In order to provide an Aboriginal culture-based framework that would guide the project and community through a visioning process, elder Athol Hart shared some medicine wheel teachings with the participants of the community meeting. He reminded them about the gifts of the four directions and how they described four stages of the process of learning. Looking into this “mirror” provided the literacy workers at the meeting with an opportunity to reflect on how far they had come in their work so far. It also helped them envision next steps. (See Appendix A for diagram.)

Utilizing a Culture-Based Approach and Framework

It is our collective belief that if we keep in our minds, take to our hearts, and discern through our spirits the medicine wheel teachings shared so far, we will discern the next action. There are four major partners that need to come into the visioning process. A safe space must be created where all may enter in such a way as to enable everyone to see all that is there and not only what they choose to see there. The place, purpose, process, and package must be as transparent as possible to anyone observing this ceremony in both this world and the next.

If this project is to develop the coordination of culturally appropriate Native literacy services in Toronto, the strategy must utilize an Aboriginal culture-based framework. From the beginning, Native literacy programs have been espousing their ability to design and deliver a holistic program model based on medicine wheel teachings. Demystifying the use of this phrase and demonstrating how such a method can be applied may broaden understanding and facilitate the possible adoption of such an approach. All prospective partners must value a culture-based approach, and appreciate the need to clearly articulate and implement these concepts. “…the concepts behind the medicine wheel, indeed the wheel’s very dynamics, describe the profound and complex principles that distinguish First Nations cultures.”³

Everything we do must be informed by the medicine wheel teachings. “Further application requires commitment to allow for emerging and evolving processes based on a continual review and evaluation, revision and reflection on experiences within the literacy field from extensive dialogue in the field of First Nations literacy, and consultations with elders and traditional teachers. There is no beginning or end to the learning process. Our understanding and application of the model has been and continues to be an evolving process.”⁴