National Aboriginal Day / en National Aboriginal Day: 12 things you need to know /news/national-aboriginal-day-12-things-you-need-know <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">National Aboriginal Day: 12 things you need to know</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>lavende4</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2016-06-21T14:15:38-04:00" title="Tuesday, June 21, 2016 - 14:15" class="datetime">Tue, 06/21/2016 - 14:15</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Graduating students participating in a ceremony at ֱ's First Nations House (Adel Keshavarz photo)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/suzanne-l-stewart" hreflang="en">Suzanne L. Stewart</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/jean-paul-restoule" hreflang="en">Jean-Paul Restoule</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Suzanne L. Stewart and Jean-Paul Restoule</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/city-culture" hreflang="en">City &amp; Culture</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/national-aboriginal-day" hreflang="en">National Aboriginal Day</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/indigenous" hreflang="en">Indigenous</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/oise" hreflang="en">OISE</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/ontario-institute-studies-education" hreflang="en">Ontario Institute for Studies in Education</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>National Aboriginal Day is a chance to educate and reflect on the lives and status of Indigenous&nbsp;peoples in Canada.</p> <p>To recognize this day, <strong>Suzanne L. Stewart</strong>, interim director of the Indigenous Education Initiative at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, and <strong>Jean-Paul Restoule</strong>, associate&nbsp;professor of Aboriginal Education, have compiled a list of 12&nbsp;things the average Canadian should know about Indigenous people in Canada.</p> <p><br> <strong>1.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Who are Indigenous peoples?</strong></p> <p>There are about 1.4 million people of Indigenous&nbsp;ancestry in Canada,&nbsp;refering to three distinct cultural groups of original inhabitants:</p> <ul> <li>First Nations (status and non-status Indians)</li> <li>Metis (a culture born of the mixing of elements of First Nations and European settlers, primarily French and Scottish. While having roots in the Great Lakes, it flourished most prominently in the Red River Valley.)</li> <li>Inuit (peoples from far northern territories)</li> </ul> <p><strong>2. Where do Indigenous people live?</strong></p> <ul> <li>Ontario has the largest concentration of Indigenous people— almost 250,000</li> <li>Six Nations of The Grand River is the largest reserve in Canada, with over 21,000 members</li> <li>Over 60% of the national Indigenous population lives in urban areas</li> </ul> <p><strong>3. First Ride Share in Canada</strong></p> <p>The original ride share service in Canada was at the mouth of the Humber where Indigenous people left canoes for anyone travelling upriver to use. People coming downriver in turn left canoes for others to use.</p> <p><strong>4. Signing Up for Battle</strong></p> <p>Indigenous people joined the Canadian world war efforts in greater numbers per capita than any other subpopulation of Canada, primarily to defend “the land,” and not necessarily the nation nor Europe’s reasons for conflict.</p> <p><strong>5.&nbsp;How many&nbsp;languages?</strong></p> <p>There are anywhere between 52 and 70 languages indigenous to what is now called Canada (depending on how you count them). Only three are expected to survive this century. But many people are working hard to change that.</p> <p><strong>6. Suicide rates – 7x higher among First Nations youth</strong></p> <p>Suicide rates among First Nations youth are up to&nbsp;seven times higher&nbsp;than among non-Indigenous&nbsp;youth. This tragic reality was highlighted in April 2016 when five children tried to take their own lives on a Friday night at the Attawapiskat First Nation. Twenty-eight of its community members also attempted suicide a month earlier.</p> <p><strong>7. Clean water</strong></p> <p>Close to 20 per cent of First Nations communities are under a drinking water advisory, a stat that has remained remarkably consistent for the past 25 years.</p> <p><strong>8. The truth about taxes</strong></p> <p>Most Aboriginal people pay Canadian taxes. Tax exemptions are accorded only to certain Aboriginal people (status Indians) under particular circumstances (usually if the goods are purchased on or delivered to a reserve or in the case of employment income, it is earned on a reserve).</p> <p>Dispelling the Myth: Indigenous people do not get free post-secondary education, generally speaking.<br> <br> <strong>9. Life&nbsp;before&nbsp;Europeans arrived</strong></p> <p>Prior to the arrival and settlement of European immigrants, Indigenous people had complex and successful knowledge systems and practices about land systems, sciences, mathematics, clans, politics, physical and mental health, and food security that provided healthy and abundant livelihood for millions of peoples for tens of thousands of years.<br> <br> <strong>10. Are non-Indigenous Canadians affected by treaties? How?</strong></p> <p>Treaties between the Federal Government of Canada and First Nations are still important and binding today.&nbsp;</p> <p>Treaties are not only for Indigenous peoples - Canadians have treaty rights and responsibilities too but don’t often think of them.</p> <p>Most Canadians live in a treaty area and where they don’t they are on unceded Indigenous lands.</p> <p>More than 70 historical treaties were negotiated by the Federal Government of Canada with First Nations and Métis peoples between 1701 and 1923. The first Modern Treaty to be signed was on November 11, 1975, the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement (Parks Canada, 2016).</p> <p><strong>11. How did the Indian Act of 1876 change the lives of Indigenous peoples?</strong></p> <p>Most Canadians don’t know that most Indigenous peoples’ lives are governed by federal laws under the Indian Act of 1876, which continue today. This affects Indigenous peoples’ access to health care, education, housing, clean drinking water, and many other things that non-Indigenous Canadians often take for granted.</p> <p><strong>12. Residential Schools: Canada’s Horrific–&nbsp;and Not So Distant– Past</strong></p> <p>Education was used as a tool of oppression for Indigenous peoples through Indian residential schools, an extensive school system set up by the Federal government. They were administered by churches from the early 1920s to the mid-1990s.</p> <p>The goals of residential schools was, according to the Indian Act, “To kill the Indian in the child” and was based on the premise that Aboriginal cultures were inferior to White Christian ones.<br> &nbsp;<br> Canadian Indigenous children were forcibly removed, often by the Indian Agent or the RCMP, from their families and communities and shipped to the schools and kept for months and years.<br> &nbsp;<br> Many children experienced sexual abuse, corporal punishment for speaking their language, and were instilled with beliefs that being Indigenous was bad.<br> &nbsp;<br> In 2006 the Federal Government began a process of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples for the harms suffered and treatments experienced by survivors of Residential School through the creation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, which released its final report in 2015.</p> <p>Where do things stand now in terms of education?&nbsp;It will take about 20 years to close the education gap between First Nations and other Canadians, if action to make changes is taken.</p> <p>Some factors that contribute to this situation are:</p> <ul> <li>There are 40 First Nation communities without schools</li> <li>There are First Nation communities where children haven’t been to school in more than two years</li> <li>The K-12 completion rate for First Nation students living on-reserve is 49%</li> <li>First Nation students are more likely to end up in jail than to graduate high school</li> <li>First Nation students attending on-reserve schools are funded at a rate of $3,000 – $7,000 less than students attending other schools in Canada (AFN, 2011).</li> <li>There are almost 600 unresolved cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada (AFN, 2011).</li> </ul> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h2>Read <a href="/news/national-aboriginal-day-u-t">National Aboriginal Day: The importance of Indigenous culture and learning at ֱ</a></h2> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Tue, 21 Jun 2016 18:15:38 +0000 lavende4 14392 at National Aboriginal Day: The importance of Indigenous culture and learning at ֱ /news/national-aboriginal-day-u-t <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">National Aboriginal Day: The importance of Indigenous culture and learning at ֱ</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>lavende4</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2016-06-21T08:24:09-04:00" title="Tuesday, June 21, 2016 - 08:24" class="datetime">Tue, 06/21/2016 - 08:24</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item"> Students gather at the Centre for Aboriginal Initiatives (Photo by Aaron Mason Photography)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/rachel-halpern" hreflang="en">Rachel Halpern</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Rachel Halpern</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/national-aboriginal-day" hreflang="en">National Aboriginal Day</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/indigenous" hreflang="en">Indigenous</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/truth-and-reconciliation" hreflang="en">Truth and Reconciliation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/centre-aboriginal-initiatives" hreflang="en">Centre for Aboriginal Initiatives</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Language and culture: two areas that go hand-in-hand are also a focus of today’s National Aboriginal Day celebration.&nbsp;</p> <p>Both subjects, highlighted in The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Canada’s <a href="http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/File/2015/Findings/Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf">Calls to Action</a>, are also key priorities of the University of Toronto’s Indigenous community.</p> <p>In a time when the country is bringing much needed attention to Indigenous issues, the university is continuing to expand its resources for Indigenous teaching and learning. ֱ has a strong focus on the Indigenous community with academic programming and support for cultural initiatives, many of which are supported through the Centre for Aboriginal Initiatives (CAI).</p> <p>Professor <strong>Keren Rice </strong>(below), director of CAI, is also a member of ֱ’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission Steering Committee and notes that September 2016 will see the return of an academic course on reconciliation. CAI also has a vested interest in the Steering Committee’s upcoming recommendations, including those that pertain to Indigenous languages.</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__1293 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" height="453" src="/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/UofT5468_20110607_Keren%20Rice_001.jpg?itok=uJY7lBJt" typeof="foaf:Image" width="680" loading="lazy"></p> <h2><a href="/news/truth-and-reconciliation-campus">Read more about ֱ’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission Steering Committee</a></h2> <p>“Language has always been a priority of CAI from the earliest days,” says Rice. “In establishing the undergraduate program in Aboriginal Studies, there was consultation with the Elders Council of Ontario and the Chiefs of Ontario where the importance of language was stressed. Now language is the foundation of many of our academic offerings.”</p> <p>CAI’s Indigenous Language Initiative supports the university community and the broader community in the study and everyday use of Indigenous languages, including Anishinaabemowin, Haudenosaunee and Inuktitut. Students and community members are offered opportunities to gain insight about the importance of language and culture, as well as new ways of both learning and teaching Indigenous languages.</p> <p>Underscoring its importance, two new assistant professors with a focus on Haudenosaunee language and culture are joining CAI this year.</p> <p>“There is so much knowledge to gain from language,” says Rice. “So much that is hard to express in another language. You get a deeper understanding of a culture from speaking the Indigenous language, helping you to see the world through different eyes.”</p> <p><strong>Julie Blair</strong>, a member of Serpent River First Nation, is a fourth-year Aboriginal Studies major undergraduate. She’s also coordinator for the <a href="http://Indigenous Education Network">Indigenous Education Network</a> (IEN) at OISE. Despite her busy schedule, Blair still finds time to spend at CAI.</p> <p>She refers to the Centre as a welcoming space, noting it is one of the only buildings on campus (other than First Nations House, OISE and the Multi-Faith Centre) where she and other Indigenous students can smudge – a ritual cleansing with burning of sacred medicines. Blair also spends time at CAI working on her studies and attending lectures and events.</p> <p>“Aboriginal Studies are incredibly important for everyone to learn,” says Blair. “It’s a different worldview and perspective that fully encompasses the history of Canada.”</p> <p>At IEN, Blair helps plan events including drum circles, medicine workshops, film nights and the upcoming Forum on Aboriginal Homelessness on June 22. IEN encourages Indigenous and non-Indigenous people to come together to learn from each other in an experiential way.</p> <p>“There is a great sense of support for the Indigenous community at ֱ,” says Blair. “I’ve learned so much more about my own culture through community gatherings outside of the classroom.”</p> <p>Now, as ֱ celebrates National Aboriginal Day with the City of Toronto, they do so with the Indigenous students and community at the university. “Our students come from all walks of life and the support the university provides them helps pave a way for their future. That’s something worth celebrating.”</p> <p>For more information about ֱ’s Aboriginal Studies and CAI, please visit: <a href="http://aboriginalstudies.utoronto.ca/">http://aboriginalstudies.utoronto.ca/</a></p> <h2>Read <a href="https://utoronto.ca/news/national-aboriginal-day-12-things-you-need-know">National Aboriginal Day: 12 things you need to know</a></h2> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Tue, 21 Jun 2016 12:24:09 +0000 lavende4 14281 at