Our Dreams Matter Too: First Nations Children’s Report to the United Nations

(From First Call:)   
This amazing report was written by First Nations children and supported with letters by non-Aboriginal children too.  The 38 letters written by children in this report talk about the inequities in First Nations education and how these impact their futures. The report asks the UN to study the inequities and urge Canada to take immediate action. From the news release:
 
The report was inspired by First Nations youth education activist Shannen Koostachin, founder of the Shannen’s Dream campaign for safe and comfy schools and equitable education, and convened by a group of students from Attawapiskat First Nation and Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation called the “Dream Team.” The report, supported by the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada and the Office of the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth [Ontario], includes letters from First Nations students across Canada on how the under-funding of schools and education on reserve impacts them and their futures.  Many of the letters echo this statement by Chelsea Edwards, youth spokesperson for the Shannen’s Dream campaign, “Just like Rosa Parks as she started the civil rights movement, we have been sitting at the back of the school bus our entire lives. It was Shannen who rose and walked to the front of the bus, with the company of many children. The back was not a place where we wanted to be, where NO ONE should be.” 
 
French, Cree and Oji-Cree versions of the report are coming soon. Copies of the report and more information about Shannen’s Dream are available at www.shannensdream.ca.