by Ann Pohl
May, 2000

At the founding meeting of the CAAS, it was agreed that Aboriginal teachers, education activists, and leaders must be the decision-makers, or final arbiters, on the reforms required to improve the content and delivery of Aboriginal Studies curriculum. This is the only way to ENSURE that our sought-after Canadian school curriculum reforms result in the inclusion and presentation of Aboriginal history, culture and current issues from an Aboriginal perspective.

Yet, as a group, the CAAS is concerned exclusively with what is being taught in elementary and secondary schools - where non-Aboriginal persons have control and power. Predominantly non-Aboriginal persons staff these non-Aboriginal controlled institutions. Certainly, it is non-Aboriginal persons who hold the management and decision-making positions in the education field across Canada. For these reasons, the involvement of non-Aboriginal people is vital to the success of our Coalition's work.

CAAS has struggled with how to develop a workable decision-making process for our organization, given these principles and realities. Aboriginal CAAS members must make the decisions about curriculum content and delivery, but non-Aboriginal persons may be the best-equipped to decide how to advocate effectively to bring about those changes within the non-Aboriginal controlled school system. This means we must build relationships of trust with all between all those who will join in partnership on our goals - not an easy task after a colonial history marked by policies such as the forced removal of generations of Aboriginal children to Residential Schools.

In concrete terms, the CAAS has developed an institutional structure which ensures that Aboriginal persons 'drive' our vehicle for change. We have a commitment to ensuring a balance of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal representation among the individuals in our core and working groups, as well as our coordination team. And, we have an overseeing body, called the Aboriginal Advisory Circle, who are mandated to keep us on track and ensure that we actually make things better with our efforts.

Why Are We Doing This?

We must never lose sight of that fact that many Aboriginal students sit in those 'mainstream' elementary and secondary schools. These students urgently need to see Aboriginal Peoples reflected in a positive light in the school environment. In the Final Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (Vol. 3, pg. 109), Aboriginal health and wellness professionals identify the negative impact on self-esteem and identity, a result of policies of cultural eradication or forced assimilation, as key elements in the existing Aboriginal health crisis:

"The word 'healing' is familiar to non-Aboriginal people, of course, but the idea that Aboriginal people have in mind when they use it is likely not. Healing, in Aboriginal terms, refers to personal and societal recovery from the lasting effects of oppression and systemic racism experienced over generations. Many Aboriginal people are suffering not simply from specific diseases and social problems, but also from a depression of spirit resulting from 200 or more years of damage to their cultures, languages, identities and self-respect. The idea of healing suggests that to reach 'whole health', Aboriginal people must confront the crippling injuries of the past. Yet, doing so is not their job alone. Only when the deep causes of Aboriginal ill health are remedied by Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people working together will balance and harmony - or health and well-being - be restored."

From the viewpoint of educating students of heritages other than Aboriginal or First Nation, publicly-funded schools have unique opportunities to promote better understanding of Aboriginal history, culture and traditions. A generation of school children with more accurate awareness will immediately mitigate against ignorance and stereotyping, which allow racial and cultural biases against Aboriginal Peoples to persist in Canadian society.

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