Our Children Our Future Our Vision - People for Education

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Our Children, Our Future, Our Vision In other words, our future as Indigenous peoples depends on our ability to maintain those connections to all those things in our local ecosystems which comprise the basis of our knowledge systems and our ability to pass that knowledge on to future generations. 23 While some scientists and government officials have tried to limit the protection and promotion of traditional Indigenous knowledge to one of religion or the protection of intellectual property, the majority of the literature agrees that it also involves questions of land rights and self-determination. 24 The right to maintain traditional Indigenous knowledge has now been protected in the United Nation Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), which is considered by the United Nations to represent international customary law. 25 Article 11 recognizes the right of Indigenous peoples to “practice and revitalize their cultural traditions and customs”. 26 Article 12 provides that Indigenous peoples have the right to practice, develop and teach their traditions, customs and ceremonies. 27 Similarly, Article 13 protects the right to revitalize Indigenous languages, philosophies, writing systems and place names and to transmit these to future generations. 28 UNDRIP also includes the right to protect traditional medicine and health practices. 29 More specifically, Article 31 of UNDRIP provides, in part: Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, as well as the manifestations of their sciences, technologies and cultures, including human and genetic resources, seeds, medicines, knowledge of properties of fauna and flora, oral traditions, literatures, designs, sports and traditional games and visual and performing arts. 30 It is imperative that any consideration of laws, policies and funding formulas related to First Nation education should focus on: …the dissemination of Indigenous knowledge should be targeted towards current First Nations students and to the next generation, ensuring that the study and development of Indigenous knowledge and the skills of their ancestors are valued and available in both 23 See generally: Wasase, supra note 13. Peace, Power, Righteousness, supra note 13. 24 S. Twarog, P. Kapoor, eds., “Protecting and Promoting Traditional Knowledge: Systems, National Experiences and International Dimensions” (Geneva: United Nations, 2004), online: UN [Protecting and Promoting Traditional Knowledge]. 25 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (A/RES/61/295) (13 September 2007) [UNDRIP]. 26 Ibid. at Article 11. 27 Ibid. at Article 12. 28 Ibid. at Article 13. 29 Ibid. at Article 24. 30 Ibid. at Article 31. 7 Chiefs of Ontario
Our Children, Our Future, Our Vision sciences and the humanities. Young students must feel that it is rewarding to pursue careers based on the traditional knowledge of their forebears. 31 Thus, the right to protect and promote traditional Indigenous knowledge systems is absolutely vital to the decolonization, healing, and future well-being of Indigenous individuals, families, communities and Nations, and should be central to any future legal or policy changes relating to First Nation education. The emphasis on local control over educational content, systems and outcomes is also critically important to the very knowledge system itself. Traditional Indigenous knowledges and languages must be a central feature of any First Nation education policy and funding formula on a go forward basis. Local control, exercised in a variety of ways (via First Nation community, Nation, treaty area, or region) is not only essential to the realization of educational outcomes but to the very content of the knowledges incorporated within those educational systems. (b) Treaty Right to Education “not for to-day only but for to-morrow, not only for you but for your children born and unborn, and the promises we make will be carried out as long as the sun shines above and the water flows in the ocean” (Crown promises during treaty negotiations in 1880) This right of First Nations to educate current and future generations of First Nations peoples is part of the inherent right of self-determination which has been recognized not only in international declarations and conventions like UNDRIP, but also in domestic treaties between the Crown and Indigenous Nations. While not every treaty includes specific reference to education, the treaty relationship between the Crown and First Nations extends far beyond individual treaties. The Crown relied on the cooperation and support of Indigenous Nations to survive in our territories, to prosper from our trading networks, and to survive numerous military incursions from other European competitors and have thus already received their treaty benefit. 32 Whether promises were written, oral or understood through long-term policy decisions or actions, First Nations have a treaty right to education. It is time we were able to fully enjoy our treaty benefits. From early alliances to the Royal Proclamation of 1763, Kaswénta or the Two-Row wampum, the 1764 Treaty at Niagara, and the specific individual treaties, the fundamental principles upon which the treaty relationship was based, like recognition of sovereignty, nationhood and title to lands, 31 Indigenous Knowledge, supra note 2 at 14. 32 RCAP, supra note 6. J. Borrows, “Wampum at Niagara: The Royal Proclamation, Canadian Legal History, and Self-Government” in M. Asch, ed., Aboriginal and Treaty Rights in Canada: Essays on Law, Equity, and respect for Difference (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1997) 155 [Wampum at Niagara]. Chiefs of Ontario 8
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