OTTAWA  – First Nations chiefs, elders, students and thousands of their supporters called on the Canadian government to increase funding and support for indigenous students’ education.

First Nations leaders from across the country made education their top priority during the Assembly of First Nations annual meeting in Winnipeg during the summer. As a follow up, the AFN and the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation in Quebec – the largest Algonquin nation in Canada – declared the week of Sept. 19 as the National Week of Action on Education.

The Action Week began Sept. 19 with a walk from Kitigan Zibi Anishiabeg First Nation to Ottawa, about 100 miles away. Events and rallies took place across the country during the week.

First Nations chiefs met with around 40 members of parliament from all parties to present their vision of education for indigenous students and discuss the stakes and issues regarding the future of First Nations education.

“The time has come to go beyond the Indian Act (an 1876 statute by which Canada’s federal government assumed the authority to regulate Indian affairs and lands) and build a new relationship with Canada. A relationship built on mutual respect instead of colonialism,” said Ghislain Picard, chief of the Assembly of First Nations of Québec and Labrador.

The Action Week culminated Sept. 23 with a rally and a cultural celebration on Parliament Hill where AFN National Chief Shawn A-in-chut Atleo, surrounded by chiefs and students, gave a rousing speech, punctuated by applause and cheers from the demonstrators.

Atleo reminded people that it was not just the ancestors of First Nations, but also of Canadians who entered into treaties.

“They sat down with one another and in sacred ceremony calling upon the Creator as witness, forged treaties, treaties that were based on mutual recognition, mutual respect and care for one another. That’s also what we’re looking for today from the descendants of those who forged those treaties so long ago,” Atleo said.

Referring to Canada’s brutal residential schools, Atleo said today’s young people are learning that their parents and grandparents were sent away to schools against the will of their parents and their nations. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a formal apology in 2008 for the residential schools imposed on the country’s indigenous people, but survivors are still scarred by the experience.

“Under the guise of education, under government policy, incredible amounts of money and political will were spent trying to take our languages away, disconnect people from our land, our territory and time spent with the elders. So if education was a tool of oppression, a tool that held our people down, then I ask all of you today, not just those gathered here, but all Canada, shouldn’t education be a tool for freedom for our people, reconnect us with our land, our territories, with our elders?”

In a teleconference with Native media a day after the rally, Atleo, a hereditary chief from the Ahousaht First Nation on Vancouver Island, said the week of action sent a clear message from indigenous leaders to the Canadian government to provide First Nations students with quality and culturally relevant education from early childhood to post-secondary school.

“They’ve been really focused on raising awareness for the need for fairness and equity for our young people,” Atleo said.

The leaders were well armed with data – some of it provided by the federal government – to back up their claims that funding for First Nations students is both inadequate and discriminatory.

The federal government capped First Nations education funding at 2 percent annual growth since 1996 – an amount that does not keep pace with inflation or with the burgeoning indigenous population. A disparity of $2,000 or more per pupil exists between First Nations students and funding non-Native students receive from provincial governments. First Nations schools receive no resources for computers, software, libraries, language immersion or support systems. There is no funding for costs relating to vocational training, sports and recreations, or to reforms in provincial programs.

In some isolated areas of the country, there are no schools at all and in others students have to travel great distances to attend classes. This is where distance learning and other technology could be useful, Atleo said.

But needs go beyond money, he said.

“It’s about compelling Canada to change its approach and recognize our people as being a tremendous potential, not only for First Nations, but for Canada.”

Closing the gap in education and employment for First Nations citizens could result in a contribution to Canada’s Gross Domestic Product of around $179 billion by 2026, Atleo said.

“Canada is really worried right now about how it’s going to respond to the increasing health care demands as the aging mainstream population gets older and needs more health care; that population is creating a big gap in the labor force. So before Canada goes looking elsewhere around the world for people to fill the labor force, let’s look in our own back yard and see this exploding indigenous youth population and let’s support it and invest in their education and their future, and if we do that everyone will win.”

The First Nations education initiative was supported by the Canadian Federation of Students, which represents more than 500,000 post secondary students, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, which represents 172,000 workers, and the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents more than 600,000 workers.