Author Archives: olivia barratt

M2 P2

Kukum eBook by Michel Jean - EPUB | Rakuten Kobo Canada

As I’ve mentioned before, I struggle to find Indigenous resources for my French Immersion secondary class that are age appropriate and written by someone who is Indigenous. I have found this great resource and have started to use it as a novel study in my French courses. The students are loving it and it provides an excellent insight into the history of colonial violence and the traditional values of the Innu community. I’m linking the book here if there are any other French teachers looking for resources!

https://www.cbc.ca/books/kukum-defended-by-mich%C3%A8le-audette-wins-the-combat-national-des-livres-2021-1.6022394

 

M2 P1

This TedTalk is an important presentation on reconciliation and education in Canada. Reconciliation in the education system looks like the following for Starleigh Grass :

  • All adults recognize and celebrate the role Indigenous children play in families and communities
  • All First Nation students are held to high standards and are taught skills and knowledge that will help them navigate the 21st century
  • Respectful representation of Indigenous people within the education system
  • Teaching aboutReconciliation and Residential Schools

Starleigh also mentions the importance when teaching about the history of colonialism and Indigenous people to talk to students about Indigenous knowledge and how knowledge was shared between Indigenous families and communities before colonialism. She states that it is important to start talking about Indigenous history from a positive place and to understand that their was and has always been knowledge, culture and community.

M1 P5 Cliff Cardinal

Last year, I attended Cliff Cardinals radical take on Shakespeare’s “As You Like It.” In a surprising plot twist, it didn’t end up being a performance about the classic play and instead, a 90 minute land acknowledgment from writer and poet Cliff Cardinal. It was an extraordinary reflective piece about reconciliation, the sincerity of land acknowledgments in Canada and other important big questions such as : Why are Indigenous people always seen connected to the ecosystem? And why can’t we separate a scientist delivering facts from her cultural identity?

Here is a review of the show (I wish I could find clips online of it!) : https://nowtoronto.com/news/review-cliff-cardinal-delivers-a-radical-take-on-as-you-like-it

If you ever have a chance to see his work, I highly recommend it!

 

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M1 P4 Sit Spots

I’ve been looking into ways of how we I can teach more according to the First People’s Principles. I was introduced to this activity through a colleague of mine who does this often with her English class. The activity is called Sit Spots and here is a link describing the activity : https://wildsight.ca/education-resources/sit-spots/#:~:text=What%20is%20a%20sit%20spot,builds%20routine%20and%20increases%20focus.

I’ve started doing this with my class about once a week or sometimes once every two weeks. In our class, it’s considered as a form of land acknowledgment. Before starting the activity we discuss what land we are on and after each sit spot, we discuss not only what they noticed when sitting outside, but also what they are grateful for in terms of using the land we are on.

I find it’s been an interesting twist on our usual land acknowledgments. I can see that students are enjoying it and it has been encouraging reflection about land use and gratitude.

M1 P3 First Peoples’ Map of BC

I think this is so cool : First Peoples’ Map of BC. As someone who loves maps, I’ve been drawn to this ever since someone showed it to me a while back.

This map was created by the First People’s Cultural Council (www.fpcc.ca) which is a provincial Crown Corporation formed in 1990. Their goal is to help support BC First Nations in revitalizing their language, art and heritage.

When you delve into the map, the amount of information on language, arts and culture is almost overwhelming! There is just so much information. It’s quite incredible. The language map was started in 2005 by a linguist at the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver. In 2008, the map was expanded into an online map and included interviews with fluent speaker of Indigenous BC languages. In 2019 the map was modernized and arts and heritage were also added.

M1 P2 Five Ideas to Support Indigenous Languages in Canada

As a language teacher, I love the idea of incorporating more Indigenous language learning into the classroom. This video is short, sweet and to the point.  It provides 5 easy ways of supporting Indigenous language revitalization in Canada. As we have read in this week’s readings, language is an important part of Indigenous culture and knowledge.

The main suggestions for support from the video are :

  • Learn a greeting and a response from an Indigenous language
  • Learn more Indigenous phrases and words through smart phone apps (such as First Voices)
  • Learn the names of local mountains, lakes, towns and rivers in a local Indigenous language (I hope to to do this with my students next week!)
  • Watch a movie or TV show in an Indigenous language
  • Listen to artists in an Indigenous language

These five suggestions remind me of the following First Peoples Principle of Learning :

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8Zf-Id0SQ4&t=10s

M1 P1 Language and Indigenous Education

For this module, I looked into articles surrounding the importance of preserving Indigenous languages and how we, as educators, can encourage language retention and engagement within schools. The 5 resources I found were very interesting and provoked some important reflection! 

  1. McCarty (2003) ‘s article (https://doi.org/10.1080/03050060302556) focuses on the challenges created by conserving linguistic and cultural diversity among Indigenous groups in the United States. A lot of the challenges seen in the US can be seen here in Canada. The article presents some new approaches to Indigenous school to emphasize Indigenous language, culture and heritage as a way to confront the legacy of colonialism.
  2. Duff and Li (2009)’s article (https://doi.org/10.3138/cmlr.66.1.001) is a look into why and how Canada is committed to encouraging French in education systems, however Indigenous languages are overlooked. It presents a looks into national policies that protect Canada’s two official languages, English and French and what Canada is starting to do in terms of protecting Indigenous languages. 
  3. Report on Teaching and Learning First Nations Languages in Different Locations and Locales by the Assembly of First Nations (https://www.afn.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/AFN-Archipel_Language-Learning-Report_ENG-1.pdf) : This resource is a fantastic overview into Indigenous language retention, engagement and approaches to teaching Indigenous language in both remote, rural and urban settings. 
  4. Khawaja’s (2021) article (https://doi.org/10.3390/soc11030089) explores the consequences and solutions of Indigenous language loss in Canada. What I found particularly interesting is both the exploration into why there has been such a drastic language loss in Indigenous communities in addition to the importance of language reclamation.
  5. Haque (2014)’s article (https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2014.89249) is particularly revelatory exploration of language policy in Canada and the effects of racist systems of power on policy-making.