The Community within the Child: Integration of Indigenous Knowledge into First Nations Childcare Process and Practice

If children really know who they are, then they can go into white society. We teach them to be proud. The racism is not going to faze them. Instead of shaming, they're going to hold their head high. First Nations Partnership Program graduate, March 26, 2003 The training has taught me a lot about "who I am." I have culture and traditions. It's so important to teach kids at a young age their own traditions as well as the traditions of others. There are others in this world who are different. First Nations Partnership Program graduate, March 26, 2003 What does Indigenous knowledge mean in the evolving contexts of First Nations communities?1 How do Indigenous processes of knowing in both a traditional and modern sense become integrated into early childhood care and development programs? How does the incorporation of Indigenous knowledge in community programs such as childcare impact cultural identities at the level of individual members and the community as a whole? These questions were asked as part of a research study undertaken with twenty-seven First Nations early childhood development (ECD) graduates and thirty-one childcare administrators, parents, and community Elders from three diverse groups of communities in British Columbia (BC), Canada. This article describes the research and highlights some of the approaches taken by First Nations community members to understand [End Page 480] and work with Indigenous knowledge in community program development. Method Two university researchers traveled to each of the three groups of First Nations communities in rural areas of bc. Together they conducted free-flowing, conversational interviews with individuals and groups and also observed activities and materials in the childcare program operated by the participating First Nations. The interviews predominantly consisted of listening to accounts of how the interviewees saw culture as part of their own process and practice with young children. Both interviewers have extensive experience living and working with First Nations people but are not of First Nations heritage themselves. Our understandings and perceptions of the integration of Indigenous knowledge into early childhood education training and practice comes out of many hours spent discussing and researching these issues inside and outside of this project. Generative Curriculum Model In order to give context to this research it is important to begin by briefly describing the "Generative Curriculum Model" used in the unique training program for First Nations community members to become early childhood practitioners. In light of the research done within the First Nations Partnerships Programs (FNPP), this article will describe what community-specific or Indigenous knowledge looks like in terms of: (a) language and traditional activities; and (b) beliefs, values, and the involvement of Elders. Important impacts of this training program on individuals and the community include: (a) an apparent, community-wide perception of the childcare practitioners as leaders and as role models for youth, parents, other community members, and external service providers who visit the community; and (b) the emphasis placed on "knowing who you are" as a pivotal learning process during the training program, which then flowed into the childcare programs as knowledge passed on by the graduates and their stimulation in the children of the process of exploring [End Page 481] their identities and coming to "know who they are" within their extended family and community context. These findings raise important questions about knowledge that is "authentically" First Nations as opposed to "staged" or "add-on" curriculum.2 Background: First Nations Partnership Program The FNPP began in 1989 as a partnership between the University of Victoria's School of Child and Youth Care and the Meadow Lake Tribal Council (MLTC) in Saskatchewan. Since that time, nine more First Nations tribal organizations and communities in Saskatchewan and British Columbia have used this program to train community members in early childhood care and education in partnership with the University...

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