Kwayaciiwin curriculum reflects First Nation way of life

Kwayaciiwin Education Resource Centre’s curriculum reflects the way people live in the Sioux Lookout district’s 24 First Nation communities.
“It is culturally appropriate,” said Kwayaciiwin director Roy Morris, explaining Kwayaciiwin’s curriculum is different from the provincial curriculum. “What we did with our curriculum planning is that we have expectations that are ... more applicable to our northern communities.”
Morris said the curriculum focuses on the communities’ way of life, whether it is the mainstream way of living or the cultural way of living.
“We live a mixture of lifestyles,” Morris said. “You enjoy the benefits of modern living but at the same time we go out on the land and live off the land. So they are complementary in that sense.”
Morris said mainstream resources, supplies and food cost so much in northern communities that residents cannot live on them alone.
“We have to go out on the land in order to survive. So the curriculum reflects that.”
Kwayaciiwin’s curriculum was adopted as the official curriculum in the Sioux Lookout district in September.
“We have been implementing since seven years ago, but on a volunteer basis,” Morris said.
“But since the resolution from the chiefs saying it will be the official curriculum, we renewed our efforts in a more aggressive way.”
Morris said Kwayaciiwin has almost doubled its community visits since the chiefs’ resolution was passed.
The Kwayaciiwin curriculum is currently provided for K-Grade 6 in social studies, Grade 7-8 in history/geography, K-Grade 8 in the arts, K-Grade 8 in Anihshininiimowin Immersion, Grade 2-8 in English language development and Grade 4-8 in guidance.
The Ministry of Education curriculum is used for mathematics, science and technology and health and physical education, with adaptations when necessary.
The Kwayaciiwin curriculum reflects and promotes the learning skills and grade level, subject-specific skills that are presented in the Ontario curriculum, with a year-long framework of units developed for kindergarten to Grade 6, he said.
The units are based on the six seasons: Takwaakan, Picipipoon, Pipoon, Siikwan, Minookamin and Niipin. Each unit expands into a set of lesson plans and resources that reflect seasonal traditional and contemporary community life.