Traditional Education Of Aboriginal People

“Indigenous peoples' is a collective name for the original peoples of North America and their descendants. Often, ‘Aboriginal peoples' is also used. The Canadian Constitution recognizes three groups of Aboriginal peoples: Indians (more commonly referred to as First Nations), Inuit and Métis. These are three distinct peoples with unique histories, languages, cultural practices and spiritual beliefs.” (Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada). Aboriginal people are comprised of about 4.3% of the total Canadian population and are made of three main groups: First Nations 65%, Metis 30%, and Inuit 4%. Due to the diversity found in Aboriginal cultures, 60 languages found to have belonged to 12 distinct language families (Zapotichna, 2015, p. 98 & 99). Their system of education can be defined as, “ a system of empirical and pedagogical knowledge, methods, principles and skills, formed by the indigenous inhabitants of Canada in the pre-colonial period and based on ethno cultural characteristics of Aboriginal peoples that were effectively used in the process of training and educating the younger generations.” (Zapotichna, 2015, p. 99, para. 5). Traditional education of Aboriginal people was depended on their language, culture, the territories they lived in, and the experiences of the Elders and senior populations. It becomes increasingly difficult to …show more content…
The Elders, parents, and community in general were the integral part of them. The most important philosophy of Aboriginal culture is their belief in the spirituality of everything that surrounds them. They believe that all living creatures have a spirit and are supposed to live in harmony while taking from them only what is required for survival. This concept of harmony differentiates them from Europeans who believed in the dominance of men over every other creature (Zapotichna, 2015, p. 100, para.