Author Archives: Kirsten

For my fifth and final blog post for module 2, I want to recognize that I cannot do this alone. I do realize that the main thing I need to be doing at this point in the designing of such a project and curricula is speaking with Indigenous elders as guides for the material. The problem is, however, people are busy or people do not support that I am embarking on this project as a WEIRDWASP  colonial-settler-scholar-educator-repatriate. How do I elicit information from an elder? I used to take international students to the Gathering Place for introduction to elder, indigenous culture and a smudge, but then I was told by a white person I was doing it wrong. I was mortified. I stopped. My next step is to reconcile this action both with myself and with the elders in question. This is uncomfortable. However, don’t both Piaget and Vygotsky agree that the effort to alleviate cognitive dissonance is what creates cognitive development?

A few resources have been helpful at this point in the journey to make me realize that much about appropriation is about intention and awareness:

I have also come across some very interesting quizzes to test one’s level of cultural appropriation, both in and outside of the classroom:

While taking these quizzes was fun and enlightening for me, a lot of scaffolding would need to be done for international ESL students to perform candidly on these questions. But that is certainly not a reason to shy away from bringing these resources into the classroom. Rather, this is motivation to push for curricular change to adopt more indigenous knowledge, content and context for International ESL students studying in Canada.

This provides tangible examples of lessons that would be considered appropriation and offensive. I must confess, that at first glance I might not have considered some of the lessons inappropriate. For example, an example was given of a teacher using cardboard boxes to construct totem poles then comparing it to building churches. Providing an extended direct quote from the website explaining why it was an inappropriate thing to do:

 While I absolutely understand this rationale, these are the types of situations that cause me trepidation for knowing what is right and what is wrong. Having spent 20 years overseas has further distanced me from the evolution of contemporary Canadian thought. The search continues…

Module 2 Blog 3

For my third post for module 2, I wanted to take a step back to review and reflect on the materials I have compiled. I am again confronted with the question: am I allowed to do this? Am I appropriating? I wanted some more foundational information for my own knowledge but also so I could share this experience with my students. I found Metcalfe helpful: Native Appropriations:  Why Representations Matter – BioneersNative Appropriations:  Why Representations Matter – Bioneers I also found Metcalfe inspiring because her whole project began as a blog, exactly what we are doing now 🙂

I felt I needed some more guidance on this matter, so I watched this presentation by Dr. George Nicholas:

His international project about Indigeneity, Cultural Property and Intangible Heritage seeks to ensure knowledge is shared in meaningful and appropriate ways.

Neither of these speakers, however, provide a definitive answer of who can say what to whom and where. This continued exploration will be explored in my next blog post.

Module 2 Blog 2

The place I would like to begin my second blog post for module two is at the beginning: thus, Territorial Land Acknowledgements.The place I would like to begin, is at the beginning: thus, Territorial Land Acknowledgements.

Here is another:

And another:

And finally:

While I have only skimmed the surface of these resources, I am excited that there is so much material available! What is most interesting about the land acknowledgement, to me, is really connecting it to the resources and materials that surround us and that we use on a daily basis. This is the foundation of a much greater interdisciplinary conversation that all international students must have a chance to participate in equitable and with an informed perspective.

This is a cyclical type of approach to learning, in line with Indigenous Education. Interestingly, it also appears on the Indigenous Principles of Learning indicating a cyclical type of approach to learning, in line with Indigenous Education. Essentially it is the idea of being to manifest new behavior in the moment of action rather than retrospectively. I feel I have been in a state of reflexion compiling these resources and understanding the opinion of Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators because I wonder: am I allowed to do this? Am I appropriating? Am I a wannabe? There seems to be a mixed consensus on how much that I, as a WEIRD WASP settler-scholar-educator, am able to know and use. As a personal anecdote, I was admonished by a group of colleagues when suggesting using an Indigenous cultural practice in an EDIDA presentation for another course. I was embarrassed and confused. Since I wish to continue to respect hermetic learning systems and ways of knowing, and since I hope to focus on this topic for my final project, I am asking for feedback on this issue.

Module 1 Post 4

My fourth post for module 1 blog should have been my first post. It should be all our first everythings, after a proper land acknowledgement. In this post, I would like to talk about The First Nationals Principles of Learning: First Peoples Principles of Learning – First Nations Education Steering Committee FNESC (**Interestingly, note the use of reflexive and reflective on this statement. How would they differ in this context?)

Again, from an ESL and Canadian Newcomer’s perspective, this is an invaluable tool maximizing the use of culture, language and digital technology in the form of an infographic to communicate Indigenous education requirements and standards. For international people coming to Canada, it also provides them with a sense of empathy for and similarities with linguicide and cultural assimilation. While the West has desecrated many cultures and environments, I know that the genocide done on this land to Indigenous Peoples is incomparable. This poster should be on every course outline. This poster should be printed at the entrance to every school. This poster should be memorized and internalized. But there are a lot of ‘shoulds’ in that sentence that have no legs without agency. I want to give this poster the ‘legs’ of my international students.

However, as a coloniser-settler-academic-teacher who has returned to Canada after 20 years overseas, much has changed in this true north strong and free. The major challenge I am having at the moment, and what has thus far surfaced from writing these blogs and exploring texts, is how can I be an ally without being framed as a WannaBe? What am I allowed to and not allowed to do and teach and say? And as a result, how much can I support Indigeneity on these lands to my international students similarly struggling with identity issues?

Module 1 Post 3

In my third blog post for module 1, it gets personal.

I was drawn to the story “Fatty Legs” by Christy-Jordan Fenton. Christy-Jordan Fenton reads the first chapter of Fatty Legs – YouTube. While this link is for the first chapter read by the author, subsequent chapters are asked to be paid for. This is a fair exchange. It is a story about a young Inuit girl who felt embarrassed about her legs for 60 years after being forced to wear a pair of red stockings as a child. The story goes on to describe how she made those stockings disappear. This resonated with me due to my own inner rebel.  But I had a major complex about my legs after a boy had told me I had “tree trunk” legs after a  soccer game (when really the focus ought to have been on the fact that I was a good enough player to be the only girl on the team!) So, here I was, personal self-consciousness as a girl growing up in western educated, industrialized, rich, democratic, white, anglo saxon, protestant (WEIRDWASP) society; full privilege and talented and being knocked down by a white boy. Imagine I had been a minority? Or disabled? I am honestly not sure that I would have been able to handle it.  At that point in my life, I was able to see how much privilege I have always had on my journey in life. I fell victim of a western depression that is not common in other parts of the world where survival is more acute.

In this second blog post, I would like to address how I have tried to include the 94 Calls to Action into my ESL Classes. While it is always a danger to use material designed for children with adults, I do use the Spirit Bear version with my International ESL students: Spirit Bear’s Guide to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada Calls to Action | First Nations Caring Society (fncaringsociety.com) For an adult, false beginner language class, just going through the Table of Contents and the Introduction can be taxing as a vocabulary activity. The proper Affective Domain scaffolding must be included prior to delving into any of these issues.

This also needs to be contextualized for how individual minorities groups were treated in Canada historically. Living in the Kootenays, close to one of Japan’s sister cites (Nelson Izu-Shi Friendship Society – Home (nelsonizushi.com)), we get a lot of Japanese exchange students who have never heard of Nikkei, the historically preserved WW2 Japanese Internment Center: The Nikkei Internment Memorial Centre – New Denver. One can visibly see the students cringe and slouch in shock and fear that such an event could happen in Canada. While not wanting to scare the students, I do want them to know the truth of their ancestors.

I also share with them the stories which I feel comfortable to tell about the lands on which we study.  While we always begin with Indigenous Territorial Land Acknowledgements and I take them for a visit to the Gathering Place to meet college and community elders, the white settler history of the region also includes Doukhoubour pacifists (Doukhobor Discovery Centre – Visit Castlegar (doukhobor-museum.org)) who were funded by Tolstoy’s sales of ‘Ressurection’ (Tolstoy’s Canadian Doukhobors Return to Russia Over 100 Years After Fleeing – The Moscow Times) to come to Canada because they did not want to fight the Japanese in the Sino – Japanese – Russio – Siberian wars at the turn of the 20th century.

Talk about coming full circle.

I am going to focus on indigenous education in Canada and as I embarked upon video research, I found a 7-part UBC lecture series for my first blog entry. Below I have included links and short summaries of each section. My subsequent blog posts for Module 1 will follow up with additional material and commentary of issues which intruigued me most throughout the video series. The final post of this blog series with be reflection, reflexion and questions of agency.

Introduction speaks to the importance of Truth and Reconciliation for Indigenous peoples in Canada and Internationally. It introduces the concept of disruption for awakening. It also introduces the 94 Calls to Action.

Topic 1 reminds us that colonisation is something that is still happening now and that we all need to take an active role in deconstructing and reconstructing our relationships with each other and with the land. It talks about “unsettling the settler” and moving beyond rationalizations of the “perfect stranger” that promotes romanticized Indigenous images, rationalizes settler presence on Indigenous land and abuses natural resources to sustain a destructive lifestyle on the Earth and its People.

Topic 2 reviews the Canadian colonial history of schooling and compares a Western liniar notion of time to a circular Indigenous spiraling ideation. The Medicine Wheel is discussed and the ideas of agency and resistance are introduced.

Topic 3 introduces various indigenous theories of learning and educational frameworks through the lens of culturally responsive education (CRE) and socio emotional learning (SEL) to ensure the continuation of relationship building through story.

Topic 4 elaborates on stories by emphasizing their place in Indigenous pedagogy and relaying their social and moral lessons for the listener.

Topic 5 introduces the concepts of land as teacher and land as pedagogy in order to ‘metissage’ the curriculum; or in other words, to braid the true colonial history into the curriculum. It reminds us that Indigenous concepts of life and knowing are embedded in the land as a source of knowledge and experience.

Topic 6 challenges educators to confront their own prejudices, power and privilege. This concluding section of the video series reminds us that due to a circular Indigenous worldview, our contemporary actions can have an impact on the 7 Generations destroyed through Residential Schooling in Canada, although Simpson also warns us from being too focused on residential schools rather than the greater policies and relationships that allowed such schools to run for 100 years. Leanne Simpson: As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom Through Radical Resistance – YouTube