Champion of Indigenous Education Award Guidelines and Instructions
What Full Circle’s Champion of Indigenous Education Award is About:
A Full Circle Champion of Indigenous Education emulates Full Circle’s values:
- We believe all children are a gift from Creator to be nurtured and cherished as they become well-rounded members of society. All children thrive in a learning environment that addresses their
traditions, culture, interests, needs, and diversity. - We believe Indigenous education is for all people. Traditional teachings, worldview, history, and oral
traditions strengthens the quality of education being offered to children and adults alike. - Learning is enhanced in an educational system that promotes, validates, and utilizes what Indigenous
educators bring to the education system. - We believe everyone has a right and a responsibility to address the issues, challenges, and interests of
Indigenous students and educators. When Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators demonstrate
respect, reciprocity, relationship and responsibility for each other, learning can flourish.
What is the Champion of Indigenous Education Award?
Full Circle has a rich history of acknowledging groundbreaking work in Indigenous Education. Our last Awards Gala was on March 6th, 2020, just 2 weeks before COVID-19 hit Winnipeg. This two-year break has given us time to reimagine what these awards could look like and we are offering a reclaimed and traditional way of celebrating each other’s achievements. It is our intention to make every part of this meaningful, educational, traditional, and of course fun!
We are hosting an Awards Pow Wow! The successful candidates will be celebrated at our Full Circle Pow Wow: Honouring Champions of Indigenous Education, on May 28th, 2022.
Ray “Coco” Stevenson will lead us through a Teaching Pow Wow that will explain:
- The parts of a Pow Wow gathering
- The Teachings behind the many different aspects
- What to expect next as you are watching or participating in the event
Four award recipients will be blanketed by Full Circle’s Grandmother and Grandfather and gifted with $1000 for
their efforts in community to champion Indigenous Education.
Want to Apply?
Project/Initiative Requirements:
- The project/initiative must be connected to the Manitoba community.
- The applicant’s initiative(s) must focus on Indigenous ways of knowing, being, seeing, or doing.
- The initiatives must be educationally relevant.
- The initiatives must model creative and innovative ways to inspire learning in Indigenous Education
- There must be a demonstrated personal or educational impact on students, educators, or community to explain how you know your work is championing Indigenous Education
Application Guidelines:
- An award candidate can self-apply or a person of support can apply on their behalf. However, the candidate needs to be involved in the application process, this cannot be a surprise award.
- Only complete applications will be accepted. If you have questions, please contact us at contact@fullcircleindigenous.com.
- Successful candidates must attend Full Circle’s Pow Wow on May 28th, 2022 in order to receive the award. If you anticipate needing help with this part, please let us know in your application so we can work together on this.
- Completed application packages must be submitted by Friday, April 8th at 4:00pm.
Part One: Personal Information
This section asks for the candidate’s name, pronoun and other personal information. This part is important so we know the candidate is living and working in Manitoba, which community they serve and how to get into contact.
Part Two: People of Support
The application requires two people of support for the candidate:
- The first is an adult who works with the candidate and can act like a reference.
- The second is an student, adult, or a representative of a child student or group of students. Students are the people we do it for
Both persons of support should believe in the candidate’s vision, purpose and project. This section requires their name and contact information.
Part Three: Project Description
Each application needs to have a description of your project. The description should not be any longer than 1000 words and must include:
- A short description of what it is the candidate does.
- Who the students are?
- How long has the project/initiative been established
- What inspires the initiative to continue?
- What are some of the challenges the initiative faces?
- What are some of the positive impacts the initiative provides?
Part Four: Testimonials of Support
Both people of support are asked to provide us with a written reference detailing the three points below:
- A description of how and why the candidate is a Champion of Indigenous Education.
- The personal or educational impact their initiative project has had with students, educators or community.
- In what way is this person outstanding in their work? What sets them apart from others?
Student testimonials could be in the form of a letter, drawing or short video (maybe for young children who express best this way), etc. This doesn’t need to be fancy, but needs to respond to the three points above.
Information may be filled in using the form provided, with supporting documents uploaded or sent by email to contact@fullcircleindigenous.com. If sending through email, please keep size limits in mind and keep videos under 5 minutes. This section is where you will upload attachments, and provide a signature from either the candidate or a person of support.
If you have questions about your application, please contact us at: contact@fullcircleindigenous.com.
Part Five: Housekeeping
This part asks for you to look over your application and ensure it is in fact complete. Please make use of the checklist provided.
What happens now?
- Submitted applications will receive a confirmation email.
- A volunteer selection committee will review all applications and recommend which are most fitting with Full Circle’s Champion of Indigenous Education Award beliefs and values. Final decisions will be made by consensus and discussion in a prayer-led way by Full Circle’s Council.
We will contact all the applicants, whether successful or not, by Monday, May 2, 2022. All applicants are welcome to attend the Pow Wow and Full Circle’s Membership, so we can stay in touch until next time!
If you are not a candidate, but would like to volunteer, please let us know! We are always looking for more helpers! You can contact us at contact@fullcircleindigenous.com or our Facebook and Instagram pages.
Deadline for Applications: Friday, April 8th at 4:00pm.