WIPCE Conference

One Fire Dance Troupe

The conference was really good with many interesting sessions, lots of cultural activities, and much music and dancing. I attended mostly post-secondary sessions from technical colleges, community colleges and universities in Australia, Hawaii, New Zealand, Canada and Japan. The information was invaluable for the rest of my leave and has left me with lots to think about and questions to ask when I'm away.

I went on a site visit to the Kangan-Batman TAFE - a technical college in Broadswater (just outside Melbourne) where we were treated to welcoming dances, lunch, tours and music.

We also visited LaTrobe University - a bit further out from Melbourne - where we were welcomed, took part in a smoke ceremony and had tea and scones while listening to stories about where the platypus came from. Our hosts were gracious and welcoming.

FNESC update

While waiting at the airport in Vancouver, I thought I'd give a quick update on the FNESC conference I attended last weekend. It was the 14th Aboriginal Education conference - a provincial affair with 700 participants, a great exhibition hall with post-secondary program information, jewelry, books, fabulous First Nations art done by a young guy who's really talented, and other bits and pieces.

Overall, the tone of the conference was positive -- good relationships between First Nations educators, the Ministry of Education, and FNESC. Positive announcements about reciprocal tuition, development of English 10 and 11 First Peoples courses (down the road) - given the success of English First Peoples 12 course, and a mention to the House of Commons apology to those who were in residential schools.

Several sessions stand out, but kudos to Eric Wong from FNESC who did an excellent presentation called "More than putting out the welcome mat" which talked about developing welcoming and inclusive work places and schools. He also showed an excerpt from What I Learned in Class Today developed at UBC that was excellent.

I'll fill in a bit more later on sessions, but the things I heard over and over were language revitalization and culture and making sure that children learned their language and culture from birth to keep the people strong and the culture alive. Makes sense.

Off to Australia tonight for the World Indigenous Peoples Conference on Education. Stay tuned for further posts..with pictures.