Aboriginal Education

Through a grant provided by the Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat, CPCO has developed partnerships and begun to create opportunities for administrators to develop awareness and understanding of the First Nation, Metis and Inuit cultures, histories and perspectives.

The Aboriginal Seven Grandfather teachings:
respect, honesty, bravery, humility, truth, wisdom, and love
are very similar to our Catholic virtues and easily interwoven into the curriculum for all of our Catholic students.

Through a partnership with the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), CPCO has secured a number of spaces in their aboriginal awareness courses in the fall 2009, in Mattawa and is able to offer these spaces to interested principals and vice-principals.  

Dates for courses offered in the Fall 2009:

September 15 - 18  |  September 28 - October 2
October 5 - 9  |  19 - 23  |   26 - 30
November 2 - 6  |  16 - 20

Interested principals and vice-principals should contact Patty Orecchio, CPCO Program Director
at porecchio@cpco.on.ca to register. 

Our partnership with the OPP has also provided CPCO members with access to an exemplary unit for Aboriginal education. Walking the Path is an educational initiative that focuses on teaching Native and non-Native students about the history, beliefs and cultural traditions of Aboriginal peoples. Developed and supported by the Ontario Provincial Police and using Anishnawbe cultural teachings as a foundation, it is designed as a way of providing all students with insight into Native culture, and for Native youth in particular, as a way to instill pride in who they are and where they come from. 

To view the Walking the Path document, click here.

The unit was compiled in 2007 by Emily de Jourdan, B.HSc. Hon, B.Ed, classroom teacher with the Nipissing-Parry Sound Catholic District School Board. The development of this curriculum unit is based on Aboriginal teachings presented by Sgt. George Couchie during classroom presentations at Our Lady of Sorrows School, Sturgeon Falls, Ontario.