Everything that the Indian people do is done in the circle. Because we believe in that Mother Earth is round, the sun is round, the moon is round and we follow those patterns. When we make that circle, that circle becomes sacred, we have more power – whoever is praying, more power is given to them and that circle helps all the people who sit in the circle. Indian people do everything in a circle. If you look around, you’ll notice we do everything in a circle and that’s all Mother Nature’s way.

Her teachings also revealed to us the significance of the Grandfathers, the Medicine Wheel, the Four Directions - South, West, North, East - and prayer within Indian tradition and family life:

...The West is where some of our Grandfathers are. When we have a healing ceremony, that’s the strongest, the West, because Grandfathers come from that. And the black represents the West. And now we have North. White represents the North because the North is where our winter comes from and winter could be harsh and the wind could be harsh. We pray to the Grandfathers to the North to give us strength to live through the four seasons and we come to the East. Red represents the East. From the East we get the sun. The sun comes up. The sun provides for our food. Things grow so that we can live a healthy life. That’s the East. Yellow represents the South. Yellow stands for wisdom. We pray to the Grandfather to the South to give us wisdom. So that is the four directions and the four seasons of Mother Earth. We have a lot of significance to it – these four directions. It’s very sacred to us. Today if we follow all this, we’re going to be stronger people...

...I just know what my grandparents, great grandparents have taught me since I was growing up and this is what I talk about today. Hoping that generations to come and the ones that are not born yet, that they’ll get these messages; that there will be healthy nations to grow as the years come. This is what we pray about morning and night.

The Benchmarks Advisory Committee believes that literacy is an evolutionary process, and that to become literate involves the physical, intellectual, spiritual and emotional aspects of our being. As such, the Circle of Learning model reflects and honours the wisdom and traditional teachings of the Medicine Wheel, as shared by First Nations and Métis Elders and advisers.

On behalf of the Benchmarks Advisory Committee and the Project Management Team, we invite you to come with us on a journey of discovery and learning. Our intention was to create a tool that would inform, guide and assist literacy practitioners and learners. Our overall goal was to find a way to document and recognize learner accomplishments and achievements, and enhance learner transitions between levels and across programs. We hope the document will provide support to organizations, and guide literacy program development, assessment and instruction.

- The Benchmarks Project Management Team