Kwayaciiwin official curriculum provider for First Nation schools

Guidelines developed by Kwayaciiwin Education Resource Centre are now the official curriculum for First Nation schools in the Sioux Lookout area.
The culturally relevant curriculum will replace ministry of education guidelines.
“Our guidelines are just as good or better than ministry guidelines,” said Roy Morris, director of Kwayaciiwin, of the curriculum developed by his organization. “The ministry fails to address our language, our history, our culture.”
During the 2010 Summer Institute Aug. 24-25 in Sioux Lookout, Morris outlined an implementation framework for teachers and staff of First Nation schools to start using the curriculum.
Morris said the guidelines are bilingual and bi-cultural. He feels the Kwayaciiwin developed guidelines will provide students the same skills and knowledge obtained from mainstream schools.
It’s this kind of belief that drives Kwayaciiwin in it’s mandate to provide culturally relevant materials for First Nation schools. Its goal is to graduate students who are fully fluent and literate in Anihshiniimowin and English.
Morris said the Kwayaciiwin curriculum is designed to meet the needs of First Nation students. But for now, the goal is to get teachers to learn the new guidelines.
Morris broke it down for teachers with a story. In his past, he said he moved to Bearskin Lake from Muskrat Dam, his home community. In Muskrat, he was an avid hunter always going out on the land. He was familiar with the territory, he knew how to navigate the rivers to get to where he was going. But when he moved, he was suddenly faced with the idea that he did not know the land around Bearskin. He still wanted to hunt, but he didn’t know the lay of the land.
Morris said he had to learn to navigate his new surroundings. As he ventured on to the rivers, he had to learn the rapids and rock placements. It was slow going, sometimes challenging. He had to carefully manoeuvre his way around rocks.
Slowly but surely, he grew accustomed to his new surroundings. He realized his progression when he had to shuttle visitors to a camp outside the community. Through sections of the river he had once moved through slowly, he was now able to quickly pass through.
“I wasn’t focused on the rocks anymore,” Morris said. “I was focused on getting the people from point A to point B.”
His point of the story was to tell the teachers not to focus on the details but on the end goal.
Sioux Lookout district chiefs provided the directive for the curriculum implementation in October 2009. The materials are available free of charge from Kwayaciiwin.