Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure today to celebrate the launching of the Aboriginal Head Start child-centred curriculum. I visited the Aboriginal Head Start Centre in Ndilo last week and spent some time with Reanna Erasmus, chair of the Western Arctic Aboriginal Head Start Council. Reanna is very excited and proud of this Aboriginal Head Start curriculum, and rightly so. It is history in the making.
Aboriginal Head Start is an early intervention program for Aboriginal children and their families. It was introduced in 1995 to enhance child development for Aboriginal children. There are eight Aboriginal Head Start programs in the NWT: Fort McPherson, Fort Providence, Fort Smith, Hay River, Inuvik, Paulatuk, Behchoko and Ndilo.
The Western Arctic Aboriginal Head Start Council was established in 1998, and in 2009 the council began the process of creating a made-in-the-North Aboriginal Head Start curriculum. They realized that having such a curriculum would make it easier to deliver better quality programs. It would create a framework for staff that would provide consistent programming across the eight centres, and be a guide for new staff to follow. The council also recognized one of the most important features of early childhood curriculums: that children learn through play.
On October 16, 2012, the first edition of Aboriginal Head Start child-centred curriculum was launched in Ndilo. This curriculum is the result of more than a decade of research and development, with researchers, people at the community level, the GNWT and the federal government. The curriculum is designed to allow each Aboriginal Head Start site to build its own program through six components: Aboriginal culture and language, education and school readiness, parental and family involvement, health promotion, nutrition, and social support.
This first edition pilot curriculum is intended to be a model for other Aboriginal Head Start programs across Canada, and the plan is to market the curriculum to raise funds to develop a teacher’s guide for this curriculum. The curriculum is already getting attention across North America. It is a product made in the North, by Northerners, for Northerners to help meet the needs of NWT children.
Congratulations to the Western Arctic Aboriginal Head Start Council on this achievement. Thank you to them for your vision and initiative to produce this valuable educational resource.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
