Our education will include Our Elders.
The first step, I would pay Elders to be teachers of self-determination. Our history is that we have a whole lot of Elders that we really need to hear their stories and we need to hear the lessons.
Our education will include Our Elders.
My aana has a story where she went to boarding school at 13 when she was, that's right around the age where you learn how to make maklak, hard bottom maklak. And she made one side and then got sent to school. So she has like this wound to that feeling of trying to finish her other side maklak, it's just like, because she associates it with leaving home essentially. So she had to really work on kind of reclaiming and recovering to make her like, finish that pair she started at 13 so that her grandkids can start learning.
Our education will include Our Elders.
With my son, he's in the immersion class and they bring in Elders. And I love the idea that all his classmates, all of them are learning how to be around Elders. Not everybody's got Elders at home, including us. And, and so it's just being around Elders just brings kind of a sense of calmness and we all quickly learn like, you've gotta slow down to an extent. You've gotta listen. Cause if they're going to tell you to do something, you better do it.
Our education will include Our Elders.
Why do schools not bring more Elders in? I have the answer, at least from my experiences. Because every teacher is, is so worried about having enough time to get their curriculum done because they have a list of things that they must get done to be accountable to principal, superintendent, and the parents. That's like, I'm not gonna give up a week of my classroom to do this, then I don't have enough time in the day. Cause I have all these standards I have to meet and to prove it to the principal and all the people…We think our content is the most important and we're not going to worry about bringing anyone else to take our precious time. So the question is - I know that's real for me when I was doing it, I know it was real for others cause we had conversations - How do you ease the tension of educators to make them more receptive to letting these lifelong teachers come into the classroom to continue the knowledge of what the Elders have to pass on?
It's almost like incentivizing for them to be able to do that, incorporating Elders into that curriculum.
And the question is: are the content makers and standard makers willing to skim, trim some of the crap and the fat and say, okay now we're going to focus on what's relevant in this school district, which is this culture, this culture, that one, whatever...so if you want the State of Alaska involved, that's the question you've gotta ask them.
Our youth will learn from Elders.
My brain keeps twirling around wanting to see an Elder invited to every classroom, not necessarily to be an aid, but just to be there and be present and be the person that if a child is having a meltdown or a rough day, that they can just go sit with them and do what they need to do and have that individual attention.
Our youth will learn from Elders.
There's this time in high school I had my Alaskan Native Studies teacher. He came from California and I was like, just really upset with him because for one, he's an Alaskan Native studies teacher. He couldn't pronounce Juneau. And then we got to the ANCSA topic and my aapa played like a really big role within that, and I asked a question and his answer was, I don't know. So I walked out of his class and went to go see my aapa and I got all the answers I needed. So like, if we had multi-generational, like a kid wouldn't have to walk out of their class and go somewhere else. Like there would be like a lot of input. Like this. There's a lot of input. Like from my time, from her time, from his time, from like everybody's time.
Our youth will learn from Elders.
I've done this in classrooms. I actually did it in the fall with an Elder. The topic was fish. The kindergartners were doing this unit called Jammin’ Salmon…This is our Elder in the Classroom. That's what we called it. I said, “Please send me some of your pictures and salmon. This can be when you commercial fish, this can be sport. This can be like growing up, drying fish in the village, anything.” So he sent me all these pictures, compiled a slideshow. This is an example of working with an Elder to share their story in a public school system. His part of this process the whole time. Put together the slideshow. I add some text, to reinforce what's happening in the classroom. And he approves it. You know, we've gone through signed consent, intellectual property belongs to him only what he wants to be shared will be shared, photo consents are signed. He comes in, we introduce him, and I'm going through the pictures on the slide show. These are kindergartners by the way. And he goes through and starts telling his stories about salmon. Kindergartners, five to six years old, typically they have about 20 minutes of attention. These kids were attentive to him, his stories were 40 minutes. They were enthralled with his stories, his pictures, he brought in a fishing pole. He taught them about snagging and picking up the lures from the people that don't pick up their lures. So he was sharing environmental stewardship and conservation. All of these things communicated through his stories. I could've written out these objectives, these goals that were addressed for the teacher. But so much of what happened was through his stories. And we both entered into the Elder classroom visit knowing that that structure is extremely effective.
Our youth will learn from Elders.
They're not taught to ask questions [in school] anymore…I feel like you can't ask questions when you're surrounded by your peers. You need your grandmother, you need your aunt or uncle. You need that older person that might know more or you think knows more.
Our youth will be uplifted by Our Elders.
...as far as involving our Indigenous youths and from our villages is to have council or Elder nomination of youth for communities where, you know, it's known that youth will stay and contribute to the community. And I haven't done this yet, but to request a youth who would be a good fit for, you know, like coming to APMI and learning about shellfish production particularly the badarki populations are dwindling and it's affecting this food source. You know, so trying to tap into that. Cause a lot of times they think our Elders and our Tribal councils have an idea who would be a good fit for these roles before the young people know they are a fit for them.
Our youth will be uplifted by Our Elders.
I would say we've just seen it increase over the last year in Elder participation in the right way. We currently just recently assigned a MOU with Denakkanaaga to work with our programs and to also provide professional and cultural guidance to our entire school district. But we've been partnering with RurAL CAP and other organizations that have Elders in the schools and we've got some feedback last week that there are children that are actually coming to school just to be, they might not be in the classroom yet, but they're just coming to be and talk and just be in that space and they're working their way back to the classroom. So it's really exciting to hear those things.
Our youth will be uplifted by Our Elders.
I took the Alaska Native language class offered here all throughout last year. And I didn't continue it this year mainly because I already had that resources set up and so I didn't need it as an actual class. But I think if we could have more of that and maybe more like Elders coming in to actually communicate in that language, I think that'd be - that's what I want to see at least.
Our youth will learn from family and community members.
...the village of Perryville is Sugpiaq people who originated from Katmai. And so I started my teaching career, really picking and realizing that, picking apart and realizing that the education system in Alaska, and I would venture to just say the education system in general, did not serve the population of people that was supposed to be supporting and representing. And so I learned a lot from the Elders and the community members in Perryville and incorporated a lot of, as much as I could, cultural lessons, not myself, but Elders and culture bearers did. I opened my classroom up for Elders and women in the community to come bead. And this was a time, this was probably one of the most impactful, educational experiences for me to have that intergenerational learning happening with my students, with their emaas and their apaas and, and then everybody in between. And this impacted me greatly. And it, it actually angered me…that stuck with me. And I remember thinking like, I, I can't support the public school system.
Our youth will learn from family and community members.
We would make sure that the youth are in the center and then the Elders are really close so that they would have easy access to the youth. We drew a youth that’s empowered. Like she has got like a hat to the side and some earrings and a drum. She has moccasins and she has some virtual reality. That is how she is getting her education.
Our communities will heal.
There won't be such a large separation of the whole. Like Barrow gets everything. We get nothing. Like everyone will be able to come together and it won't be an argument.
Our communities will heal.
A lot of times we've seen through the MAP program that people get discouraged and they find it very challenging. And just even fitting it in your daily schedule, that could be a challenge just in itself. And you feel like you're fighting uphill a lot of times. And you know, that you're isolated. It can feel like that. And then also as you're entering into this language learning journey, things come up that you didn't anticipate. Really the source of that is this multi-generational trauma of losing the languages. One learner I recall didn't realize that her mom really was a fairly good speaker. She grew up her whole life, and here she is an adult and she has a child of her own. She didn't realize in all that time that her mom knew a great deal of the language just because it was not being shared and not encouraged.
That was a really powerful, just hearing her story, the image that she got in her mind, and she thought she was gonna learn just a few expressions or some vocabulary and it turned into this almost life-changing experience and the image that as a mother herself, she saw this vocal chord to her child, to her mother, to her grandmother, to all the generations back. This kind of a multi-generational transmission of the language. And, you know, that connection there and her role in passing that on, you know, that was, that was just a beautiful, powerful image that she shared with us. And I just thought, you know, when you begin learning these languages, there's just so much that comes up that you don't really anticipate. But the important message is if you're a learner, you're not alone. There's others who are also going through that process. We have this whole cohort now of mentor apprentice teams that have this shared experience and we can share with others. We're opening up applications through the end of this month for a second cohort. And so we just want to keep those, this effort moving.
Our youth will have parents that prioritize language.
The big kind of group that we're trying to get with the Mentor Apprentice Program is Gen X, like parents who didn't have their parents speaking at home. But because this kind of realization or desire to learn languages is something that's probably come back in the last like 20 years, maybe even less. And so they're the kind of generation who are growing up and say, I have young school kids. And so if they have the opportunity to learn in school, that's wonderful. But they also need to be able to go home and maintain that. So if we can get the parents involved then that's moving up again. And then with the Mentor Apprentice Program, their mentors are going to be once again the other generations. So through these we're going through at least three generations of people. So yeah, I think that that means that in 20, 30 years, those kids will have a lot more opportunities, at least and resources available to them. So yeah, kudos and props to the generations that are kind of like in between starting. They have probably the hardest time right now just trying to get people involved with it so that they can provide it for their kids and their futures too.
Our youth will have parents that prioritize language.
My mom made a really big impact on me as a little kid because we would go travel to the villages, she taught Alutiiq to the villages through distance or in person. She'd take me when I was a baby, and then she was running Dig Afognak. She got pregnant with me and then it was like, “Okay, my baby's two. She can handle it.” And we went so every summer I went to Dig Afognak, which is our culture camp. And at that time there were probably ten Elders or five Elders going to every single camp. And so my mom was a manager and I was blessed to be left with the Elders anytime she was too busy and someone else couldn't watch me. And they enjoyed it. They were very young at that point. And so it was really cool cause I'll be 20 this week and most of them were like 60, 50 then. But anyway, so I got to hear the language a lot when I was little and I really have noticed how much that impacts me with my speaking. And from there I hit elementary school. I would still go to camp every summer. I went to camp every summer until COVID hit, from age two to COVID, which did a lot for me.
Our education will feel like home.
And even having multiple generations like multiple grades in the classroom, like in a lunchroom together. When you go into the lunchroom years ago, I don't know if it's still like this or not, but the high schoolers had lunch with the little kids. And the little kids, it was like their sisters and brothers and they would just go sit in their lap and they just like, they were at home. Like it was a home setting and home environment, you know, where the older kids could care for the younger kids and also show care. You know, that that's not something that always necessarily happens in a school like that kind of love that you, family love in this spaces.
Our education will feel like home.
If learning systems were multi-generational, I would imagine there was some sort of at-home component where families are learning together, maybe like over dinner and you have kids and parents and grandparents and it's not necessarily like a formal structured classroom, but they're taking those learning systems and putting them more in the home for the whole family to learn and interact with.
Our youth will teach us.
That it's multi-generational - that the younger kids are learning from older kids, older kids are learning from the younger kids. Elders are teaching, you know, Elders are learning from kids in some ways.
Our youth will teach us.
If we want to be a culturally relevant charter school, the contemporary culture of Alaska Native young people is not necessarily what everybody assumes it is.
And so the way the adults are thinking about this stuff and the way the youth are thinking about this, there's this huge chasm and it's like constantly growing. Whether you're talking about issues of gender and sexual identity, critical race theory. Like these guys are like, what are these adults flipping out about?
Our stories will will be told over time.
We took a group of kids to meet with Wilson Justin, and he just talks like a poet and I had said, you know, we've got a couple hours. He had said, “How long we have?” “We've got a couple hours.” We went up to his cabin at Twin Lakes and the first thing he said was, “You know, most stories in my culture take a couple days, so I guess I can do this in a couple hours.”
Our youth will dream about bettering our communities.
So you can see how they kind of follow each other. She's empowered in her culture and uniqueness in music and culture. And then you can kind of see how there's a laptop and a cap and diploma. So, just how the education changed. And then there's the Ahtna Gas Station. So in the communal living, we have our own gas station, and then...the feature of - instead of housing, creating all these houses for rent for us, that maybe they're our programs that kids get started in while they're still in school. And it's like, maybe it's an incentive and you build it up over the years.
Our education will connect Elders and youth.
There's also a community for Elders, right? So then I guess we're not divided by our Tribes anymore. Maybe cause we can have our Elders in one place and it's like “oh, I'm gonna go visit the Elders, right? We're gonna go have lunch with the Elders.” And maybe there's a playground there, you know?
Our education will include everyone.
One beautiful thing about Elders is you can adopt, you can adopt Elders. Right? You don't have grandma, grandpa. That's okay. You don't have aunties, uncles. That's okay. Somebody else in the community. I'm very grateful for that.
Our youth will learn from their family.
Jerica, she's carried on the Iñupiaq Land Use Resources Camp. And it's a two week camp every year in the summertime. There are students as young as 16. There's teachers, there's Elders, there's everyone that comes together and...multiple generations do learn. And when we were kids, because my aaka taught, she taught the class. We used to go to the camps with her all the time...it was really cool cause we got to meet all kinds of people and learn and all these different experiences there. You know, everyone has their own experiences and that's what fuels them.
Our communities will teach our teachers how to teach our students.
We would create the opportunity to teach our teachers how to teach our students...Like she's talking about when she asked about her aapa around ANCSA. So if you have the California teacher that can't pronounce Juneau, trying to teach ANCSA, so why not get somebody that was involved with ANCSA in the classroom to talk about the creation of the North Slope Borough or ASRC or ASNA or UIC or whatever. I mean, the resources exist in the community and I think it's criminal to me.
I was so mad. I think I skipped that class for the rest of the year and the teacher asked me like, "Hey, where have you been?" "Learning from my aapa."
Well I hate to say this, but it was time well spent, you made the right decision because he can't, there's nothing he could have taught you. Not with the system that was in place.
You're printing these papers out for your class and I'm going to the website you went to and the answers are on there.
Our Peoples will feel safe and welcome in schools.
If it reflected community you'd have multiple generations from the community at the school. When I was in White Mountain and their lunch program had the Elders lunch program open with the school kids. And I was gonna say walking into that lunch was a lot different because you did feel welcome because Elders were eating lunch at the same time as small kids. And so the kids were quieter. I noticed from going to lunch at another school. We have a lot to learn from our village schools.
Our youth will be teachers.
When my daughter was a first year college student, she took an Alaska history class and the person teaching it had no clue what was going on. And graciously when Kayla, the first day said, “I'm sorry, but you're wrong. There's this many regions and there's this. And there's this,” that teacher actually stopped and said, “Well, can you actually go into it?” I mean, they were gracious enough and humble enough to just stop and let that student teach and peer teach. And humbly even said, “This is my first year in Alaska. I literally don't know why I'm teaching this. I know nothing.” But allowed her to go into it. That would be amazing to see in classrooms. To allow that student to teach their peers as well as the adults to accept that knowledge.
Our youth will be welcomed.
When I was at Stebbins, the principal always made coffee for the parents, school kids parents, and they drop them off at school. When you walk in it's the lunchroom and kitchen, so coffee is available for them. So they drop off the kids, go get coffee, and they feel welcome. That’s the only school I've ever felt welcome. That was the only school I felt welcome or parents were, they, they went there so they could go have coffee with other people, other parents in the community, that's where they saw and visit each other.
Our education will be comprehensive.
So you could see this as a representation of what we currently have: silos. We have silos, we have separate places. People are separate, separate in our community. We have X, Y, Z for the Elders. We have, you know, an elementary school for the kids. The high school is out far away, but if you start to look at the connection point in between them as relationships and everybody's responsibility to create relationships across each of those different areas, instead of silos, then it becomes expansive and non contracted...it definitely matters who you have relationships with. It definitely matters who has power in this scenario and who has responsibility.
Our communities will document our Elders' stories.
We have to document what we’re doing now. In our education system we have to document our Elders' stories. We have to make sure we send our kids into the future armed with why we study history because we don’t want to repeat it. How we protect that world for all these young people learning is through language, through teaching true history…and through educating about laws.
Our education will begin with Our Elders.
It really comes down to if we're gonna be reflective of the community and culture, the Native community and culture, it's the source of that knowledge, which is our Elders. I think we've kind of seen that in person here coming to fruition, but also just understand that's what our system is built off of as a learning system from our culture. And of course our culture really is the community and that, you know, there's no real defined limits for that. But I think that that Elder knowledge, obviously, as we all know that's where we get that base information from. But building off of that is gonna be, is key for that piece of the reflection.