Tag Archives: workshops

Aboriginal Perspectives

Module 2 – Post 4

The diversity and richness of Canada’s Aboriginal peoples present challenges and opportunities for teachers since educators are required to include Aboriginal perspectives in their lessons. There are currently over 600 recognized First Nations governments or bands in Canada and the First Nations, Inuit and the Metis constitute Canada’s Aboriginal peoples. This Aboriginal Perspectives website contains information that will will teachers in including the different perspectives in their lessons.

The following is an excerpt from their website:

 

  • “We have used video material featuring Aboriginal people and cultural activities as a base for constructing teaching resources and we invite teachers to use these resources. We also encourage teachers to use this video material to construct their own lessons.
  • We have conducted workshops with teachers from grades 3 to 6 to help them include an Aboriginal perspective in their mathematics lessons. On this web site are the lessons, background material on the Aboriginal themes for the lessons, and a description of the material in the kits that the teachers received at the workshops.
  • Included is a collection of Aboriginal games which provide a rich source of material for the construction of lessons.”

http://aboriginalperspectives.uregina.ca/introduction.shtml

2.2: ACI Manitoba’s Indigenous Programs

Website: ACI Manitoba’s Indigenous Programs

ACI Manitoba is a non-profit organization devoted to supporting arts and culture in Manitoba. ACI places a special emphasis on indigenous programming, and offers a variety of workshops, courses, and seminars related to indigenous art and storytelling. The website also includes valuable resources for young indigenous artists. One resource that I found particularly useful was a Grant Writing Toolkit . The site also includes links to a plethora of Manitoban and Canadian organizations that can provide support to indigenous artists. 

Module 3, Post 4 – ImagineNATIVE

The Toronto’s ImagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival aims to eliminate stereotypical notions of Indigenous peoples by encouraging First Nations youths to use different media to tell their stories. I first stumbled upon this article which spoke about the various topics this project addresses, such as aboriginal identity, education, language and racism. The organization is visiting small communities in Canada and offering workshops to the youths on how to use tablets to record and edit their film. This CBC Yukon video explains the project. What I liked about it was that non-aboriginal students are also involved in the project because they feel it’s important to address the inequality problems.

Wanting to learn more about it, I found the organization’s website. I found this site a bit difficult to navigate in searching for video entries, and was only able to view one. However, the site contains information on previous festival, the organization, and its history.

This resource can be useful for someone looking to find ways, using media and technology, to help indigenous peoples express what they are feeling and educate the world about their culture.