Aboriginal Child Care Resources
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Aboriginal Childcare Society, a Wealth of Information
(sign up for their weekly e-newsletter!) acc-society.bc.ca
The BC Aboriginal Childcare Society (ACCS), is a provincial charitable organization, that supports Aboriginal (and non-aboriginal) communities in BC in the creation and development of quality, community-based Aboriginal early childhood services that promote child growth and development in an environment respectful of culture, history and language. The Society also fulfills an essential role in research, education, networking, and policy development.
For ten years the BC Aboriginal Child Care Society has offered support and resources to early childhood programs serving Aboriginal families across BC. The Society offers a resource library, workshops for parents and caregivers, and special reports and print resources.
The resource library, opened in 1997 in the North Vancouver office, offers a wide range of books, pamphlets and reports relating to Aboriginal children, families and child care. The 1000+ materials, many generously donated, contains more than enough information for anyone interested in starting up a preschool or doing research on Aboriginal communities.
Another special feature of the lending library is the Curriculum Resource Boxes available to early childhood programs throughout BC. Each box contains hands-on activities, artwork, games, videos, books, and curriculum reflecting a First Nations perspective. Boxes also include information for care givers on specific themes, as well as learning objectives, suggestions for community/parent involvement, and resource lists of books and videos. Boxes are available on the following themes: Animals and the Environment, Family and Community, Food and Nutrition, School Readiness, Music and Movement, and Speech and Language. Books, boxes and videos are available for loan to ACCS members for a three-week period. There is no charge for transportation of the boxes.
Aboriginal Children's Circle of Early Learning
www.accel-capea.caThe Aboriginal Children's Circle of Early Learning (ACCEL) is a fully-functioning bilingual, web portal clearinghouse focused on Aboriginal early childhood development (ECD). You can consult the site to review, research and discuss best and promising practices; to exchange with a highly engaged network of Aboriginal ECD practitioners and researchers; and to keep in touch with the emerging needs of communities across Canada.
Special website features include:
- databases of resources, research, organizations and individuals
- e-bulletins
- downloadable resources
- calendar of events
- survey of needs
It builds on existing networks and includes Aboriginal ECD service providers and specialists in all applicable federal, provincial and territorial programs, services and institutions.
Offering Aboriginal Programming
Even if you do not have any Aboriginal children in your program, offering some First Nations, Inuit and Metis cultural content would be a very enriching experience. To understand the land that we live on and it's First People is to live on it more honestly. Aboriginal cultures are full of beautiful teaching stories and wonderful crafts and foods that small children love. Perhaps fostering this love will be a part of a larger healing. If we can teach children early to have respect and care for the land and for Aboriginal people and ways, they can be a part of positive changes and a more positive future.Here are some things you can do to add Aboriginal culture to your program. Also, be sure to visit the BCACCS for more information and ideas:
- Thank Mother Earth for her abundance and for taking such good care of us at mealtimes
- Learn about the Medicine Wheel
- Tell the children that because Aboriginal people were utterly dependent on the Earth for providing all of their livelihood, they learned to thank her at all times for everything. If the people were going to pick berries, then thanks and an offering, such as tobacco or other special plant, would be made to the land and to the berry bushes for their gifts. Prayers were offered to the salmon for the gift of their lives, and also the deer, the sweetgrass (which is used as a smudge by many cultures) and so on and on.
- Use a smudge at the beginning of a special story or teaching time, this is the practice of cleansing oneself with the sweet smelling smoke of different sacred plants such as sweetgrass, sage, cedar and juniper. With the smoke of the friendly plants we send prayers to Creator and cleanse any negative feelings or energies we are experiencing or that are in our surroundings. We may feel down or sick or we are preparing to pray. We can smudge objects and spaces as well as people. It is a freshening and also a tool to slow us down in the moment and pay attention to where we really are in life, we give thanks in that moment. How to use a smudge.
- Teach respect for Elders and have Elders (not just Aboriginal) come and tell stories, the ones who go before us in life have much to teach us
- Say "All my Relations" when you finish a story or teaching. Many cultures said this or it's equivalent to acknowledge the gift of whatever wisdom had been expressed and to also honour the basic reality of the complete connectedness of life. To Aboriginal cultures, all living things are relatives, reliant on each other for life itself
- Cook salmon with hot rocks. This cooking method was used by coastal peoples. Rocks were heated in a fire and then dropped into baskets so tightly woven as to be waterproof. Clams and chunks of salmon were dropped into the boiling water
- Tell stories from native traditions. Your local library as well as BCACCS will have lots of books
- Play some traditional games, go to BCACCS web-site, click on Library and Resources and type games into the search engine, there are five books available about children's games
- Try this site for some great games
- Pay attention to the seasons and notice what the animals are doing
- Have a mini Potlatch
- Learn about local wild foods such as camas root, wild onions, wild garlic, wild ginger, pine needle tea, salmon, venison, berries
- Learn also about the 3 Sisters, the staple foods of many North American First People's cultures - Plant some Corn, Beans and Squash a.k.a. the 3 Sisters!
- Tell stories without a book, perhaps just with a prop or two. Talk about how there were no books long ago and all stories and all history was told from memory
- Learn about the K'tunaxa Nation of the East Kootenays
- Learn about the Sinixt Nation of the West Kootenays
- Explore the "Culture and Coming Home" section of this web-site, following the links to the left
There are hundreds of Aboriginal cultures to learn from, and hundreds of things to learn. You may even begin to explore all the cultures that the children in your care bring to your facility. Many of us are a little too far away from our roots for comfort. Fostering a love of diversity will help to make our society truly multicultural and open.
Ktunaxa Kinbasket Child & Family Services
Ktunaxa Kinbasket Child & Family Services Society (KKCFSS) meets the needs of Ktunaxa Kinbasket and All Aboriginal (First Nations, Metis and Inuit) children and families in a culturally relevant manner. For further information go to: www.ktunaxa.org/fourpillars/social/services.html.