This paper describes approaches to literacy in Canadian aboriginal communities. It provides statistical data on education, employment, income, culture, language, and social issues among Canadian aboriginal people, comparing aboriginal people on and off the reserve. The statistics demonstrate issues that aboriginal literacy learners bring with them to learning situations (e.g., poverty, social bias, limited language skills, and cultural differences). They highlight the erosion of traditional aboriginal cultures and identities, which has resulted in a loss of pride in aboriginal identity. Aboriginal organizations and communities are in various stages of healing from the aftermath of a system that traditionally told them to put aside who they were and do things the mainstream way because it was best for them (via the Indian Act, the reserve system, and residential schools). Staff of First Nations Technical Institute developed a Medicine Wheel Model of Learning that uses a holistic approach and incorporates traditional aboriginal knowledge and methodologies. The greatest obstacle to implementing the holistic approach is funder criteria that focus specifically on measurable performance indicators to evaluate learner progress. However, there is medical and educational research that affirms the holistic approach. The Rainbow Approach to Literacy is a multimedia kit on aboriginal literacy that uses different colors to represent different aboriginal literacies. (Adjunct ERIC Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Education) (SM)