Boozhoo!
Greetings to You All!

You all know that our report, Learning About Walking in Beauty: Placing Aboriginal Perspectives in Canadian Classrooms, was published on November 18, 2002.

Getting the Report into Your Hands
Some have nicknamed the CAAS report "Mini-RCAP." However, RCAP -- which covers almost Everything Else -- does not detail the "how" of changing Canadian school curricula. Our report details the importance of new curricula for Aboriginal and for Canadian students, and for Canada and Aboriginal communities. "Walking in Beauty" also provides a comprehensive discussion on the "what", and "how" of changing Aboriginal content in Canadian school curricula.

The Highlights document, and the full report (in 6 sections plus the cover), can be downloaded from the wesbite of our primary funder, the Canadian Race Relations Foundation (where many other excellent resources can also be found. Go to the opening page, and scroll down, looking on the right hand side for the web-links to the report's .pdf files. If you need Adobe's Acrobat Reader, you can download it for free. Alternatively, you can order a print copy of Learning About Walking in Beauty (cost: $10) by email.

Thanks and More Thanks
CAAS must especially acknowledge our colleagues at the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, for their commitment, fortitude, and support of, this project. Without CRRF, we could not have brought this document into the light of day. It is reassuring to know that CRRF is committed to assist with ongoing CAAS efforts! The people who worked on this report can be found on our website.

We send out a Chi Miigwetch! for the many instructors and professors who helped us gather the survey sample, the advisors on particular issues, and the 519 students across Canada who answered our questionnaire. All our writers stalwartly coped with poor working conditions on a completely volunteer basis –INCLUDING a rushed, extensive and last-minute complete edit of the report, so that we could present the final version using our own Learning Circle framework.

The Good News: We have a Mandate for Change!
One good thing we learned from our survey of 519 first-year university and college students is that the vast majority of young Canadians (roughly 80%) want to know the truth about Aboriginal Peoples histories, cultures and concerns. In so saying, educated, young Canadian adults are echoing what Aboriginal parents, educators and community leaders have been saying for decades. It is way-past-time for the Canadian education community to hear what is being demanded, and begin to teach the truth about our interwoven histories of relationship!

What's up with CAAS?
This message comes to YOU with an apology for its belatedness. The key members of our Core Group, David Anderson, Bev Jacobs, and Ann Pohl, were all exhausted after getting our report together and published. As CAAS has no funding at the present time, we each also had to concern ourselves with the matters of daily living -- such as generating some income, and neglected family and friends! As a result, you haven't heard much from the nucleus of the CAAS Core Working Group since the report's release during the week of November 18th.

This is the first of the periodic (irregular) online newsletters from CAAS. You can expect several of these during the year, and they can be forwarded to interested individuals in your personal network. But, all in all, you are probably wondering what will CAAS do next...?

How do we Change Canadian Curricula/Teaching about Aboriginal Peoples?
Because of the "action research" aspect our project, CAAS has developed an incredibly diverse grassroots network. This network of organizations and hundreds of educators, activists, parents, scholars, Elders, community leaders and other interested parties across Turtle Island is our biggest strength. Our next biggest strength is the fact that we have now thoroughly documented, in Learning About Walking in Beauty, why/what/how Aboriginal curriculum must change in Canadian schools, and shown that it makes good sense to make these changes. Unfortunately, however, CAAS has no plan or funds to carry out our goals!!!! So, where do we go from here?

Step One: Strengthen Regional and Local CAAS Circles
Locally based Circles of Consensus are envisioned by one of our Elders, Stan McKay. This idea is elaborated on our website at "Vision". In these Circles, locally-organized CAAS network members can build on their own experiences –together with anything helpful in Walking in Beauty– to create something that "fits" in their areas.

It is vitally important to network regionally about the next steps for CAAS! Educations policies, programmes and resources are developed and mandated at regional and local levels through ministries, faculties, and boards of education, in conjunction with federations and associations of teachers. Classroom-oriented, and policy-focussed, Circles in each locale must develop and pursue their own strategies, appropriate to their different circumstances.

Click here to go directly to some CAAS resources to support this local and regional networking, learning, and teaching:
Sharing Circles model
Unlearning-to-Learn anti-stereotyping, decolonizing exercises
CAAS Learning Circle framework and learning expectations

Following onto Stan's vision, we can all begin, or intensify, our networking in our own localities and regions. Our Sharing Circles model, which originates from our Manitoba network, and our Unlearning-to-Learn exercises can help you get something going in your area. Our Learning Circle provides a pedagogical framework, and the related learning expectations detail the content for the new curriculum/teaching. Some of you have your Circles already established and/or your own ideas/plans. If you would find it useful, we could help out by sending your notices about local/regional events through our email list.

Step Two: Building a Consensus on Priorities for the Next Phase
Join in the CAAS Cybercircle online priority-setting discussion through our email list. (1st message coming any day now...)

Now that our national research report is published, "we" have no clear plans for CAAS' next phase, as this message reflects. OBVIOUSLY, there is much to be done. As some of are plugging away with plans, projects and ideas that coincide with the CAAS "agenda" for change, others are working in more isolated circumstances with excellent ideas about what our next steps should be and how to get there...

The challenge CAAS faces is to define the next stage of our work, so that we build on the findings and proposals in our research report, and support what our grassroots network is already doing as well as those in our network who feel isolated in their efforts.

Having emphasized the importance of local and regional networking, we also have to remember that these changes are a national priority, both for Canada and for First Nations. Specific education decisions get made at local and regional levels, but our national network must carry the ball for keeping our concerns and perspectives at the forefront of institutions such as the Council of Ministers of Education, the Canadian Education Association, the federal ministries of Indian and Northern Affairs & Canadian Heritage, and the affiliates of the Canadian Teachers Federation.

For this, CAAS needs to develop a macro-level structure that supports our Aboriginal and for our Canadian partners, and simultaneously supports regional political action and locally-based curriculum/learning Sharing Circles. Some groups have come forward to discuss funding and other kinds of organizational support, which is desperately needed for our next phase of work. If you have the time and energy, please join in the email discussion list that has been created for the purpose of building a consensus about the next phase of CAAS' work. You will receive the first message from this elist (which has a .yorku address) later this week. Then it's up to you to decide if you want to participate. Making these online discussion thingys work can be challenging, but let's give it a try! ... We don't have the $$$ for a national gathering, which is what we really need and have wanted for several years now!

Little Steps in the Works...
At the end of February (to be confirmed), I hope to do some workshops in Manitoba on our research and some of CAAS' resources. A CAAS member in Winnipeg has offered to convene a "social" that same weekend. I hope this will contribute to local CAAS Circle networking. Please let Renate know if you would be interested to attend our networking social in Winnipeg.

At the Native Canadian Centre here in Toronto, the Cultural Director has invited me to convene a similar networking meeting for the many CAAS network members within driving distance of the NCC. Some people in Mississauga have already been talking about the importance of pulling together a Sharing Circle, and hopefully this meeting will support that process. We are currently negotiating the best date. If you would be interesting in attending, please email the organizer.

Help Build Our Network...
Forward news of our work, website and report to others you know who may be interested in the work of CAAS. Thanks and Miigwetch!

Step Three: CAAS Cyber Presence
CAAS' future has to include maintaining, and connecting more people to, a strong cyber-network. We are trying to make our site more interactive and develop its usefulness as a support for networking local activists and classroom teachers across Canada. We would also like to imagine a way to carry the transformative impact of our survey questionnaire onto our website. Anyone with suggestions and ideas about how to improve our website (OR skills to mentor work...) should contact our WebMistress, who is busy working at updating our webpages as we "speak."

CAAS also wants to get more email from YOU, reviewing our report and describing ways CAAS findings and resources can be used to accomplish our goals. These comments, along with news of some of your local projects, will be posted to our website (and some to our ListServ, once it gets going --- SOON).

Have YOU Recently Asked CAAS for Help, Support or Advice...
and seemingly been ignored? Over the past year, many of you have written to the CAAS mailbox, to share news and valuable weblinks, or to ask for support with various projects. As I think this message clarifies, we have not been able to respond to your queries and comments very effectively for some time now (e.g. CAAS funding ended in December 2001). Thanks to a stipend from York's Faculty of Education, someone is able to commit a day per week (for the next two months or so) to networking, responding to incoming requests, and seeking funding for future projects and maintenance of the CAAS website. If you have a concern or issue that needs answering, NOW is a good time to try again: caas@edu.yorku.ca or annpohl@sympatico.ca

PLEASE also feel free to write me with suggestions about what YOU might do to help build CAAS efforts, and where you think we might be able to find the resources to enable this work.

Respectfully in solidarity and peace,
Ann Pohl
Member, Core Working Group
Coalition for the Advancement of Aboriginal Studies
PO Box 111, Station C, Toronto, Ontario, M6J 3M7
416-537-3520

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