12 Standards of Education for Aboriginal Students

Eber Hampton, Saskatchewan Indian Federated College

1. spirituality -- At the centre of spirituality is respect for the spiritual relationships that exist between all things.

2. service to the community -- The individual does not form an identity in opposition to the group but recognizes the group as relatives (included in his or her own identity). The second standard is service. Education is to serve the people. Its purpose is not individual advancement or status.

3. respect for diversity -- The respect for diversity embodied in the third standard requires self-knowledge and self-respect without which respect for others is impossible.

4. culture -- Indian cultures have ways of thought, learning, teaching, and communicating that are different than but of equal validity to those of White cultures. These thought-ways stand at the beginning of Indian time and are the foundations of our children's lives. Their full flower is in what it means to be one of the people.

5. contemporary tradition -- Indian education maintains a continuity with tradition. Our traditions define and preserve us. It is important to understand that this continuity with tradition is neither a rejection of the artifacts of other cultures nor an attempt to 'turn back the clock'. It is the continuity of a living culture that is important to Indian education, not the preservation of a frozen museum specimen.

6. personal respect -- The individual Indian's sense of personal power and autonomy is a strength that lies behind the apparent weakness of disunity. Indian education demands relationships of personal respect.

7. sense of history -- Indian education has a sense of history and does not avoid the hard facts of the conquest of America.

8. relentlessness in championing students -- Indian education is relentless in its battle for Indian children. We take pride in our warriors and our teachers are warriors for the life of our children.

9. vitality -- Indian education recognizes and nourishes the powerful pattern of life that lies hidden within personal and tribal suffering and oppression. Suffering begets strength. We have not vanished.

10. conflict between cultures -- Indian education recognizes the conflict, tensions, and struggle between itself and White education.

11. sense of place -- Indian education recognizes the importance of an Indian sense of place, land, and territory.

12. transformation -- The graduates of our schools must not only be able to survive in a White dominated society, they must contribute to the change of that society. Indian education recognizes the need for transformation in the relation between Indian and White as well as in the individual and society.