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Education & Curriculum

From the early 1900’s to the 1950’s, the Mi’kmaq were largely absent from authorized programs of study and prescribed textbooks. When they were mentioned, images were those of “vanishing Canadians” or “savage warriors”. With the advent of multiculturalism in the 1970’s, there was a shift towards depictions of the Mi’kmaq as the “exotic other” or figures of fantasy with significant errors or distortions created by non-Indigenous research and perspectives of non-Mi’kmaw writers.  

The emphasis in education on facts about ‘traditional’ Mi’kmaq cultural practices and livelihoods has largely been confined to either social studies or language arts.  Dawning awareness of systemic racism in the 70’s and 80’s saw a shift towards measures aimed at accommodating Mi’kmaw learners beginning in the 1990’s, especially in the province of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. While the provinces in the Atlantic region have each created at length bibliographies of Mi’kmaq resources, these have not all been cleared by Mi’kmaq people as being accurate and dependable sources for learning about and with Mi’kmaw learners. Mi’kmaw voice, for example, as “protestors of injustice” or advancing new perspectives of Mi’kmaq peoples has emerged in the last few decades and this section offers to teachers, both Mi’kmaq and non-Aboriginal, a look at Mi’kmaq history of schooling and curricula, and Mi’kmaq perspectives dealing with Mi’kmaq learning, schooling, and teaching as well as current research from non-Mi’kmaq about the policies, language, instruction and pedagogy, including decolonizing anti-colonial anti-racist perspectives of educators.

The authors in this collection offer fresh perspectives about contemporary curricula, critical perspectives about the abscences and ommissions of Aboriginal peoples in educational curricula, and books and materials that have been authored and/or co-authored by Mi'kmaq about their lives, their history and the place Mi'kmaq people should have in affecting their destiny.

 
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Law

Mi’kmaw law is based on the understanding that things in life are interconnected, known to many Mi’kmaq as “Netukulimk”. This law describes the rights and responsibilities of the Mi’kmaq with...

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Mi’kmaw storytelling has been an integral part of Mi’kmaw way of life. Mi’kmaw elders and leaders and parents have provided each generation with the required prerequisite knowledge, know-how,...

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The Mi’kmaq resided in, and for a considerable time after the onset of the Europeans, a civilization where respect for the good works of the Great Spirit was its...

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From the early 1900’s to the 1950’s, the Mi’kmaq were largely absent from authorized programs of study and prescribed textbooks. When they were mentioned, images were those of “vanishing Canadians...

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Mi’kmaq people have lived in multiple places throughout the Atlantic region of Canada and along the coastal regions of the United States. Their Mi’kmaq knowledge is understood as the collective...

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Mi’kmaq peoples have had a long relationship with the Holy Roman Empire and the Catholic Church. Father Christian LeClerq found in his journeys among Mi’kmaq in the mid to late 1600’s a people...

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Every institution of higher learning has developed a course of studies called the humanities that has been core to education. Contextually, philosophy, religion, history, languages, literatures...

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The Mi’kmaw language is an important and integral part of the culture and world view of the Mi’kmaq.  Through our language, our way of seeing our life is...

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Mi’kmaq ingenuity and creativity has been a well-documented aspect of Mi’kmaq life in Atlantic museums and beyond. Whether it is how they built their canoes, or wigwams, or beaded the coats they...

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