Tag Archives: reconciliation

Project of Heart (M4P1)

Project of Heart is an artistic inquiry into the history of Indigenous people in Canada and the legacies of the Indian Residential Schools (IRS). Though open to all Canadians, it is geared towards schools and students. The website is organized by Province to help provide local context and resources. 

The project’s framework includes 6 steps:

  1. Investigate the History and Legacy of Residential Schools in Canada
  2. Look closer at a specific IRS in your local area, including whose territory it is located on and the children taken to the school
  3. Create a gesture of Reconciliation
  4. Survivor Visit
  5. Social Justice Action
  6. Finishing Up Project of the Heart

For Step 3, the website gives several suggestions for projects, from their traditional commemorative wooden tiles to crafting feather wreaths or writing a song. The provincial pages also provide blog-rolls with examples from schools. An approach that I think would be interesting is a collaborative mosaic. Ideally, this would be done in collaboration with a local Indigenous artist who would create the overall design and perhaps teach the students some art lessons. For examples of Collaborative Mosaics, check out Jen Jolliff‘s school ones, and the Global Roots Project.

M4P4: Burnaby Village Museum, a step toward reconciliation

Over the past few years, Burnaby Village Museum has taken steps to undo “the part it has played in erasing Indigenous history from the place we now call Burnaby (Vancouver is awesome, 2019). This is an important step toward reconciliation and an example that can be discussed in class.

Out of this process has come the Indigenous History in Burnaby Resource Guide. This guide is an excellent resource for grade 5 and beyond, providing local context and story to the areas in which my school is found and where the kids play and live. This guide also serves another purpose though, and that is to open up conversation about how history is written. Who funded this book? Who consulted in this book? Who received credit for this book?

Naylor, C. (2019, November 1). Burnaby museum works to undo erasure of local Indigenous history. Vancouver Is Awesome. https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/history/indigenous-history-burnaby-village-museum-1946638.

Bridging Communities Through Murals (M2P4)

In their paper, Taonsayontenhroseri:ye’ne: the Power of art in Indigenous Research with Youth, Whitlow et al. (2019) report on their arts-based research project, Transformation, Action, Grafitti (#TAG). Participants were from Six Nations, the unceded territory of Brantford, Chili, and the Mapuche territory of Kompu Lof. The project’s goals were first, to nourish cultural pride for Indigenous youth, and second, to educate non-Indigenous youth “through a for-Indigenous-people-by-Indigenous-people framework” (p. 182). During the workshops, participants created doodles based on what they were seeing and hearing. Later, these doodles were collected by the Alapinta (Chilean) muralists, who tied them together into two sister murals. The murals were painted in prominent locations in Six Nations and the Brantford downtown-core. They sparked conversations about reconciliation that, thanks to the Internet and social media, reached globally.

Participants working on the Brantford mural

Participants working on the Brantford mural

The authors say this about the power of art:

“For this reason, art was even better medium for communication across the barriers of colonial languages. Haudenosaunee people often struggle to translate their stories from their original languages as English does not communicate the depth and complexity of their own morphology. The images that appear in the mural can be interpreted and valued regardless of spoken language. Indeed, art was the bridge between groups of people who spoke four different languages, often through a translator. Despite our struggles with language, symbolism and cultural imagery became a shared and complex form of communication” (p. 186).

the Six Nations mural

The #TAG’s completed Six Nations mural

 

Reference:

Whitlow, K. B., Oliver, V., Anderson, K., Brozowski, K., Tschirhart, S., Charles, D., & Ransom, K. (2019). Taonsayontenhroseri:ye’ne: the power of art in Indigenous research with youth. AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, 15(2), 180–189. https://doi.org/10.1177/1177180119845915

M2P3: Alberta Ed Sample Lesson Plans

“These sample lesson plans support Education for Reconciliation through the inclusion of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit perspectives; treaty education; and residential schools’ experiences, with learning outcomes identified in the current Alberta programs of study.

Each sample lesson plan includes content(s) or context(s) related to one or more of the following aspects of Education for Reconciliation:

  • diverse perspectives and ways of knowing of First Nations, Métis, or Inuit, including values, traditions, kinship, language, and ways of being;
  • understandings of the spirit and intent of treaties; or
  • residential schools’ experiences and resiliency.”

I was excited to find this resource, but then noticed that Mathematics was not a subject included, which makes me eager to try to gather resources for teaching math in the K-12 classroom, but also makes me question why?

Module 2 – Post 5 Student Action

The Legacy of Hope website relates back to my final question of how technology can be a tool to inspire social action in my students. The 94 calls to action are a great resource for teachers but the language is overwhelming for students. What I appreciate most about the Legacy of Hope’s Get Involved page is that it provides small steps in simple language that grade 4/5 students can understand and act on. When inspiring social action at this age, there can be a push pull with the parents. These steps range from small to large and tie nicely into other areas of curriculum to further buttress against any parent complaint (which unfortunately does exist at times).

Module 2- Post 5: Reconciliation: A Starting Point APP

This is a bit unrelated to my project focus, but I happened to come across this learning tool as I was browsing for ideas for this blog.

Reconciliation: A Starting Point is a mobile app for federal public servants in Canada to learn about the Metis, Inuits, and the First Nations through key historical events and reconciliation initiative for the Indigenous Peoples in Canada. The app is currently only available on Androids or Apple iOS.

I think it’s essential for all public service workers to be informed about the work that needs to be carried out for reconciliation and learn about the truth from historical timelines of when indigenous communities lost their right to land and more from settlers.

https://www.csps-efpc.gc.ca/Tools/apps/ils/index-eng.aspx

Indigenous Peoples: Learning at your fingertips

Module 2 Post 1 – Indigenous Languages

This is Lindsay Morcom.  She talks about the history of indigenous languages and how to revitalize them.  She spoke about residential schools and how when you build a school and then build a cemetery right beside it because you know the students will die, what do you call that?  The talk is from February 2019.

She speaks about what is needed:

  • Policy – that there is attached funding with active policy and that on-reserve schools and off-reserve schools need equal funding.  Special note that this is also a call to action
  • Support – that there needs to be space to carry out activities and have access to immersion education in traditional languages and that there needs to be education for the non-indigenous populations

Her statement that reconciliation that does not result in the survival of language in the people is assimilation and not reconciliation.

M1P5: Indigenous Education Resources

This website houses some amazing information for Indigenous Education.

A school is also highlighted on this website:

“Nala’atsi is a school based in Courtenay, British Columbia for students with Indigenous ancestry in grades 10 to 12. It is a 10 month program that provides individualized support for students whose needs have not been met in a mainstream classroom setting. Nala’atsi aims to give students a sense of community and belonging, a safe and compassionate learning environment, as well as access to a variety of exciting cultural activities within the community and beyond.”

M1P4: Indigenous Cinema in the Classroom

“Our educational playlists are selections of films on themes that tie in with Canadian curricula and address the important issues of the day. Many of the playlists are also linked to our study guides.”

Within the “Indigenous Voices and Reconciliation” tab, some playlists that I have flagged for review are:

  • Indigenous Cinema in the Classroom Professional Learning for Educators
  • Indigenous Cinema in the Classroom (Ages 15+)
  • Indigenous Cinema in the Classroom (Ages 12-14)
  • Indigenous Cinema in the Classroom (Ages 6-11)

https://www.nfb.ca/education/educational-playlists/#indigenous-voices-and-reconciliation