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[Salish greeting]
Thank you for joining us for this Town Hall Meeting. By all accounts you have had an extremely productive, exciting and enlightening National Conference over the past two days. It is particularly gratifying to see so many of our partners here today. I know that many of you represent the member organizations of the Aboriginal Learning Knowledge Centre consortium. You are the backbone of our work in the field of Aboriginal learning, and I am delighted that the number of partners continues to grow. These are exciting and demanding times for CCL. Exciting in that the seeds we have sown over the past three years are now bearing fruit. Demanding in that we realize more clearly than we did at the outset just how large the task really is. Clearly, our five Knowledge Centres are recognized as an integral and vital element of CCL, and are central to our ability to fulfil our mandate. A mandate that is not only to monitor and report to Canadians on the state of learning, but also to identify and share effective practices and to build the capacity of individuals, organizations and communities. The Aboriginal Learning Knowledge Centre has already made many significant contributions to all aspects of our mandate.
When students of Canadian history and society begin to write the story of the Canadian Council on Learning, they will look back on many early achievements. Of course they will talk about CCL’s contribution to our understanding of the value of a national approach to post-secondary education. They will refer to our research linking workplace training and adult literacy to individual success and our country’s productivity and prosperity. They will highlight how our innovative Composite Learning Index has contributed to the development of learning communities across Canada, and served as a model for European countries.
But when I think about the work that has been accomplished by CCL during its first mandate, I believe that our greatest legacy may be our achievements in advancing learning among Aboriginal peoples, thanks to the work of the Aboriginal Learning Knowledge Centre.
One of CCL’s major success stories is the creation of three holistic lifelong learning models for First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples that were announced in November 2007. It provides an excellent example of how the various parts of CCL can work together. It reflects the power of collaboration among a wide range of groups and organizations, ministries of education and most importantly, the Aboriginal communities themselves. CCL’s capacity to do that in no small way comes as a result of the efforts of this Centre, which has been committed from the outset to being inclusive, respectful and holistic in the way its conducts its work with learners, communities and organizations. Above all, it has insisted on a hopeful vision for the future despite the many systemic challenges and barriers faced by many Aboriginal learners. We should be extremely proud of that achievement. Marie Battiste, Vivian Ayoungman, Rita Bouvier, Geneviève Fox, Maria Wilson.
For decades Aboriginal Peoples have argued for the need for learning models that respect cultures, values and approach to life. Quite rightly, Aboriginal Peoples do not want to accept a model of education built around deficiency, constantly being reminded, through conventional statistics, of all the things that are going wrong. After all, do we not learn more from our successes rather than from our failures? Are we not most enlightened by that which is most important to us?
Aboriginal Peoples desire and deserve both learning that affirms indigenous cultures and traditions and the conventional “Western” knowledge. By recognizing the importance and value of both traditions and approaches, the holistic learning models demonstrate that it is possible to learn and take the best from all traditions or knowledge systems available to us as learners. Not only are culture and linguistic distinctiveness an expression of identity, they also enhance learning.
Learning is like a three-legged stool. One leg represents school-based or structured learning; the other two legs represent the community and the home. A three-legged stool will balance on any surface, provided that each leg is of equal length. Education systems, community and home are equal partners in the learning process.
What does this mean for Aboriginal learning? It means that we must blend valuable conventional indicators of education in the school with parameters reflecting learning in the home, in the community, and on the land. We have concluded from recent work undertaken to define success in Aboriginal learning that despite diverse cultures, histories and geographies, First Nations, Inuit and Métis people share a vision of learning as a purposeful, holistic, lifelong process. This vision entails certain shared principles and values that shape and influence how learners see themselves in relation to the world and which form the foundation of their learning.
We were delighted when the five national Aboriginal organizations and many other partners agreed to work with CCL and the Aboriginal Learning Knowledge Centre to develop holistic lifelong learning models; I am convinced that this collaboration has established an approach that will pave the way for real change. These models reconcile Western concepts of learning and education with Aboriginal cultural traditions and values. And when these models were endorsed by both learners and leaders, we knew that we had created a foundation for success. This work will be an ongoing activity for CCL, the Aboriginal Learning Knowledge Centre, the national Aboriginal organizations, and institutions committed to serving the learning aspirations and needs of First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples.
The Aboriginal Learning Knowledge Centre has achieved much through its strong network of partners and consortium members. The development of your strategic plan and the identification of the Animation Theme bundles have served as a basis for organizing your work. They have also been a tool for describing and sharing that work with others. I realize that much remains to be done. I hope that the dialogue sparked at this Town Hall session will provide you with the insights needed to advance the implementation of your work.
The National Conference and this Town Hall are both a celebration of what we have achieved together, and a planning session to consider next steps. We are now in a position to work together on initiatives that build upon what we have learned over the past months. I am encouraged by what we have done in partnership, but perhaps the most edifying accomplishment of all is the manner in which we have seen our findings, our research, and our approach taken up by communities across Canada. When future generations look back on our work, it is the degree to which our knowledge has been applied that will be seen as our greatest legacy.
I am looking forward to hearing the results of this Town Hall Meeting. Thank you.
[Salish farewell]
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