"It's limited to the preparedness of those on staff," says Sang, "to be compassionate towards trying to revitalize Hawaiian language. And because we're confined to different federal and state laws, our vision for what we're trying to do sometimes gets pushed to the side. So when it comes down to decision-making, there's a lot of advocacy that goes on outside of the system to try and get the system to understand what we're trying to do. And that's the difficult part, because while the system is required to do the job they don't necessarily have the skills or the buy-in to make the right decision."

There are pluses, however, like access to facilities and Department of Education infrastructure. And the program is working: students are leaving the program as fluent speakers, although there are no statistics on indigenous graduation rates in Hawaii, either.

"I'm pretty confident that the success rate in terms of graduation is relatively high -- I almost want to say 100 per cent. I haven't heard of any teacher or student [who] has failed, but I have heard that students have dropped out," says Sang.

Parental support of education is key: Simon

When it comes to the vitality of traditional language, the Inuit are the exception to the rule: as of 2006, 69 per cent of Inuit could converse in their language, with half speaking it regularly at home. But the majority of Inuit children attend public schools, where the main language of instruction is English or French. This hasn't resulted in a loss of traditional language, but it does prove difficult for students whose first language is Inuit.

Struggles with language only add to the socio-economic issues facing many Inuit families, such as poverty, overcrowded housing, substance abuse and physical and sexual abuse. As a result, 75 per cent of Inuit never finish high school, some of the worst academic outcomes in Canada.

Inuit leaders from across the four Inuit Arctic regions which span northern Canada from Labrador to the Yukon -- Inuvialuit, Nunavut, Nunavik and Nunatsiavut -- came together with the federal, provincial and territorial governments to develop a National Strategy on Inuit Education, released in mid-June.

The strategy calls for mobilizing parent support for education, increasing bilingual (Inuit and English or French) curriculum and instructors, investing in early education, providing external social supports to students, investing in Inuit-centred curriculum and resources, establishing an Inuit writing system, creating an Inuit university and improving methods for measuring and assessing student success.

Mary Simon, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), the national organization representing the Inuit, has targeted results within a decade. "We hope that within five to ten years we will significantly close the gap in high school graduation rates with southern Canada, and experience a corresponding increase in the number of Inuit who graduate from university," Simon wrote in an email to Tyee Solutions Society.

The strategy puts particular emphasis on parental support, saying Inuit organizations and public governments can only do so much to encourage academic success. The rest is up to parents, to motivate and support their child's participation in the school system.

That can be a challenge for some families. "Parents who had negative experiences with the residential school system," Simon observes, "are less likely to be supportive of their children in the current education system. Our National Inuit Education Strategy wants to address this issue by engaging parents in the education of their children, and working with parents to ensure support for students in school."

The plan is still in its early stages. A National Centre for Inuit Education is set to open this fall, followed by the appointment of an Inuit education secretariat to develop the implementation plan, dictating who is responsible for what actions, and its cost. But Simon is confident that will be accomplished by early next year.

Nation to First Nation education aid

Canada's federal government has, to be generous, ground to make up with the country's aboriginal population. It was the Federal Crown that partnered with Christian organizations to introduce residential schools as an overt and nearly successful attempt to erase the "Indian" in children by severing them from their language, culture and families. With the exception of some publicly funded private schools, churches are out of the game today, but the feds still oversee aboriginal education on reserves. And if indigenous education advocates are right, the system they're running is still failing First Nations kids.

That may, finally and perhaps, be about to change. This past June, the Government announced a new partnership with the Assembly of First Nations: a Joint Action Plan for aboriginal education to start with a national panel discussion on that that should entail. The panel has two indigenous representatives -- George Lafond, former chief of the Saskatoon Tribal Council and former special assistant to the federal minister of Indian and Northern Affairs and Caroline Krause, an aboriginal educator formerly with the Vancouver school board and the University of British Columbia's faculty of education -- and one Caucasian, Scott Haldane, president and CEO of YMCA Canada.

The panel has already begun travelling across the country, speaking with aboriginal parents, children, chiefs, councils and elders; regional and national First Nations organizations; the private sector; the provinces; as well as any interested private parties. They're expected to deliver two reports: a mid-way progress report, and a final report with recommendations by 2011.

Here in British Columbia, aboriginal education advocates give the provincial government some credit for recognizing before their federal counterparts that education is something aboriginals need to be involved with. Victoria has made Aboriginal Education Agreements -- pacts signed between school boards and local native governments specifying aboriginal content in school -- mandatory for all 60 B.C. school districts. The Ministry of Education has introduced First Nations English, social studies, and math courses. And they've signed an agreement with the First Nations Education Steering Committee and the federal government that says aboriginals have the right to teach their own children. They even passed an act to solidify the agreement.

"The inclusion of authentic aboriginal histories and knowledge throughout the B.C. curriculum enriches the educational experience of all students. Culturally relevant learning allows for the inclusion of local traditional knowledge, histories and aboriginal languages and is key to improving success and achievement for aboriginal students," a Ministry of Education spokesperson told Tyee Solutions Society via email.

Yet critics say it's still not enough. The provincial government doesn't provide enough funding to adequately support language revitalization programs, for one concern. Few students enrol in First Nations-focused courses in secondary school, in part critics say because the ministry has failed to inform parents and students that the course credits qualify for post-secondary admission. And Aboriginal Enhancement Agreements may be mandatory, but there is no system in place to hold districts to their promises or to measure their progress.

Aboriginal British Columbians are confident they have the knowledge and skills to educate their own children, but not the resources to do so. After years of broken promises from post-colonial governments, matched by broken lives for thousands of First Nations and Métis British Columbians, what's common to these stories of collaboration is that, while indigenous people may have the know-how to bring their children out of the academic shadows, it's much easier on all of us if they don't have to do it alone.

[Find more Rights and Justice reporting on The Tyee.]