Aboriginal Enhancement Agreement: Looking ahead to five more years

Story pole raising at Grand Forks Secondary School in May 2011 was part of the aboriginal education program supported by the aboriginal enhancement agreement in SD51. Photo by Mona Mattei.

Aboriginal education has never looked better in Boundary School District 51 (SD51).

With aboriginal student graduation rates at an all time high, a diverse selection of aboriginal education programs in place and more to come, SD51 and the Boundary Aboriginal Education Council is looking ahead to signing a new agreement this coming June.

Five years ago the Boundary School District and the Boundary Aboriginal Education Council -- which is composed of members from the Boundary Metis Association, the Boundary All Nations Aboriginal Council (BANAC) and parents of aboriginal students -- entered into an agreement to develop and implement an Aboriginal Enhancement Agreement for the school district to provide focus to aboriginal funding allocation and goals.

The key areas the agreement focuses on are in improving aboriginal student achievement in reading and numeracy; to increase awareness, knowledge and respect for aboriginal culture so students with aboriginal ancestry will have an enhanced sense of belonging and pride in their aboriginal ancestry; and to improve secondary school completion rates.

In the past six years, aboriginal student graduation completion rates have gone from 69 per cent in the 2005-2006 school year, to 86.7 per cent in 2010-2011 (the entire student graduation rate for the district was 94 per cent last year).

Maxine Ruzicka, director of instruction for SD 51 and a huge supporter of the agreement, said in the past there was often a "twenty point spread" between aboriginal and non-aboriginal graduation rates.

"We're looking forward to signing again," said Danny Williamson, vice president of BANAC and president of the Metis Association . "We're pleased with the agreement. We've built some really good relationships with teachers and the school board."

"I'm really glad to see aboriginal kids graduation rates going up significantly. There still needs to be work on it, but our number one goal was to get them through."

The agreement isn't about more funding, but the allocation of existing funds. The School District receives about $1,000 per aboriginal student a year from the provincial government. Instead of that money -- which was about $350,000 last year -- going into the general coffers, it is directed into achieving the goals of the agreement while also providing cultural understanding for all school district students.

The new agreement will be framed by a medicine wheel

Now on the heels of the agreement's fifth anniversary, the district and local aboriginal groups are ready to sign on for another five year committment in June of this year.

Williamson said they were so thorough with the first agreement, that updating the new one shouldn't take too much tweaking.

Williamson likes the all in approach of the agreement, where aboriginal education is not just for aboriginal students. He said that once everyone was involved, including a buddy system where an aboriginal student was allowed to invite a non-aboriginal student along with them for special classes, students and teachers really jumped on board.

"That barrier (of non aboriginal students not feeling included) has been knocked right out of the way," said Williamson, whose own children attend SD 51.

The agreement has also emphasized local aboriginal talent, where before the agreement that was rare, said Williamson.

"When we have aboriginal people come in to do an activity with the kids, they bring an element of aboriginal spirituality along with it," said Ruzicka. "(The new agreement) will be about building awareness and deepening the understanding in all our kids."

As Williamson says, the new agreement won't be much different than the original.

Ruzicka would agree. There will be less large changes and more small ones.

"I'm not sure if we'll be doing such big goals (was was found in the original agreement) but there is a desire to go deeper into the cultural understanding we've started," said Ruzicka.

There will be one major exception. This agreement will be based on the medicine wheel. The medicine wheel is used as a visual guide with four quadrants representing balance. A wheel can represent many things including the stages of life and is also used in Restorative Justice.

The four quadrants in the agreement will be about building and maintaining spirituality, intellect and physical health in students. The spiritual quadrant is more about understanding deeper cultural meanings than religious meanings.

Ruzicka said surprisingly, the agreement has already been operating with a similiar balance as what the wheel suggests.

"(Participants at a recent meeting) were amazed to see our wheel is pretty balanced in those areas," said Ruzicka.

In the past five years the district has hosted numerous district-wide aboriginal education events including the Frog Mountain Legend of the Sinixt People, the building of community drums, a story pole raising at Christina Lake and then at Grand Forks Secondary School.

"As each year goes by we can bring in more depth and understanding into what our kids are getting," said Ruzicka.

An aboriginal enhancement agreement isn't just about education. It is about acknowledgement. Historically this region has had no one aboriginal group claiming this territory, nor has there been a reserve. So, culturally speaking there has been less opportunity for aboriginal cultural growth and support in the Boundary.

In 1995 about three per cent of SD51 students claimed aboriginal status. Slide ahead a decade and in the 2005-2006 school year about 19 per cent of the SD51 student population claimed aboriginal status. Today 25 per cent, or 350 kids, claim the same status. The increase isn't so much about more aboriginal people moving into the boundary, as it is about more people claiming status and being proud of who they are.

BANAC was established because of the Aboriginal Enhancement Agreement and the group includes all people of aboriginal ancestory.

Over the next five months, the Boundary Aboriginal Education Council is meeting to hammer out the final version of the agreement. They will also be getting input from students, staff and the public before a final agreement is put together and signed in June.

To view the entire Aboriginal Enhancement Agreement visit: www.sd51.bc.ca/abed/pdf/Ab%20Ed%20Ehancement%20Agreement%20FINAL.pdf. To see the Aboriginal Education Report for 2010-2011 visit www.sd51.bc.ca/abed/Report%20July%202011%20FINAL.pdf.