Celebrating the Local, Negotiating the School: Symposium on Language and Literacy in Aboriginal Communities, is the title for the November 7th and 8th, 2008 Symposium. The goal of this symposium is to explore ways in which local literacies develop and function within local Aboriginal communities. Current research indicates that building on language knowledge of learners enables them to use their linguistic understanding to access standard English as a language of power in educational and political realms without having to relinquish their own local language.