Indigenous Stream

Building on an opportunity as the Early Childhood Pedagogies Network’s (ECPN) Indigenous Stream, the First Nations Pedagogies Network (FNPN) of the BC Aboriginal Child Care Society is a unique program of gathering, developing and sharing distinctly First Nations ways of supporting children, families, cultures and communities. Shared commitments with ECPN—to the inventions and ethics of pedagogy—are generative of work in all streams of the ECPN, as are cross-network collaboration and sharing.

The First Nations Pedagogies Network (FNPN) brings together, coordinates and supports the work of First Nations equivalents of ‘Pedagogists’ to work with each other, Elders, First Nations early childhood education programs (those existing and those being created) and First Nations families and communities to realize, affirm, extend and secure distinctly First Nations promise and practice in early learning and child care (ELCC). Born in respectful partnership, FNPN is subject to Indigenous laws, the Indigenous Early Learning and Child Care Framework and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (now law in BC).

Six Indigenous ‘pedagogists’ are working in the guidance and collaboration of First Nations communities throughout BC to strengthen First Nations ELCC in diversity, continuity and innovation as the pilot cohort of the FNPN. Through their six distinct Pathways, these professionals are laying the groundwork for the network’s expansion beyond.

An FNPN website has been launched and showcases the work of Indigenous ‘pedagogists’ as they work in communities to create spaces of sharing, celebration, provocation and affirmation. For more information, please contact graham@acc-society.bc.ca