The Circle is committed to promoting learning, providing consultation and sharing knowledge about First Nations, Métis and Inuit history, traditions and teachings to front line workers and organizational staff assisting local children and youth. This Guide was developed as a quick access resource for staff who have an interest in First Nation, Metis and Inuit history and/or are serving clients who identify with these cultures.

The Guide is set up as a learning resource and reference guide using the traditional Medicine Wheel as the central theme. The Medicine Wheel is used in many different ways and often represents the Four Directions, as well as Father Sky, Mother Earth, and Spirit Tree—all of which symbolize dimensions of health and the cycles of life. Different tribes interpret the Medicine Wheel differently. Each of the Four Directions (East, South, West, and North) is typically represented by a distinctive color, such as black, red, yellow, and white, which for some stands for the human races. The Directions can also represent: the stages of life (birth, youth, adult (or elder), death); the seasons (spring, summer, winter, fall); the different aspects of life (spiritual, emotional, intellectual, physical); the elements of nature (fire or sun, air, water, and earth); animals (Eagle, Bear, Wolf, Buffalo and many others) or ceremonial plants  (tobacco, sweet grass, sage, cedar).

We have used the four quadrants of the traditional Medicine Wheel to organize this Guide into four easy access reference areas – Black: resources to help you connect your client families to culturally appropriate services; White: resources to help you reach out and engage the Indigenous community in ways that are both respectful and effective; Yellow: resources to help you understand the history and culture of your clients, including information about Truth & Reconciliation; and Red: cultural safety training resources, basic language resources, general awareness resources about Canada’s Indigenous Peoples and resources about elders and traditional knowledge keepers.

We hope you find this Guide helpful. Please contact us if you have suggestions for additional resources to add to our collection.

Nia:wen (thank you)!