Blue Quills First Nations College

1. Leadership & Management Program Blue Quills First Nations College

2. Blue Quills is an independent Indigenous institution. Mandated is to advance & protect indigenous knowledge and thought through education, research, and community service. Blue Quills First Nations College

3. to be effective leaders in our communities and in business, we need to be whole healthy human beings Blue Quills First Nations College

4. Responsive to community demand, and industry while grounded in natural law, spiritual practice, ceremony, ethics Blue Quills First Nations College

5. Program Development is responsible to Seven Generations Research is Ceremony Teaching is a sacred responsibility Blue Quills First Nations College

6. Land Language Ceremony Relationship Blue Quills First Nations College

7. In all aspects of life, - family, community, business - we need to learn 4 things as human beings: honour the mystery of Creation get along with others do/ make things think & understand Spiritual Emotional Physical Mental Blue Quills First Nations College

8. We acknowledge the ceremonial fire at the centre of all we do, we honour our Mother the Earth, and the Natural Laws of Loving Humble Kindness, Honesty, Sharing, and Spiritual Strength and Determination. Blue Quills First Nations College

9. We know that to sustain the next generation, we need to live what we know SUSTAINING LIFE – leaving something for the next seven generations. Blue Quills First Nations College

10. We know that ceremony and art are avenues to opening heart and spirit. Students participate in creative activity, not to become artists, but to apply the skills to creative thinking, decision making, idea generation, and human relations. Blue Quills First Nations College

11. It is time now to do our own educating our own way, to advance Indigenous Knowledge, Indigenous research careers, and Indigenous communities. Blue Quills First Nations College

12. Our knowledge systems include economics, technology, wealth distribution, politics, and some of the most sophisticated methods of social structure and practice. Blue Quills First Nations College

13. Guidance is given by kihteyak, our Elders. They serve as professional consultants on ceremony, protocol, Indigenous knowledge, philosophy, research methods, language acquisition methods, and translation. Blue Quills First Nations College

14. But first, we need to understand colonization and decolonization: students experience life transformations when they understand the colonial process, the residential school experience and the intergenerational effects of trauma. Blue Quills First Nations College

15. Our students: a strong sense of self, grounded in traditional ancestral knowledge, strong enough to be who they are in this world. I sense the things I want to accomplish in the future will not be effective if I don’t work on myself. I can Vision being a leader. Blue Quills First Nations College

16. The best thing about the L & M Program: is the life skills that I have picked up along my learning journey; understanding oneself by changing, and realizing you cannot change others. Blue Quills First Nations College

17. I now know who I am – an education warrior. And what I need to do – hunt for my people through education Blue Quills First Nations College

18. “why isn’t everyone doing this?” Business clients have said they have changed the way they do business after training with us. Blue Quills First Nations College

19. We know that our knowledge has sustained us for time immemorial. The only way we will sustain our selves into the future is to live what we know. Blue Quills First Nations College

20. It takes a certain amount of obsession to be who you are Lee Maracle Blue Quills First Nations College

21. Our Elders say, education is the new buffalo, then perhaps our entrepreneurs are our new hunters. And in the hunt, the honour and responsibility is in the sharing and giving. Blue Quills First Nations College

22. Without talking about money, can we talk about what this will do for our community? Instead of talking about the dollars we can make, let’s talk about the difference we can make. Blue Quills First Nations College

23. Perspective We look through our own lens at the knowledge of the business world around us. Indigenous learning methods offer students a sense of ownership of the knowledge, and alignment with our traditional knowledge, bphilosophies and practices. Blue Quills First Nations College

24. Business Education Plus All of the standard Business Courses through our own lens Plus Cree Identity, Language, Life Ways, Treaties & Governance, Historical Impacts, Contemporary Issues, Indigenous Leadership Paradigms. Blue Quills First Nations College

25. RELATIONSHIPS – wakohtowin, all our relations and with all of creation. BALANCE in everything we do, integrating our personal and professional lives, our community and business responsibilities. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS: Are our people honoured? What is the spiritual dimension of the venture? SYSTEMS THEORY – how structures influence our thinking and decision making. Blue Quills First Nations College

26. Those communities that are richest in their artistic tradition are also those that are the most progressive in their economic performance and most resilient and secure in their economic structure. John Kenneth Galbraith, economist Blue Quills First Nations College

27. We know that our approach to leadership and management education with experiential learning grounded in traditional knowledge, prepares our students for any workplace.

28. Our students have strength in the key employability skills identified by the Conference Board of Canada: Communication, thinking & problem solving, positive behaviours, responsibility, adaptability, learning culture, teamwork, and participation. Blue Quills First Nations College

29. Elders say business is ceremony where there is no competition, but a responsibility to serve all our relations and to ensure that the knowledge is passed on to the next generation. Blue Quills First Nations College

30. Our graduates are working: band council tribal law/ policy development marketing, sales & fundraising small business/ program management research administration consulting & advising master’s degree graduates 100% percent employment Blue Quills First Nations College

31. A tension has always existed between the capitalist imperative to maximize efficiency at any cost and the moral imperatives of culture which historically have served as a counterweight to the moral blindness of the market. This is another example of the cultural contradictions of capitalism — the tendency over time for the economic impulse to erode the moral underpinnings of society. Michael Pollan Blue Quills First Nations College

32. A spirit comes into the world dancing, dancing into the world, ... and dances out when we are done our work. We are not a dying people. We have so much to offer, so much to live for. Edna Manitawabi, Anishinabe Blue Quills First Nations College

33. Blue Quills First Nations College Box 279 St Paul, Alberta, Canada T0A 3A0 Treaty Six Territory 780-645-4455 www.bluequills.ca sherric@bluequills.ca