadian schools.

Timely cross-national and -cultural networking enabled our two projects to dovetail some of our proposals. This was made possible by CAAS' existing cyber-communications systems, our volunteer personnel, collaboration from CRRF, and - most importantly - our deep connections within the Aboriginal education community.

As word spreads across Canada and First Nations about the research presented by CAAS in WIB, community-based meetings to dialogue around our research and "Next Steps" are being arranged on an ad hoc basis (because CAAS has no funding to facilitate this). In March and April 2003, for example, six local and regional networking and Sharing Circle events have been set up: 1 in Winnipeg, 1 in Thompson (MB), 3 in Toronto, 2 in Fredericton (NB). This is just the beginning...

Follow these links to learn more about the WIB findings:

• 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