Ningwakwe Learning Press (NLP)
NLP is a publishing company of Essential Skills resources and tools for First Nations, Metis and Inuit peoples. There are no eligibility requirements or membership.
NLP’s primary mandate is to develop, publish and distribute learning materials that contribute to a holistic approach to achieving adult First Nation, Métis and Inuit literacy learning outcomes.
Although Aboriginal cultures throughout Canada follow a strict oral tradition, increasing literacy is becoming more and more important in First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities right across the country. Ningwakwe Learning Press (NLP) is one of the vital literacy resources.
With a solid reputation for distributing resources to First Nation, Métis and Inuit communities across Canada since 1996, NLP can proudly and adequately call itself the most unique and culture-based resource centre for the purchase of Aboriginal learning materials.
NLP resource cover many topics, including:
• Literacy resources on First Nation, Metis and Inuit traditions (Quilting, Quill Basket Making, Frybread), cultural values and history, healthy living, career path choices, social justice, study skills
• Numeracy
• Literacy educator resources including curriculum design, cultural philosophy, teaching models, and assessment
Select resources are available in Inuktituk, French, Mohawk, Ojibway, Cree and Ojicree languages.
Initiative Impact
All of our projects are evaluated by an outside party to ensure gov’t funding processes, procedures are undertaken successfully. As well, these evaluations provide us with ways to improve in the future.
This report is submitted to our funder, Ministry of Training Colleges and Universities. As we are a social enterprise, we report to them on how our development monies were spent. They have no interest or accountability with how many books we’ve sold or to where.
Regional differences between First Nation cultures and languages. It’s hard to publish any translated materials because language differences are vast between small geographical areas. We then have to come up with targeting individual communities with a print-on-demand process so small print runs of books can be done for each community.
The applicability of producing specific cultural resources for one First Nation group and distributing to other First Nations groups. For example, Mohawk material selling to east coast. Our fear though, is to not water down the cultural component by making them too generic. So, we try, each year to produce culturally specific material and eventually we will have covered most of Canada’s First Nation, Inuit and Metis people.
We continue to ensure that people within the literacy field (our task team volunteers) have maintained a voice to review all of our materials. Our contracted writers work closely with the Publishing Manager throughout the entire process and are not allowed to create something and just hand it in. They must wait for our evaluation and incorporate that feedback at various stages of development. We also have each resource go through 3 editing stages to ensure our materials are as professional looking as possible.