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| Protocol: Many stories, ceremonies and dances are sacred and can only be shared under special circumstances that have the direct authorization from the family or band Elders. All of the stories that will be brought to these events, whether they are filmed or not will have first been approved by an Elder as this is the protocol. |
| Reading, or being read to: In general, researchers have found that reading, or being read to, (apart from as required by school) can have a positive impact on a child's education outcomes, particularly his or her reading skills (e.g., Sénéchal and LeFevre, 2002, Cooks and Willms, 2002). |
The A is for Aboriginal Project brings numerous strategies to promote early childhood literacy in the Aboriginal community. The strategies include literature review and background research, community asset mapping, creative writing, children’s literature and music publishing, focus groups and workshops, an interactive story portal, collaborative tools and production templates for children’s authors and illustrators as well as the creation of a number of small community libraries in Vancouver.
The project goal is to identify and acquire, create, promote, distribute and make available Aboriginal centric children’s literature and other resources to young families and single parents in Vancouver. As well, certain components of the project will be accessible through an Internet Portal – ‘The Story Portal’ so as to extend the reach of the project to Aboriginal communities and young families outside the Vancouver region.
Recognizing that the best time to begin reading to a child is in infancy and that there is a need for more aboriginal centric material the project team has come up with a unique multi-dimensional plan that involves the aboriginal community, native musicians and artists as well as other professional media artists, writers, programmers and communicators.
The project will produce four First Nations Readers, one of which (Working Title: “A is for Aboriginal”) that has a music CD included and will be published as a Children’s Book/Music CD.
A children’s book with accompanying music CD can have tremendous reach. What is unique about this approach and how this will be delivered is that the rhythm track, the scoring, musical notation and lyrics are all available independently so that the parent, sibling or other family member can sing along while they read the story, write their own lyrics or even record their own voices to the music. This expands and opens the experience to a different level and this approach has been successful in the marketplace as well as having been used as a fund raising tool for schools and non-profits.
There will be a full time researcher on the project to review early childhood, aboriginal centric literature available on the market today. Part of the mandate for the researcher is to make a recommended reading list based on specific criteria in terms of cultural sensitivity, originality, family, peer and academic review.
The research will help in aiding the creative process for the authoring of the First Nations Reader Series as well as developing guidelines for the resources section of the Story Portal. There is a tremendous amount of good and useful information out there for young parents and their families. A resource that focuses on the issue of Aboriginal early literacy can benefit from the work that has already been done in this area. For example:
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| The Book/Music CD model was inspired by singer/songwriter/author Connie Kaldor’s Juno Award winning combination book/CD. “A Duck in New York City.” This unique production also won the prestigious Parents’ Choice Award - Gold (2004). This mixed media production is the latest development in Children’s book publishing and is a perfect medium for the first title in the First Nation’s Reader Series. |
