National Chief Welcomes Canada’s Endorsement of UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

November 12, 2010
National Chief Welcomes Canada’s Endorsement of UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: Respect, Partnership and Reconciliation will Guide Work to Improve the situation of First Nation Peoples and Build a Stronger Canada
OTTAWA, ON: Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn A‐in‐chut Atleo stated that Canada’s endorsement of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is a positive development that sets the stage for a new approach to building stronger First Nations and a stronger Canada.
“Today marks an important shift in our relationship and now the real work begins,” National Chief Atleo said. “Now is our time to work together towards a new era of fairness and justice for First Nations and a stronger Canada for all Canadians, guided by the Declaration’s core principles of respect, partnership and reconciliation. First Nations have worked long and hard to set out constructive and effective approaches and to abandon the colonial relationship embodied in the Indian Act that has held back our people and this country. We are ready to move now – today – on our key priorities including education.”
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted by the UN General Assembly on September 13, 2007. Canada committed to endorsing the UN Declaration in the 2010 Speech from the Throne. The UNDRIP has the distinction of being the only Declaration within the United Nations which was drafted with the rights‐holders, themselves, the Indigenous Peoples of the world.
“Today is important, not as the culmination of our efforts, but as the beginning of a new approach and a new agenda,” the National Chief stated. “Canada’s apology for the residential schools in 2008 was a critical moment to acknowledge the pain of the past. Endorsing the Declaration is the opportunity to look forward and re‐set the relationship between First Nations and the Crown so it is consistent with the Treaties and other agreements with First Nations upon which this country was founded. In endorsing the UN Declaration, Canada is committing to work with us as a true partner to achieve reconciliation as instructed by the courts in Canada.
I congratulate Canada in taking another step towards the promotion and protection of human and fundamental freedoms for all.”
The Assembly of First Nations is the national organization representing First Nations in Canada.
Jenna Young, Communications Officer, Assembly of First Nations 613‐241‐6789, ext 401, 613‐314‐8175 (mobile), or jyoung@afn.ca.
Alain Garon, Bilingual Communications Officer, Assembly of First Nations 613‐241‐6789, ext 382 or agaron@afn.ca

Call for papers: Indigenous social work practices and theories

“INDIGENOUS SOCIAL WORK PRACTICES AND THEORIES”
NATIVE SOCIAL WORK JOURNAL
NISHNAABE KINOMAADWIN NAADMAADWIN
(Native Teaching & Helping)

The Board of the Native Social Work Journal, a scholarly and community based publication, is pleased to announce a Call for Papers for Volume 8 of the Native Social Work Journal. The focus for this issue is “Indigenous Social Work Practices and Theories”.

This edition of the journal recognizes that many Aboriginal and Indigenous practitioners, teachers and researchers are engaging in Indigenous practices that draw from Indigenous worldviews and which have been incorporated as best practice models in their various fields. Likewise, there is a revitalization of Indigenous theories that reflect Indigenous worldviews and contemporary contexts. It is therefore timely to invite writers to share their experiences, research and expertise in the area of Indigenous practices and theories.

Authors must submit their articles under the A.P.A. (American Psychological Association) style format. Please follow manual guidelines. Articles should normally be no longer than 5000 words, 20 pages. Papers accepted for publication will have copyright assigned to the Native Social Work Journal; articles previously published or under current consideration for publication elsewhere shall not be considered for publication. Please provide an abstract, double space all material and submit four copies for consideration as well as a memory stick copy using MS Word. An email version may also be requested.

The Native Social Work Journal utilizes a peer reviewed process in the selection of articles and is a registered member of the Canadian Association of Learned Journals.

Deadline date for submission of articles is July 31st, 2011.

Please submit your article to:

Dr. Taima Moeke-Pickering, Co-Editor
Native Social Work Journal
Native Human Services Programme
Laurentian University
Sudbury, Ontario, P3E 2C6
(705) 675-1151 ext 5083 or 5082.

For further information or to receive copies of previous volumes, please contact our office at the phone number above.

A homecoming and exciting partnership for Awanuiarangi

A homecoming and an exciting partnership for Awanuiarangi
Posted: by TangataWhenua.com October 22, 2010 http://news.tangatawhenua.com/archives/7425


Dr Taima Moeke-Pickering (Ngati Pukeko, Tuhoe) the Director of Native Human Services at Laurentian University in Ontario, Canada returned last week to her hometown of Whakatane to re-sanction a Memorandum of Understanding between her university and Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi.

A special ceremony was held at Awanuiarangi attended by both Dr Sheila Cote-Meek, the Associate Vice-President Indigenous Studies at Laurentian University and Dr Moeke-Pickering.

The Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the CEO of Awanuiarangi, Distinguished Professor Graham Smith, on his recent visit to Canada. He said the MOU will “establish a relationship which includes staff and student exchange and research collaboration.”

“Awanuiarangi is interested in developing international indigenous relationships. We want to consolidate the benchmarking of our programmes and establish an international peer review process. This issue is about maintaining the quality of our programming here,” Dr Smith said.

“It is important to develop these relationships as it provides an opportunity to grow our expertise by engaging with other like-minded academics and scholars. We see mutual benefit for ourselves and the institutions we are engaging with, in this case, one of the top universities in Canada.”

Dr Sheila Cote-Meek is of the Teme-Augama Anishinabe people and is Laurentian University’s first Associate Vice President Indigenous programs. She said the MOU was quite broad so there were many possibilities such as staff and student engagement, curriculum exchange and research partnerships and accessing research funding.

Dr Cote-Meek said there are many similarities between M?ori and First Nation people and our experience with being colonized. She jokingly said there was however one difference; “you sing, we drum.” One other difference she highlighted was that First Nation had been colonized for over 500 years and could help M?ori, in particular the healing programs that have been developed.

To further cement the relationship both Dr Moeke-Pickering and Dr Cote-Meek were named as adjunct professors of Awanui?rangi. This means the wananga will be able to call upon their expertise and for Dr Moeke-Pickering it will mean more frequent visits back home. She was brought up in Poroporo and went to school there and in Whakatane. Taima was the first Head of School of Te Toi-a-Kiwa School of Maori, Pasifika and Indigenous Studies at Wintec (Waikato Institute of Technology). She completed her PhD from Waikato University.

For more information and photographs contact:

Whare Akuhata
Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi
Phone +64 7 3071467
Mobile +64 21 307327
www.wananga.ac.nz
http://news.tangatawhenua.com/archives/7425

Settlement finally for Te Wananga o Awanuirangi

Kia ora, this is awesome news especially for my tribe and home community, tino pai, Taima

SETTLEMENT FINALLY FOR TE WANANGA O AWANUIARANGI from Waatea News 5 Oct 2010

Waiariki MP Te Ururoa Flavell says a $14.5 million payment to Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi addresses a long-standing injustice.

Mr Flavell was the Whakatane-based wananga's chief executive in 1999 when the Waitangi Tribunal's Wananga Capital Establishment Report found wananga had to meet their own start-up costs, while universities and polytechnics had benefited from decades of state funding.

He says the settlement signed yesterday by Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce and Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples should have happened a long time ago.

“It was all there for everyone to see. It’s just disappointing it has taken four ministers to formalise this agreement bearing in mind we’re talking 10 years since the tribunal hearing and prior to that the arguments had been going at least another 10 years,” Mr Flavell says.

When he was there the Whakatane campus was all prefabs, but the settlement will allow a comprehensive building programme to be completed.

TE KOTAHITANGA SOWS SEED OF NEW LEADERSHIP DRIVE

TE KOTAHITANGA SOWS SEED OF NEW LEADERSHIP DRIVE (posted by Waatea news: Sept 30/2010)

A hundred schools have signed on to pilot a new leadership programme,He Kakano, which aims to improve education for Maori.

Waikato University's faculty of education and Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi have a three-year $7 million contract to deliver advice, support and professional development to schools in the programme.

Professor Russell Bishop says it draws on what's been learned from the classroom-based Te Kotahitanga programme about how Maori students learn, and how schools can take the identity, language and culture of their students into account.

He Kakano or the seed is for boards of trustees, principals, heads of department down to the individual teacher level.

“We're offering them a model which is based on the book we’ve just published, Scaling Up Education Reform. That book gives a seven point model for making a difference in schools and we’re saying, when leaders at whatever level they are in the schools can implement these seven points effectively, then you will see change taking place, because that’s what we found in our Te Kotahitanga schools,” Professor Bishop says.

Schools benefit for having an outside groups like the university or wananga to help them critically analyse what is going on in the classroom.

Critical Social Work: Indigenous Issues

Kia ora, look up the Critical Social Work journal, in Volume 11 there is a Special Indigenous Issues section. Good reading.

http://www.uwindsor.ca/criticalsocialwork/2010-volume-11-no-1-0

My doctoral thesis

Kia ora all, finally completed my doctorate in early July 2010. After much hard work and deciding that the scenic route was distracting, I finally arrived at completing my thesis. If you are interested in reading it, you can find it below: Taima

Your submission has been accepted and archived in Research Commons,
and it has been assigned the following identifier:

http://hdl.handle.net/10289/4148

Collection	Higher Degree Theses
Family Name	Moeke-Pickering
First Name	Taima Materangatira
Email Address	tmoekepickering@laurentian.ca
Thesis Title	Decolonisation as a social change framework and its impact on the development of Indigenous-based curricula for Helping Professionals in mainstream Tertiary Education Organisations
Year of Submission	2010
Degree	Doctor of Philosophy
Thesis Language	English
Thesis Abstract	This research examined the social and political approaches that Indigenous peoples undertook to situate Indigenous-based education programmes in mainstream post-secondary/tertiary education organisations. Indigenous-based helping programmes assist to progress Indigenous aspirations for self-determination and are sites that center Indigenous worldviews. A decolonisation analysis framework that is embedded in the curriculum deepens students’ understanding about the impacts of imperialism, colonisation and post colonial issues. This thesis involved researching two Indigenous-based programmes that are based within mainstream tertiary institutes. The first is the Te Whiuwhiu o te Hau Maori Counselling degree programme which is based at the Waikato Institute of Technology (WINTEC) in Hamilton, Aotearoa, New Zealand. The other is the Native Human Services Social Work degree programme which is based at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. I start this thesis with “opening the circle” and situating the context for my research. Next is the literature review chapter. This chapter provides a review of decolonisation-colonisation, decolonisation frameworks within Indigenous education, self-determination and Indigenous peoples, and Maori and Native self-determination strategies relevant to health and education. I used a case study method combined with an Indigenous methodology to guide the research. This involved gathering key pieces of information as well as interviewing participants (graduates, tutors/faculty/developers) from each programme. In chapter four is the Te Whiuwhiu o te Hau case study and in chapter five is found the Native Human Services case study. Each case study covers pre-colonial and colonisation contexts and examines assimilative legislation on Indigenous education and health. The backgrounds of social work and counselling, Native social work and Maori counselling are also presented. In the case studies is the background and rationale for the development of each programme, as well as pertinent information on the course content. Chapter six presents on the findings and conclusion and chapter seven “closes the circle”. The main findings highlighted that Indigenous curricula and pedagogies embrace Indigenous theories and discourse relevant to the helping practice fields. Secondly, each programme fosters students to make positive changes for themselves, for their communities, and for their professions. Another finding is that f aculty/tutors promote an inclusive Indigenous pedagogy in th! e classr oom that incorporates cultural ceremonies, encourage personal introspection, builds cultural and professional skills, and teaches critical education. Both programmes reflected a pedagogy that taught students to counter negative narratives while instilling a critical analysis of decolonisation and colonisation. I propose that a decolonisation analysis is both a reflective and healing tool, in that students are provided with the hard evidence about their histories and what happened to their communities. I contend that Indigenous-based programmes contribute to the continuity of Indigenous culture and wellbeing of their communities and, that they play a vital role in advancing Indigenous education priorities.
Supervisor	Robertson, Neville
Supervisor	Dunlop, Edward
Main Thesis File 1	thesis.pdf
List of Keywords	Indigenous Education;Indigenous Research;Indigenous-based Educational programmes;Native Social Work;Maori Counselling;Indigenous pedagogies;