For native people, there's the whole cultural aspect: the relevance of educational material to their reality, to their perspective on the world. Natives have only recently had a written language; oral history was used. European cultures value written information, they look at written historical records, but they don't pay attention to the oral history of elders, which is just as valid a view of the world. So there are conflicting views about what's valuable and what we should pay attention to.

JANET: Have you learned any important lessons through doing educational work in the North?

LILLIAN: I've learned that learning and teaching are a reciprocal process. To be a good teacher you have to be a good learner. Let me give you an example: I did a workshop with an all-native group of home and school liaison workers. At the end they presented me with a lovely piece of native craft work. I was quite overcome by the gift and said, "Oh, my, you shouldn't have done that. This is my job; its a pleasure to be teaching." One of the women said: "You've given us your gifts of teaching, and in order to show you that we have learned, we're giving you this gift back." So it's a sharing process. That's what adult education is all about: learning from each other.

Our school system gets so caught up in content, the curriculum part of learning - the math, English, science. The process is just as important as the content. How you learn is probably a more important and lasting lesson. It develops the individual her confidence, her self-esteem. To me that's what this is about.

Native people have an interesting way of looking at their world. It's more holistic- the mind, the body, the spirit and the emotions are all tied together. When we talk about people's learning, it's that same thing: we can't just pour information into a person's head. The learning is tied to emotional health, physical health, spiritual health.

I have a habit of learning through doing: I have to be involved in something in order to learn. I've learned that I need to be more reflective, to observe more before I jump in and act. That's one way native people are quite strong in their learning in that inner thought.

There's a strong family connectedness in stable Indian communities. Family is an important force for support. Our non-native society doesn't have those family networks.

JANET: Native people have struggled successfully to preserve and adapt their social groups, recognizing the great strengths they draw from these bonds. Do you think we have something to learn here?