In addition to prioritizing language and culture, the MK has also focused on hiring Mi’kmaq educators, boasting a 50 percent rate by the 2010–2011 school year. By 2014, the MK had a graduation rate of 88 percent, compared to 25 percent of First Nations students nationwide.35 Don’t read that stat too quickly and accidentally miss it! That is a huge difference! MK students are even outperforming the rest of Canada, which has an average graduation rate of 85 percent.36
In 2015, University nuhelot’įne thaiyots’į nistameyimâkanak Blue Quills (UnBQ) became the first Indigenous-controlled university in Canada.37 Formerly Blue Quills College, the new university is housed in a former residential school in Alberta (in Treaty 6 territory), and is governed and owned by seven First Nations. It has operated under Indigenous control since 1971, building partnerships with various postsecondary institutions to co-deliver degrees. Now, the UnBQ will also be able to offer its own degree programs.38
These examples embody the implementation of recommendations in numerous federal reports, as well as the stated needs and aspirations of Indigenous communities. It can be done, it has been done, and it can continue to be done.
They are not the only examples of solutions created and implemented by Indigenous peoples, but the fact remains that the Canadian system of education does not provide adequate space for the widespread development of an Indigenous system of education. This has to change.
Indigenous communities as a whole simply do not have the internal resources to create an entire system of private schooling to rectify the horrendous gap that has always existed between Indigenous and non-Indigenous student outcomes. If you can judge a society by its system of education, then Canada stands clearly guilty of discriminating against Indigenous peoples by allowing this situation to continue.
NOTES
1.John Richards, Jennifer Hove, and Kemi Afolabi, “Understanding the Aboriginal/Non-Aboriginal Gap in Student Performance: Lessons from British Columbia” (C.D. Howe Institute Commentary, December 2008), 4, accessed December 9, 2015, https://www.cdhowe.org/pdf/commentary_276.pdf.
2.Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, “Staying in School: Engaging Aboriginal Students” (2010), 3, accessed December 9, 2015, https://neaoinfo.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/aboriginal-education-congress-of-aboriginal-peoples.pdf.
3.Ibid.
4.Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, “Fact Sheet – 2011 National Household Survey Aboriginal Demographics, Educational Attainment and Labour Market Outcomes,” last modified August 18, 2015, accessed December 9, 2015, https://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1376329205785/1376329233875.
5.Vivian O’Donnell, and Susan Wallace, “Aboriginal Women Less Likely to Have a University Degree,” First Nations, Inuit and Metis Women, last modified November 30, 2015, accessed December 9, 2015, http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/89-503-x/2010001/article/11442-eng.htm#a31.
6.Chiefs Assembly on Education, “Federal Funding for First Nations Schools,” last modified October 3, 2012, accessed December 9, 2015, http://www.afn.ca/uploads/files/events/fact_sheet-ccoe-8.pdf; Tim Fontaine, “First Nations Welcome Lifting of Despised 2% Funding Cap,” cbc.ca, last modified December 12, 2015, accessed December 11, 2015. Prime Minister Trudeau announced on December 11, 2015 that his government would be lifting the 2-percent cap in their first budget but as of writing this piece, it is not known if funding will be increased to address the deficiencies that cap has caused.
7.First Nations Education Council, “Paper on First Nations Education Funding,” 13, last modified February 2009, accessed December 9, 2015, http://www.cepn-fnec.com/PDF/etudes_documents/education_funding.pdf.
8.Ibid., 20.
9.Ibid., 24.
10.“First Nations Education Not Underfunded, Figures Suggest,” cbc.ca, last modified October 2, 2012, accessed December 9, 2015, http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/first-nations-education-not-underfunded-figures-suggest-1.1143430.
11.INAC, “Summative Evaluation of the Elementary/Secondary Education Program on Reserve,” June 2012, accessed December 9, 2015, http://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1365183942467/1365184080356.
12.See note 7, page 34.
13.INAC, “First Nations Education Act,” last modified 2014, accessed December 10, 2015, http://actionplan.gc.ca/en/initiative/first-nations-education-act.
14.Tyler Clark, “PAGC Rejects Feds’ Education Act,” Prince Albert Daily Herald, September 19, 2013, accessed December 10, 2015, http://www.paherald.sk.ca/News/Local/2013-09-19/article-3395710/PAGC-rejects-feds%26rsquo%3B-education-act/1.
15.Parliament of Canada, “Bill C-33,” April 10, 2014, accessed December 10, 2015, http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Language=E&Mode=1&DocId=6532106.
16.Ontario Native Education Counselling Association (ONECA), “First Nations Education Act,” 2012, http://www.oneca.com/first-nation-education-act.html. Here, ONECA provides more of the background on the life of this Bill, including Indigenous Affairs’ take on it.
17.First Nations Education Council, “Quality Education for All First Nations Citizens,” March 27, 2013, accessed December 10, 2015, http://www.cepn-fnec.com/PDF/APNQL/Position_du_CEPN_eng.pdf accessed Dec. 10, 2015. See this report for a comprehensive list of studies and reports addressing First Nations education, as well as how specifically those resources addressed the issue.
18.National Indian Brotherhood/Assembly of First Nations, “Indian Control of Indian Education,” policy paper presented to Indian Affairs and Northern Development, 1972, accessed December 9, 2015, http://www.oneca.com/IndianControlofIndianEducation.pdf.
19.INAC, Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, 1996, accessed December 9, 2015, http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/webarchives/20071115053257/http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ch/rcap/sg/sgmm_e.html.
20.Minister’s National Working Group on Education, “Our Children – Keepers of the Sacred Knowledge: Final Report of the Minister’s National Working Group on Education,” commissioned by Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, December 2002, accessed December 9, 2015, http://www.afn.ca/uploads/files/education/23._2002_dec_jeffrey_and_jette_final_report_to_min_national_working_group_ourchildrenkeepersofthesacredknowledge.pdf.
21.United Nations, Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, September 13, 2007, accessed December 9, 2015, http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/DRIPS_en.pdf.
22.Assembly of First Nations (AFM), “First Nations Control of First Nations Education; It’s Our Vision, It’s Our Time,” July 2010, accessed December 9, 2015, http://www.afn.ca/uploads/files/education/3._2010_july_afn_first_nations_control_of_first_nations_education_final_eng.pdf.
23.Gerry St. Germain, and Lilian Eva Dyck, “Report of the Senate Standing Committee on Aboriginal Peoples,” December 2011, accessed December 9, 2015, http://www.parl.gc.ca/content/sen/committee/411/appa/rep/rep03dec11-e.pdf.
24.“Report on Priority Actions in View of Improving First Nations Education,” presented by First Nations Education Council, Nishnawbe Aski Nation, and Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, November 2011, accessed December 9, 2015, http://www.cepn-fnec.com/PDF/etudes_documents/Report-Priority-Actions-View-Improving-FN-Education-November-2011_eng.pdf.
25.National Panel on First Nation Elementary and Secondary Education for Students on Reserve, “Nurturing the Learning Spirit of First Nation Students: The Report of the National Panel on First Nation Elementary and Secondary Education for Students on Reserve,” 2012, accessed December 9, 2015, https://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/DAM/DAM-INTER-HQ-EDU/STAGING/texte-text/nat_panel_final_report_1373997803969_eng.pdf.
26.Linda M. Goulet, and Keith N. Goulet, Teaching Each Other: Nehinuw Concepts and Indigenous Pedagogies (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2014). This example comes from a Cree perspective.
27.See, for example, from a Mi’kmaq perspective: Marie Battiste, Decolonizing Education: Nourishing the Learning Spirit (Saskatoon: Purich Publishing, 2013).
28.Jody Porter, “First Nation Student Death Inquest: 5 Things Revealed So Far,” c
bc.ca, last modified November 16, 2015, accessed December 10, 2015, http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/first-nation-student-deaths-inquest-5-things-revealed-so-far-1.3318357.
29.“First Nations Schools Vulnerable to Teacher Impersonators, Educator Says,” cbc.ca, last modified November 11, 2015, accessed December 10, 2015, http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/first-nations-schools-vulnerable-to-teacher-impersonators-educator-says-1.3315029.
30.Robin Mueller, Sheila Carr-Stewart, Larry Steeves, and Jim Marshall, “Teacher Recruitment and Retention in Select First Nations Schools,” In Education 17, no. 3 (2011), accessed December 10, 2015, http://ineducation.ca/ineducation/article/view/72/553.
31.Charles M. Payne, I’ve Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2007).
32.Julie L. Davis, Survival Schools: The American Indian Movement and Community Education in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2013).
33.Government of Canada, Mi’kmaq Education Act, June 18, 1998, http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/M-7.6/page-1.html#docCont.
34.Mi’kmaw Kina’matnewey website, last updated March 1, 2016, http://kinu.ca/.
35.Linda Simon, “Mi’kmaw Kina’matnewey – Supporting Student Success,” September 2014, accessed December 10, 2015, http://indspire.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/indspire-nurturing-capacity-mk-2014-en.pdf. Here, you will find an in-depth profile of Mi’kmaw Kina’matnewey schools.
36.Arik Motskin, and Zack Gallinger, “The Vast Disparity in Canada’s High School Graduation Rates,” The 10 and 3 website, August 12, 2015, accessed December 10, 2015, http://www.the10and3.com/the-vast-disparity-in-canadas-high-school-graduation-rates-00016/.
37.nuhelot’įne thaiyots’į is the Dene name for UnBQ; nistameyimâkanak is the Cree name. The combined Dene/Cree name reflects the First Nations that own and govern the university.
38.University nuhelot’įne thaiyots’į – nistameyimâkanak Blue Quills, “About Us,” accessed December 1, 2015, http://www.bluequills.ca/welcome/about-us/.
Index
Bold page numbers indicate photos
A
Aboriginal as identifier, 10, 27. See also Indigenous peoples
Aboriginal Healing Foundation (AHF), 156–157, 172–173
Aboriginal law, 252–258
âcimowina, 97
adoption, 181–187
African-Canadians, 17
agriculture, 206–211
alcoholism, 151–157
allowably Indigenous, 68, 71–72
American Indian, 10
Andersen, Chris, 47–48
assimilation
economic cost of, 131–132
by legal means, 128–129, 226
and reserves, 266
as tried and failed policy, 226, 229–230
and White Paper, 269
Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, 55, 56
âtayôhkêwina, 96–97
Atleo, Shawn, 278
B
Baffin Island, 192
band housing, 147–148
band membership, 31–32
Before Tomorrow, 56
Bianchi, Ed, 243, 250n3
Bill C-3, 31, 32
Bill C-31, 28–30, 32
Bill C-33, 278
Bill S-8, 219
Black, Conrad, 118
Black people, 17, 18–19, 67, 213
Blackstock, Cindy, 184
blood myths, 44
blood quantum, 77–78
Borrows, John, 243, 249n1
Bouchard, Gérard, 45
buckskin curtain, 270
Burnside, Neegan, 218–219, 220
C
Cairn, Alan C., 229
Calihoo, Angelique, 40
Callihoo, Louis Kwarakwante, 40
Callingbull, Ashley, 119
Calls to Action, 175–178
Canada, Government of
and agriculture, 208–211
and benefit of Indigenous policies, 207–208
and child welfare system, 182–187
and funding of Indigenous education, 277–278
impact of Daniels v. Canada on, 49–51
and Indigenous housing, 144–149
and Inuit, 56–57, 191–193, 202–204
and section 91 of Constitution Act, 48–49
and sovereignty claims in Arctic, 193, 203
underfunding of Indigenous programs, 184–187
view of hunting v. trapping to, 62, 65
and water security, 214–220
and White Paper of 1969, 268–270, 271
Canadian as identifier, 11, 15–16
Canadian history, 119–122
Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (CHRT), 184
Canadian Mortgage and Housing Agency (CMHC), 147–148
Cardinal, Harold, 270
Cheyenne, 74, 75–76
child-welfare system, 181–187
Chinese, 19
Chrétien, Jean, 268, 269
Citizens Plus, 270
civilization, 161–164
Clark, Gordon, 125, 126, 130
Cody, Radmilla, 19
colonialism
described, 16–17
detailed in TRC report, 174
doctrines, 235–240
effect on Indigenous women and Two-Spirit individuals, 109–113
and fake Indigenous stories, 94
and Indigenous alcoholism, 152, 155–156
and non-Indigenous self identifying as Métis, 46, 47, 54n29
as tried and failed policy, 219–220, 227
commodification of culture, 68, 69, 70
Constitution Act, 1867, 48–49, 49–51, 144
Constitution Act, 1982, 27, 248–249
Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada, 147–148
Cree, 62–64, 108–109
Cree Trapper Association (CTA), 62–64
Crossfire (Kress), 74, 75–76
cultural appropriation, 80–90
cultural genocide, 173–174, 183
culture
appropriation of, 80–90
commodification, 68, 69, 70
as defining aspect of Indigenous peoples, 77–78
and language, 106–108
and reserves, 265–266
transgressive, 68–72
culture shock, 68
D
Daniels v. Canada, 28, 48, 49–51
David, Christina, 69–70, 71
De Lint, Charles, 74–75
decolonization, 47, 108, 111. See also colonialism
Delgamuukw v. British Columbia, 255
Denommé, Danica, 118
Devon Island, 192–193
Dhillon, Baltej Singh, 87
Diabo, Russ, 256
Doctrine of Cession, 239
Doctrine of Conquest, 238–239
Doctrine of Discovery, 235–236
Doctrine of Occupation, 236–237
dog slaughter, 193–202
drinking water, 213–220
Dubuc, Yvan, 44
Dupuis, Roy, 44, 45
E
eagle feathers, 83
education, 171–173, 175–178, 276–281
enfranchisement, 28
Erasmus, George, 230n1
Eskimo as identifier, 11. See also Inuit
Etsy (website), 103–104
Europeans, 243–248
F
A Fair Country; Telling Truths about Canada (Saul), 43
fakes, 89, 92–96, 102–104
farming, 206–211
federal government. See Canada, Government of
First Nations as identifier, 11. See also Indigenous peoples
First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, 184
First Nations Market Housing Fund, 146–147
First Nations Property Ownership Initiative Act (FNPOA), 271–274
Flaherty, Joseph, 58n1
Flaherty, Robert, 58n1
Flanag
an, Tom, 273–274
Fontaine, Tina, 185
Fraser, Sheila, 184
Freedom Schools, 279–280
fur trapping, 61–64
G
Galley, Valerie, 183
Gearon, Jihan, 19
geisha, 87–88
genericization, 102
Graham, Billy, 93
Grant, Cuthbert, 239
Great Law of Peace, 244
Greater Production Campaign, 209–211
H
Harper government, 146–147, 219, 271, 278
Haudenosaunee, 245–246
Hawthorn Report, 268–269, 270
headdresses, 84
historic trauma transmission, 172
housing, 143–149, 187
Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), 192, 239
Humans (Sawyer), 161–162
hunting, 60–65, 166, 266
I
icewine, 100–101
Indian as identifier, 9. See also Indigenous peoples
Indian Act
administration of Aboriginal communities, 265
and alcohol, 156
and Bill C-31, 28–30
and farming, 208, 209
and housing, 146
impact on Indigenous women and Two-Spirit
individuals, 112–113
and reserves, 263
and status, 26, 28
and treaty-making, 252, 254
and White Paper, 269
Indian Affairs
and alcohol, 156
and blood quantum, 77
and farming, 206, 207, 210
and housing, 146, 148
and Indian roll, 27, 34n7
and Indigenous education, 277
and Inuit relocation, 192
and reserves, 264
and taxes, 138, 141
on treaties, 239, 248, 253
and water security, 216, 217, 218
and White Paper, 268–270
Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990, 103
Indigenous peoples (See also colonialism; Inuit; Métis; myths; treaties/treaty-making)
accommodation of in liberal democracy, 130–132
and child-welfare system, 181–187
connection to the land, 70–71, 72
cultural appropriation of, 80–90
Indigenous Writes Page 35