For the past year a small group of us have been breathing life into the newborn Coalition for the Advancement of Aboriginal Studies (CAAS).

After an exploratory meeting in Ottawa in December, 1998, the Coalition was born during a two-day gathering on the Oneida Territory two months later. With modest start-up resources from the United Church of Canada, things have slowly progressed. We want to share what we've done so far, and invite you to join us.

At Oneida, a few of us were mandated to formalize our founding principles into a "Statement of Purpose" (below). Another subgroup was asked to develop proposals for the CAAS' initial projects and to pursue some funding. Over several months, the project working group expanded to include a number of people who are now known as our "Academic Advisors". In Fall, 1999, two different projects were identified. Funding requests were submitted to the Canadian Race Relations Foundation for a "Student Awareness Survey", and to the Millenium Fund for a professional development manual called "Teachers Teach Teachers".

We hope you will find the ideas and information in this Newsletter SO interesting that you decide to GET INVOLVED with our Coalition immediately!

CAAS Statement of Purpose
The founding members of our Coalition are few but represent a cross-section of interested parties: traditional educators, mainstream educators, academics, Aboriginal solidarity and social justice activists - and a solid core of these individuals are Aboriginal. This is how we have defined our purpose:

• Guided by Traditional values, the Coalition strives to propel forward a variety of initiatives to achieve inclusion of accurate and valid Aboriginal Studies in all provincial and territorial elementary and secondary schools across Canada. Our goal is to ensure that all students who graduate from Canadian schools achieve a minimal set of learning expectations which reflect Aboriginal perspectives on First Peoples' and Canadian history and culture.
• Our efforts focus on:
  - supporting the implementation of curriculum and resource policies directed at inclusion of accurate and valid Aboriginal studies in all non-Aboriginal controlled schools;
  - supporting teaching staff in the challenges implied by our mandate;
  - - supporting development of and accessibility to Aboriginal-perspective curriculum resources;
  - - improving cross-cultural awareness at all levels of the education system across Canada.

  Next