Author Archives: ananda fulton

Module 4: post 5 – Language revitalization

Ientsitewate’nikonhraié:ra’te Tsi Nonkwá:ti Ne

Á:se Tahatikonhsontóntie

We Will Turn Our Minds There Once Again,

To the Faces Yet To Come

Second Language Speakers and Language Revitalization in Kahnawà:ke

By

Kahtehrón:ni Iris Stacey

 

This Masters degree paper is about language revitalization and Indigenous research and Indigenous ways of knowing. I found it interesting that the author starts by ‘positioning’ herself and sharing a bit about her own family and story. I’ve found that several of the Indigenous authors I’ve read in this course (both in the course readings and my own research) have included this type of description of the author’s own position within their community.

This would be a great read for anyone focussing on language for their final project.

module 4: post 4 – how to teach about residential schools

https://www.utoronto.ca/news/not-just-part-past-u-t-s-jennifer-brant-teaching-subject-residential-schools-canada

This article about teaching about residential schools is from the perspective of Jennifer Brant, an Indigenous University of Toronto professor, who is a member of the Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) Nation.

Brant also recommends one my favourite books about Indigeneity and Education: Tanya Talaga’s Seven Fallen Feathers.

module 4: post 2 – Six Nations protests

In trying to learn about the Haudenosaunee people near me, I watched this documentary on youtube:

It focusses a lot on the very tense protests against housing developments on Haudenosaunee land in 2006, near Caledonia, Ontario and the leadership of the Clan Mothers in that protest.

My thinking this week has been shaped by Indigenous women leaders specifically. 🙂

module 4: post 1 – Indigenous leadership

I live in Hamilton, Ontario and in September I got a new Hamilton-focussed magazine in my mailbox. In the first issue of this new magazine, there is an article about three extremely impressive Indigenous leaders in my city:

https://hamiltoncitymagazine.ca/new-faces-of-leadership/

I found Savage Bear especially interesting person. She’s a member of the Montreal Lake Cree Nation in Saskatchewan but has moved to Hamilton and regarding place, she says

“This isn’t our territory. As much as [I’m] in a leadership position, it doesn’t matter who you are, you need to know where you tread,” says Bear. “You need to know the land and the people of the land. This past year has been getting to know my colleagues, the students, and external and internal stakeholders here and in and around Hamilton.”

module 3: post 5 – Haudenosaunee teachers at residential schools

Norman, A. (2015). “True to my own noble race”: Six Nations Women Teachers at Grand River in the early Twentieth Century. Ontario History, 107(1), 5–34. https://doi.org/10.7202/1050677ar

I found this fascinating article in my research for my final project, which is about Indigenous people – and specifically Haudenosaunee peoples – educate their own people, now and in the past. (Although it’s difficult to find a lot of specifics about pre-contact teaching and learning practices, beyond oral storytelling and learning by observation and then doing.)

This article is a history of three Indigenous women (out of many) who taught at residential day schools on the Six Nations reserve in Ontario (near where I live), during the 19th and 20th centuries.

The author writes:

“These three women negotiated multiple identities as Six Nations women, as Christians, as teachers in a Western school system, and as ‘good women.’ They took part in a process of cultural negotiation, exerting flexibility, creativity, and a willingness to look for opportunities to do the work they desired to do in and for their community.”

module 3: post 4 – thinking through making

Although Indigenous thinkers, scholars, voices and sources are obviously very important, I found this non-Indigenous anthropology professor’s talk extremely relevant to holistic thinking. It reminded me of the Kawagley & Barnhardt article “Education indigenous to place: Western science meets native reality” that we read in Week 7.

(The audio is not great at the beginning – you can hear people talking in the background. But if you stick with it, he has some very interesting points that seem, to me, to be informed by Indigenous ways of thinking.)

module 3: post 3 – The Clay we are made of

I found this 2017 book: The Clay We Are Made Of: Haudenosaunee Land Tenure on the Grand River by Susan M. Hill on Canada Commons.

Although I haven’t read the entire book yet, it provides a great history of the Six Nations of the Grand River (the peoples I am focussing on for my final project). It doesn’t focus on education, but there is some info on education. For example, this thought-provoking passage:

The TRC’s call understandably emphasizes education and related institutions. For Six Nations, there is certainly a need to address the direct impacts of the residential school system on the community, especially for the remaining survivors and their direct descendants. However, as many Indigenous people across Canada (and beyond) suggest, the effects are much further-reaching, and the mentality that brought about residential schooling also altered fundamental ideas held by Indigenous people about education, particularly in how it relates to Indigenous Knowledge/Original Teachings. The primary conduits for traditional Native education are the Native languages of the people. The attack on Indigenous languages by the residential school system and related policy initiatives is the most measurable in terms of impact. Therefore, upon embarking on reconciliation, the most assessable area of improvement could be language revitalization (for those communities who deem it a key goal of reconciliation). Fewer than 1 percent of all Grand River Haudenosaunee are now fluent in any of their original languages, but there is a great desire to regain fluency.

Alongside clearly articulated goals for Haudenosaunee language revitalization are aspirations for community-controlled education for the Six Nations community as well as adequate financial support to access quality educational opportunities inside and outside the community; this is relevant for all levels of education, from pre-school through doctoral studies. Many community-based thinkers have suggested this could easily be financed through land claims resolution. [emphasis added]

 

module 3: Post 1 – Reservation Dogs

Okay, I’m doing it. I’m posting about Reservation Dogs, the TV show. Here’s a trailer:

Here is a brief review (which touches on themes from this course, such as stereotypes and romantic exoticism): https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/06/arts/television/reservation-dogs.html

Through the show, I learned that the Cherokee Trail of Tears ended in what was then called “Indian Territory” and is now called Oklahoma.

In season 1, episode 6 Willie Jack goes hunting with her father. There is a lot of discussion about whether to leave the community. Willie Jack wants to go to California – a dream she has perhaps inherited from her cousin Daniel, who has died. This reminded me a lot of the kids in the “Alluriarniq – Stepping Forward” video, many of whom wanted to pursue their education and/or see other places in the world, but they all want to eventually come back to their community. I find this so different from my own culture, in which many people move away from the communities they grew up in. (For example, my Dad is from Thunder Bay but now lives in Peterborough, I grew up in Ontario, but both my sisters relocated to British Columbia many years ago).

I’m not sure whether this show will become a resource for my final research project, but I really wanted to include it as it’s a wonderful show.