BOOZHOO! WELCOME to
PART 1 of the CAAS SPRING 2001 NEWSLETTER!

CONTENTS:

• Meet Anika: Our Summer Assistant Coordinator
• What Have We Been Doing?
• Turning Point: Native Peoples & Newcomers Online
• New Introductory Curriculum Resource Coming Soon!

MEET ANIKA: OUR SUMMER ASSISTANT COORDINATOR
Anika Altiman, Ojibway from Walpole Island First Nation, is serving her pre-service teacher internship with CAAS. She is focussing on developing computer skills, coding of the Student Awareness Survey, setting up outreach displays, and networking with teacher organizations. Anika intends to return to school next year to do post-graduate work in education.

Fortunately for CAAS, the Walpole Economic Development Office has approved summer employment with CAAS for Anika. She will continue working with us - from the Walpole Territory - until late August. During this time, Anika will be performing some administrative tasks, as well as working on analysis of the SAS findings and with CAAS Core Group members to get the first draft of the SAS report together by September 1st.

Anika's other major focus will be strengthening CAAS contacts with Canadian teacher organizations to promote our Help Line and the Turning Point forum. This outreach will also develop a network-wide interest for Spring 2002 national gathering that CAAS will be building together with other organizations.

Anika can be reached at anika@netrover.com or anika64@hotmail.com or at 519-628-4168.

WHAT HAVE WE BEEN DOING?
A sampling of the diverse support CAAS has been garnering from across the education community is found in the column entitled "Comments About CAAS" on our new long-form information pamphlet (fully download-able in PDF format from our web site). With considerable support from the Public Education Initiatives Fund at DIAND, CAAS has put much effort into developing this pamphlet and other outreach/display materials, as well as launching and learning how to maintain our new website, and supporting the development of the new discussion forum for which CAAS is an organizational sponsor (see the Turning Point section on this page of the newsletter, below...).

The CAAS outreach initiative to English-speaking teacher organization across Canada has begun to net positive results. So far, several regional organizations have indicated serious interest in our work, and we have even received a financial donation from one federation.

Outreach to Francophone teacher organizations has been a challenge for the newborn, Anglophone CAAS. However, we are determined to address it because CAAS's research into curriculum and professional development resources indicates that quality, appropriate Aboriginal-perspective materials are even more scarce in French than in English. A web of CAAS energy has developed that will enable this goal, including: an introductory letter in French (translated by a teacher in our network), a new bilingual Core Group member who has offered her name, phone number and email address as a contact person (an antiracist educator who has Aboriginal/European ancestry), and a practising teacher in Montreal (one of CAAS's "Best Practices" candidates) who can assist with mentoring and networking. The initial Francophone mail-out, which will include the French language version of materials developed with DIAND funding, will happen this month. All these disparate elements merging inside CAAS is just another of many encouraging signs of grassroots enthusiasm for our efforts.

CAAS has received approval from the Association for Canadian Studies to present a workshop on Strategies for Inclusion of Aboriginal-Perspective Content in Canadian Classrooms at its October 19 - 21, 2001 "Giving the Future a Past" conference in Winnipeg. With this approval comes provision for travel, accommodation and registration for three of our Core Working Group members - David Anderson (Dene/Course Director at York), Jackie Moore-Daigle (Cree/Director of Aboriginal Teacher Education Program at Queen's University) and Ann Pohl (Canadian/CAAS Coordinator) - who will be joined in Winnipeg by Veronica Dyck (M\'e9tis/Co-Chair of the Aboriginal Circle of Educators).

We are also working to find resources to mount our table display at the upcoming CTF Annual General Meeting, in Whitehorse this July.

TURNING POINT:
A Respectful Meeting Place for Native Peoples and Newcomers Online: http://www.turning-point.ca
Turning Point offers cyber-space for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal individuals in Canada to have open and direct communication with each other. The site was developed by an advisory group comprised of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal activists, artists, facilitators, academics and others who have forged working relationships among and between our Peoples - all have personal experience that this kind of collaboration is possible and constructive.

Several members of the CAAS network are on Turning Point's advisory group and played a role in development of the site. CAAS got involved because we need an interactive forum to meet our objectives and to deliver our services. Merging with the people putting this site together was logical and natural to the members of both CAAS and Turning Point.

Turning Point's moderators are Mary Alice Smith (M\'e9tis, president of Anishinaabe-kweg Aboriginal Women's Organization of Kenora, and a facilitator for community development and conflict resolution in Kenora) and Victoria Freeman (non-Aboriginal based in Toronto and author of Distant Relations: How My Ancestors Colonized North America, published by McClelland & Stewart).

Here are excerpts from the site:

"In our experience as Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people working together toward a common goal of justice and healing, we have found that hearing each other's truth can be transforming and empowering, if we can speak openly, honestly and respectfully -- and listen in the same way... "But transforming this historical colonial relationship from one based on domination to one characterized by balance and fairness will take cooperation and mutual effort... Each one of us is part of this relationship, shaped but not limited by the interactions of our peoples in the past. Each one of us can do something, however small, to change this relationship in the present, and for our children. ...This site can be a dynamic and respectful meeting place for First Nations, M\'e9tis, Inuit and diverse non-Aboriginal peoples -- a turning point from which we can look back and move ahead, in a spirit of mutual respect and cooperation. "You're invited to share your ideas and information here, challenge and support each other, reflect and act, listen and express yourself: be hard on problems, but soft on people. We're looking forward to hearing from you! \'85on any topic or issue. We review both the content and tone of all submissions for relevance and respect." This is an excellent site for learning, sharing and building cross-cultural understanding. You can contact Turning Point through the mail-in form on their site: www.turning-point.ca, or vfreeman@web.net.

NEW INTRODUCTORY CURRICULUM RESOURCE
COMING SOON!
Our other teacher intern is Inderjot Gill, a recent Newcomer to Canada who plans to teach secondary school in a northern First Nation next year. Indie brings her own 'lived' experience and analysis of colonialism, and her training in law and as a senior/secondary politics, law and history teacher, to the CAAS. Among other elements in her placement with CAAS, she is engaged in the task of modifying an adult education-oriented introductory curriculum resource - the Aboriginal Rights Coalition's "Blanket Exercise" - for use in Canadian classrooms.

In broad outline, this exercise traces the Aboriginal experience of the past 500+ years - including the arrival of the European explorers and diseases, the Doctrine of Terra Nullius, the establishment of reserves, and much more. It is stimulating, quick-paced and very informative - grabbing students on a 'feeling' level.

The CAAS version of the "Blanket Exercise" will provide a hands-on or popular education-style learning opportunity for the students as well as time for class discussion and de-briefing. It will come with recommended resources to help prepare the teacher, and for further work. It is being developed for use at both the elementary and secondary levels. Look for the field-test version soon on our website.

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