BOOZHOO! AHNEEN!
Greetings and Welcome to the
WINTER, 2000-2001 NEWSLETTER
of the Coalition for the Advancement of Aboriginal Studies.

PART 1:
This segment of our newsletter introduces the philosophy and structure of the CAAS and talks about our new website and logo.

ABOUT CAAS
We are a coalition of Indigenous and Newcomer academics, teachers and activists from communities, schools, teacher organizations and universities across Canada. Our goal is to promote the inclusion of Aboriginal-perspective curriculum in all schools across Canada. We see these reforms as a way of helping to strengthen both the Aboriginal and the Canadian students who attend these schools, and through the youth to heal the societies of which they are part. Our most important news is the

OFFICIAL OPENING OF OUR WEBSITE:
www.edu.yorku.ca/caas

ABOUT OUR SITE
As you will see when you log-on to our site, our focus is on building networks of Aboriginal, antiracism and cross-cultural educators and activists.

Our site is very interactive inviting contributions, questions, issues for discussion, additions to our resource lists, use of our resources, and so on. We hope to hear from you soon! We invite you to visit and poke around on our site. It's purpose is to provide educators and activists (eg. parents, youth) with resources and a community of support. Through our network, elementary and secondary students will have the chance to build awareness and develop understanding of Aboriginal history, culture and perspectives. Please send us your comments, suggestions, resources, issues, concerns, and anything else you can share to improve our site.

You will notice that there are pages that say "come back later" or "under construction" on our site. Think of the new dress, suit or fancy pair of shoes you might buy for a growing child... like those 'good' clothes, our website was expensive in financial terms and, especially, volunteer time. So, we designed our site to grow with us...

THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT
We are very grateful for the support we have received from many sources, including the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, the George Cedric Metcalf Charitable Foundation, the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation and the Canadian Race Relations Foundation.

We also want to acknowledge the people-power support that sustains us (see ABOUT CAAS, on the website). CAAS advisors, educators and affiliated groups bring to our work the perspectives of a variety of First Peoples' cultures & of Canadian regions. Our members include numerous academics, traditional teachers, educators and other individuals, and the following organizations:

• Aboriginal Rights Coalition
• Aboriginal Teacher Education Program (Queen's University)
• All Native Circle Conference (United Church of Canada)
• Canadian Teachers Federation
• Faculty of Education at York University
• National Aboriginal Design Committee (Literacy Practitioners)
• Public Justice Resource Centre
• Tsi-niyukwaliho:tu (OneidaTraditional Learning Centre)

In particular, at this time we must single out the York Faculty of Education, and thank York for their willingness to host our website on their server.

We also send a Chi Migwetch! to Polly Keeshig-Tobias for the beautiful logo she has given us. More about the artist and her work is found on our site see ABOUT OUR LOGO where you will see our new logo in its full, and many-coloured, splendour.

BUILDING OUR NETWORK: NATIONALLY, REGIONALLY & LOCALLY:
In VISION you can see that we are giving careful thought to the tasks of developing alliances and consensus on both the content and the process required to improve Aboriginal Studies in Canadian classrooms. We currently have our hands full building a national network, called the "Great Consensus". But, we also see an urgent need to develop networks at the regional (Provincial/Territorial) level. Canada's constitution delegates education to officials at the regional level. A regional approach also permits a better correspondence (closer than a national one, anyway!) to the territories of distinct First Peoples. This correspondence to traditional territories is highly relevant in terms of curriculum materials and resource people.

As our provincial and territorial networks work to build a "Regional Consensus", they may also nurture clusters of common interest at the local level, such as school board districts or the territory of one First Nation. These clusters will be much more effective as the loci for resource-sharing, improving existing curriculum, and professional development strategies.

Thus, CAAS is balancing two divergent priorities: \'b7 creating a national network that recognizes the social importance of these reforms and will strengthen us all for the work ahead; and, \'b7 recognizing that, under Canada's constitutional framework, education policy is developed at the regional level (Provinces and Territories), and is implemented at the local community level, including boards, schools and classrooms. We encourage you to support our work by forwarding this Newsletter to anyone who may be interested, and by getting involved with us directly (see HOW TO GET INVOLVED on our website).

Thanks to Stan McKay for his work on the VISION.

OUR ELDER'S GUIDANCE ON RESPONSIBILITIES & REASONS
Stan McKay and Bruce Elijah, two of our Advisory Circle Elders, have elaborated on the "what", "why" and "how" of building this consensus:

"An undertaking like this requires broad support from many institutions and organizations. The colonial policies of cultural eradication, of which the Residential School program was only one, were the product of Canadian society as a whole. Redress for this damage should come from a diversity of Canadian organizations."
Bruce Elijah, Oneida

"Cross-cultural exploration requires travel from two distinct points towards a common meeting-place. This does not mean that both journeys are necessarily equal. Since there is so much misinformation and ignorance about Aboriginal history, culture, and peoples, non-Native educators have a lot of ground to cover. They need to grapple with how they can begin to make that journey towards understanding, and they should be given a full opportunity to ask for the support they need. Nonetheless, the final determination of Native Studies content and structure must rest with the First Nations and Aboriginal teachers and resource people."
Stan McKay, Cree

"Half or more of all our Aboriginal youth attend schools operated by school boards mandated with an universal ('one-size-fits-all') curriculum policy by provincial or territorial education ministries. These schools are not working for our young people. The improvements advocated by the CAAS will enhance the self-esteem and dignity of our youth who attend these 'mainstream' schools. The curriculum changes advocated by the CAAS will also benefit the non-Aboriginal students in these schools. Achieving a minimal required understanding of our history and culture will increase the cross-cultural sensitivity and anti-racist perspective of these students. For all students, this information will provide a valid, factual context [to] address our Peoples' land, treaty, economic and other rights."
Bruce Elijah, Oneida

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