Tag Archives: social justice

Ojo de Agua Comunicación
This community-based media organization that endeavors to foster Indigenous communication projects in Mexico demonstrate the strategic integration of media into their cultural fabric. Its website (although it´s presented just in Spanish) allows us to get an overview of its development during 17 years of work, in where this socially committed organization have promoted Indigenous media elaborated by their own protagonist.

Video: Documentales

Digital native media inform and empower rural and indigenous communities in Latin America

Another article that emphasizes the power of cultural communications through digital media and social networks in Latin America, presents a variety of digital sites that establish connections with rural and indigenous communities.
Through these sites, Indigenous communities can give voice to their own community problems, with the idea of creating links between cultural activism, journalists and citizens.
In this website, there are sites for journalistic work, social networks that encourage public debate and the sharing of knowledge through workshops in communities.

https://knightcenter.utexas.edu/blog/00-17322-digital-native-media-inform-and-empower-rural-and-indigenous-communities-latin-americas

Post 3- Orange Shirt Day

http://www.orangeshirtday.org/

Hearing Phyllis Webstad speak to students in SD28 just over a week ago was inspirational. Hearing her read and share her story, listening to the students asking questions, and hearing about her hopes for Orange Shirt Day and the possibility of being a holiday with Jesus (Christmas) and a Queen (Victoria Day), was inspirational. If you haven’t already checked out this website, I highly recommend it, but if you ever have a chance to listen to Phyllis share her story, you do not want to miss out.

Post 1 – Blanket Exercise

I participated in my first blanket exercise. I was killed by small pox. My co-worker was taken from her land and moved to a Residential school. Another colleague survived Residential Schools but later died due to the negative impact it had on her life.

These experiences are not our own, but were lived by us during our last Non-Instructional Day. The Blanket Exercise shares First People’s history from across Canada in a unique way. I began to better understand what it meant to be killed by a disease I had no control over, I watched people be removed form their land, to be taken to Residential schools. This experience is one I want to share with my classes in the future.

https://www.kairosblanketexercise.org/about/

Module 3 Post 5: First Nations Learners’ Engagement in Science Climate Justice in BC

Description:

This interactive and informational pdf guide on climate change and rising inequalities are highly recommended. When students view the world around and gain an appreciation of nature, they will develop an awareness of climate changes and issues which a teacher can use as a Segway to ponder on climate justice issues.

Teachers can refer to this handy Climate Justice in BC guide, which is divided:

Module 1: Introduction to Climate Justice

Module 2: Reimagining our Food System

Module 3: Transportation Transformation

Module 4: Rethinking Waste

Module 5: Fracking Town Hall

Module 6: Green Industrial Revolution

Module 7: Imagining the Future We Want

Module 8: Challenges to Change*

Module 8 is my personal favorite since students learn the inevitable challenges of social change, barriers faced and collective effort.

 

Action or personal choice Video: https://storyofstuff.org/movies/story-of-change/

Link: https://teachclimatejustice.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/full_teachclimatejusticedotca.pdf

 

Post 2- Burn Your Village to the Ground

This video was shared with me around Thanksgiving, a holiday that often celebrates colonization and brings about stereotypical images of when the  “Pilgrims and Indians sat down together”. The truth about what happened after the Europeans arrived and colonization began is shared in this song. The uncomfortable feeling this song gave me helped me realize that I have not done enough in my own teaching surrounding the truth of what has happened to our First People.

Post 10: Between the State and Indigenous Autonomy: Unpacking Video Indígena in Mexico

The emergence of “Video Indígena”, a media project designed to train indigenous people in the fundamentals of video production is created in the early 1990’s as a way to broadcast their cause to the world and to other indigenous communities and to invigorate the integrity of their community. This essay explores how video makers create meanings of their work and how this aligns with the development of the indigenous autonomy movement in Mexico. “These stories are combined to show how specific regional and local expressions of indigenous autonomy were also key areas through which video Indígena developed” (Wortham, 2004).
This is a great source to understand the strategic appropriation of media by Indigenous communities for a cooperative transnational indigenous media making.

https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/stable/pdf/3566972.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A26c32bead364004c98bcb3c29bdd6c55

Post 4- Healthy Education for Teachers and Students

After listening to Lee Brown’s interview in Module 1, I realized that he has a lot of insight into making inclusive classrooms for First Nations Students.  I have downloaded his thesis Making the Classroom a Healthy Place: The Development of the Affective Competency in Aboriginal Pedagogy and begun to unpack what he is noticing in classrooms.

There is a lot of fear for teachers when teaching about cultures that are not their own, but Lee Brown helped me to realize that it’s not specifically about the academics, but about the emotional attachment, the values, and the connection to each other and our place, that will create more culturally inclusive classrooms.

Social Justice Lesson Plan #5

I found this lesson which poses a great inquiry question: ” Do the 20th Century changes in the treatment of First Nations Peoples in Canada
represent a period of progress, decline or stasis?”  There is the potential for a great deep inquiry into the contemporary issues that are facing Indigenous peoples.  Having students research the history (Indian Act) and look at how that is impacting Indigenous peoples today.

Download link: https://wiki.ubc.ca/images/f/f0/Lesson_Plan_FNs_12.pdf

Institute of Play: Socratic Smackdown #3

A versatile discussion-based humanities game to practice argumentation around any text or topic for grades 6 through 12.​

Socratic Smackdown offers a fun approach to having students practice discussion strategies. Socratic Smackdown is a printable game designed to be played with up to forty students at a time. In the game students are awarded points for using each of six questioning and discussion methods. Students can lose points for interrupting or distracting others. The play of Socratic Smackdown can be organized around a text-based question or organized around debate a question delivered verbally. During the game students can play the role of participant or “coach.” A coach’s role is focused on listening to the group and completing “coach cards” on which they write observations on what the participants did well and what they can do to improve.

This is an excellent way to involve students in deep discussions around social justice issues, and I have modified the game-play and introduced this as a ‘contemporary talking-circle” to address topics on social justice affecting Indigenous Peoples in Canada (i.e. Indian Act, UNDRIP, Access to Water, MMIWG, Media Bias, etc.)

Background: https://www.instituteofplay.org/learning-games

Print Resource: https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/4401d6_aeab4158fb324a5d80ba9dbcc0c6eed5.pdf

Walking on the Lands of Our Ancestors #1

Grade Levels: 9/10, 11/12

Subject Area: First Nations, Métis and Inuit, Social Studies, History, Language Arts, Art, Social Justice

This lesson is an experiential approach to Indigenous people’s history. I believe it can be modified for lower grade levels, especially as a followup to the Kairos Blanket Activity.  This lesson was written using a Indigenous pedagogical approach.

https://www.canadashistory.ca/education/lesson-plans/walking-on-the-lands-of-our-ancestors