'8ways

is something that grew out of a particular ethic, a way of working

that goes beyond cultural awareness, cultural sensitivity and even cultural
responsiveness. It is all about relational responsiveness, a protocol of
attending to relational obligations to the field you're working in, relating
and responding holistically to people, land, culture, language, spirit and the
relationships between these with integrity and intellectual rigor. 8ways is a
point of entry into this way of knowing. It is a way to develop relationally
responsive practice in the way you work with your Aboriginal community'

The 8 Aboriginal Ways of Learning is an informative website providing a
scaffolding for incorporating basic Aboriginal perspectives into the classroom
and Aboriginal education. The 8Ways of Learning in Aboriginal Culture is seen
through:
1. Approaching learning through narrative, stories, histories and songs.
2. Explicitly mapping/ knowledge processes, navigating mental landscapes and
visual records.
3. Applying intra-personal and kinesthetic skills to thinking and learning,
instinctive ancestral knowledge, signing, body language and communicative
silences.
4. Using images, symbols, signs, pictures, messages, designs and metaphors to
understand concepts and content.
5. Place-based learning, linking content to local land and place, focusing on the
knowledge and connection to the land, waters, climate, skies, plants, animals and
place.
6. Producing innovations and understanding by thinking laterally or combining
systems, incorporating non-linear creative ideas, circular logic, indirect
processes and adaptive capacity.
7. Modeling and scaffolding, working from wholes to parts (watch then do). A
holistic knowledge, balance of communal and individual needs approach.
8. Centering local viewpoints, applying learning for community benefit including
a kinship, community, culture based and communal governance, knowledge and
ownership.
These teaching values, systems, protocols and processes are integral to the
education of Aboriginal culture to all students whether of Indigenous decent or
not, and should be integrated into the mainstream schooling system.

8 Aboriginal Ways of Knowing. (2009). 8Ways. Retrieved from
http://8ways.wikispaces.com/