Colours have their own frequencies. What colours do you gravitate toward when you are feeling different emotions? What colours do you surround yourself with when you need a certain energy or emotion? Learners in literacy programs are beginning to recognize their emotions by the colours they use or choose.

Green – the fourth colour of the rainbow, is often interpreted to mean growth, going beyond what is familiar, yet remaining true to the teachings. This allows us to live with respect and humbleness. It is used to represent grass and growing things on Mother Earth. Treaties and understandings with the newcomers often included the phrase, “as long as the grasses grow and the rivers flow.” Green refers to literacy in the languages of the European newcomers to this land a little over five hundred years ago, English and/or French, and which have also been given the status of official languages.

The English and French languages came to this continent only a little over 500 hundred years ago. Yet today, they enjoy the status of official languages. This status means that they are considered to be the language of instruction, except in the territories where some of the Aboriginal languages are considered official in that particular territory.

Literacy practitioners are using literacy in the official languages as a way of reclaiming voice. Larry Loyie and Constance Brissenden have done workshops across Canada to accomplish just that. Larry, a former Learner with the Carnegie Centre in Vancouver, noticed that a lot of books on Aboriginal Peoples were written by non-Aboriginal peoples. He then vowed to be a vehicle for getting Aboriginal Learners to write their own stories. I have here a book entitled Acimowina that is an anthology of the writings of Learners in a workshop that Larry and Constance did in Wabasca-Desmerais, Alberta.

Larry has also written a play, Ora Pro Nobis, about his experiences in residential school. This play was featured in some First Nations communities and organizations across Canada. His newest book, just released, is As Long as the Rivers Flow.

A question that has entered my mind from time to time since I came back from Australia is this whole notion of being able to hear and replicate certain sounds. Western Australia has a policy of recognizing Aboriginal English. It is considered a language, not broken English, something to be fixed. They teach Aboriginal English in the first three years of school, then they move toward Standard Australian English, which is introduced as another way of speaking, rather than the correct way.