Just Do It: Anishinaabe Culture-Based Education

Abstract

In an attempt to meet the educational needs of Anishinaabe children and youth, inno­vative education must be created to specifically reflect Anishinaabe culture and An­ishinaabe community realities. The Anishinaabe Bimaadiziwin Cultural Healing andLearning Program was one of the very few off-reserve, culture-based educational spacescreated for Anishinaabe children and youth in Canada.This paper presents the project of visioning, designing, implementing, and eval­uating the Anishinaabe Bimaadiziwin Cultural Healing and Learning Program, lo­cated in Burleigh Falls, Ontario. An Anishinaabe medicine wheel construct is usedthroughout the study. A medicine wheel framework is employed in the design and im­plementation of the program. Additionally, the medicine wheel is used as a theoreticalframework and methodology in the evaluation of the program. Methods used in theprogram evaluation consisted of sharing circles zoith students, parents, and Elders,followed by review circles to review the summaries and findings of the sharing circlediscussions. Additionally, Elder observations and discussions occurred, along with in­dividual interviews with parents, students, and teachers. The analysis of the data wasorganized around themes of programming; leadership and resources; school climate;healing and identity; and parents and community.The creation of the Anishinaabe Bimaadiziwin Cultural Healing and Learning Pro­gram represents a transformational educational site built for the self-determination of An­ishinaabe people, in alignment with the Indian Control of Indian Education policydocument of 1972. The program exists as a model for other off-reserve Anishinaabe com­munities to create culturally-based educational spaces for their children by "just doing it".