Author Archives: Juliano Ng

I am a grade 6/7 elementary school teacher in the Burnaby School District. I first started teaching in 2013 as a Teacher Teaching on Call with the Chilliwack School District while commuting from Burnaby every day. In 2015, I was hired by the Burnaby School District and have been working in Burnaby ever since.

M4 P5: Molly of Denali

From Pocahontas to Peter Pan, cartoons have misrepresented Indigenous Peoples by making them look “different” and part of the “Other” by following the stereotypes given to Indigenous Peoples. In 2019, PBS introduced their new show called Molly of Denali which follows Molly, an Alaskan Native living in the fictional village of Qyah. The show gives a more modern and accurate representation of Indigenous Peoples in Alaska and has helped Indigenous children feel “seen” as there is someone on television and YouTube that looks like them and that they can relate to. The show addresses stereotypes and culture educates children on those issues through engaging content.

The episode below called “Culture Clash” is a prime example of how the show accomplishes this. This show would be a great resource to show clips of to younger students as the content and language is appropriate and the right fit for their age.

M4 P4: The Treatment of Indigenous Peoples by the American Government

YouTube channel, Vox, takes a look at the treatment of Indigenous Peoples by the United States government and their attempts to absorb and assimilate the Indigenous Peoples for the purpose of taking over the land. Part 1 talks about boarding schools and the government program’s motto at the time was to “kill the Indian and save the man”. The story raises many comparisons and similarities to what happened in Residential Schools in Canada. Part 2 talks about The Adoption Era which was something that I have not heard of before. The stories shared are shocking and talk about how the government promoted this program to further assimilate Indigenous children. What is crazy is that the adoptive families, through the propaganda promoted by the government, thought that they were doing these children a favor and that getting adopted to their family was the best thing that could have happened to these children who were ripped away from their original families.

This would be an interesting video to watch and discuss as a class to compare the US government and the Canadian government’s treatment of the Indigenous Peoples and the systems that forced the assimilation of the Indigenous Peoples to rip them from their families and strip them of their identity and culture.

M4 P2: Sovereign – Representation on Network Television

While looking up Indigenous representation in pop culture, I came across a TV drama called Sovereign. It is a family drama that is being developed at NBC, a major network television company in the USA.

“Sovereign chronicles the lives, loves, and loyalties of an Indigenous family struggling to control the future of their tribe against outside forces and themselves.” (Scott, 2021)

The show will be produced by Ava DuVernay (directed Disney’s: A Wrinkle in Time) and Bird Runningwater who is of the Cheyenne and Mescalero Apache Nations. The story will be written by Sydney Freeland, a transgender Navajo filmmaker, and Shaz Bennett.

This show will provide a more accurate and positive representation of Indigenous Peoples as it is produced and written by people coming from an Indigenous background. The fact that it is a family drama will also mean that the issues the show deals with will be more serious and impactful to the audience. Also, being on NBC means that presumably there will be a wider audience as NBC is part of broadcast television where most consumers with cable packages will have access to the channel. There is no release date for the show yet but they are working on a pilot episode and if it is deemed successful, it will become greenlit with more episodes.

Native American TV drama – ‘Sovereign’ – to air on NBC

Native American Family Drama ‘Sovereign’ From Ava DuVernay & Bird Runningwater Set At NBC As Put Pilot

Reference

Scott, D. (2020, December 4). Native American TV Drama – ‘Sovereign’ – To Air On NBC. The Seminole Tribune. https://seminoletribune.org/

M4 P1: Reservation Dogs

Reservation Dogs is a comedy series coming to FX in August that is created by Taika Waititi and Sterling Harjo. The name Taika Waititi may ring a bell as he was the director of Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok. Both of the creators are Indigenous with Taika Waititi being Maori and Sterling Harjo being Seminole Muscogee. The show follows four Indigenous teenagers living in rural Oklahoma who are trying to find any way possible (including stealing and robbing) to make their way to California.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoHewFAkrWU

Clips from this show may be good for analysis by older grades (language is too mature for a younger audience) but I think it provides an interesting lens of how life is for Indigenous youth today. Obviously, there will be some dramatization for entertainment value but within it, I’m sure there will still be some valuable lessons. What I found interesting is that it combines both the stereotypes and the realities that these Indigenous youth are going through. This format of combining stereotypes with real experiences seems to work well as seen by ABC’s Fresh Off The Boat which follows the childhood of Eddie Huang and his family who immigrated to the USA from Taiwan in the 1990s or CBC’s Kim’s Convenience which follows the Kim Family and their life working as convenience store owners in Toronto.

M3 P5: Discovering Identity through Poetry

Poetry has often been a subject that my students dislike because it was different from what they were used to doing in Language Arts. They had no issues reading it, but writing it, they found it difficult due to the format. In third term, my teaching partner and I decided to change our poetry unit up a bit and included spoken word poetry and had students analyze what the poets were saying. A common theme we found when analyzing spoken word poetry was that a lot of it had to do with identity. We then had our students try to also use the theme of identity in their own poetry. We used a variety of styles of poetry such as diamente and acrostic, and then had students write an “I am” poem.

This got me into looking into Indigenous poets and how they use poetry to speak about their identity and I found the following resources/videos.

The video below would be for an older audience than my own grade 6/7 class due to coarse language, but the poet provides a strong message:

Great example demonstrating poetry and identity:
https://www.facinghistory.org/stolen-lives-indigenous-peoples-canada-and-indian-residential-schools/chapter-2/i-m-not-indian-you-had-mind

Examples of spoken word poetry by Indigenous poets:
https://www.poetryinvoice.com/tags/indigenous

M3 P4: The Haka Dance in Popular Culture

With the Olympics underway, a post about New Zealand performing the Haka Dance in front of Team USA in the basketball World Cup in 2014 popped up in my feed randomly. As it was the first time those players saw the Haka Dance, they did not know how to react, but respectfully applauded once it was over. American fans also did not understand, based on their mocking comments regarding the dance. Seven years later, the Haka Dance has been increasing in popularity in sporting events and often can be seen in viral videos.

The Haka Dance originates from the Maori people who are Indigenous to New Zealand. With the popularity of the Haka, comes many people who want to copy it for views/popularity which is why The Guardian wrote an editorial piece on why that is inappropriate. In the article, the author raises an interesting point regarding cultural appropriation. When people copy a Haka performance they see on YouTube and make their own video, that is cultural appropriation. However, in Rotorua, a tourist spot in New Zealand, a local tribe called the Te Arawa, performs and teaches a version of their Haka to the tourists who can then go home and try it themselves. This was not seen as cultural appropriation as the Indigenous tribe was in control of what was being shared and the story that accompanied it. I think that this is an important aspect to remember when learning about other cultures and how to be respectful of their traditions.

https://www.givemesport.com/1726646-usa-basketball-remembering-when-nba-stars-were-baffled-by-new-zealands-haka

https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2020/jan/23/the-haka-isnt-yours-stop-performing-it

M3 P3: Indigenous Comic Books and Videogames

Selena Mills of CBC provides a link for 15 Indigenous comic books and videogames that could be introduced to kids. The commonality between all the titles in her list was that all of them “aim to eliminate negative stereotypes of Indigenous peoples as seen throughout pop culture.” (Mills, 2018). All the titles were either created and developed by Indigenous peoples or they were consulted during the creation process. Seeing these titles shows that Indigenous peoples are finding a harmony between their traditions and technology as they are able and willing to tell their stories through modern mediums such as comic books and videogames. As my research question relates to how we can bring Indigenous education into our classrooms in a way that is relevant yet authentic to our students, I found that these were perfect examples of how to accomplish that task.

Here’s the link to the list: https://www.cbc.ca/parents/learning/view/how-the-comic-book-and-gaming-community-is-reclaiming-indigenous-perspectiv

References:

Mills, S. (2018, January 9). 15 Beautiful Indigenous Comic Books and Video Games for Kids. CBC. https://www.cbc.ca/parents/learning/view/how-the-comic-book-and-gaming-community-is-reclaiming-indigenous-perspectiv

M3 P2: Never Alone Videogame

Never Alone is a videogame based on Inuit folklore and was developed in collaboration with nearly 40 Alaskan Native elders, storytellers, and community members. The game is narrated by an Inuit master storyteller which adds to the authenticity of the game. You can either play on your own, or in a cooperative mode with a partner. The game is produced by Upper One games which is the first Indigenous-owned commercial gaming company in the United States. Teachers have already been using the game as a teaching resource so I look forward to trying it out in my classroom as well since, as a gamer myself, I will take any opportunity to introduce videogames into my classroom!

Here is the link to the game’s official website: http://neveralonegame.com/

References

Never Alone (Kisima Ingitchuna). [Video Game]. (2014). Upper One Games.

M3 P1: Seven Sacred Teachings

I was part of ETEC 565S this summer which was the Summer Institute on Digital Gaming. In the course, I was introduced to the Seven Sacred Teachings through a game designed by my classmates called Dani the Dinosaur. It was created on a program called Twinery and it teaches primary grade students (Kindergarten/Grade 1 students especially) about the Sacred Teachings that are deeply rooted in Indigenous culture. The game can captivate the attention of the younger audience and motivate them to learn more about the 7 Teachings. It has an engaging story with excellent voice narration and eye catching animations. As our projects only needed to be a minimum viable product, only the first level out of the three seen works. Even though there is only one working level, it shows the potential that digital games can have to teach Indigenous teachings to students.

This blog doesn’t let me put the HTML directly on here so I had to make it into a Zip file. If you would like to try and play the game, right click on the file below and choose Save Link As to download the .zip file, extract it, and then double click to play.

Dani the Dino – Game

Additional information about the Seven Sacred Teachings can be find here: https://empoweringthespirit.ca/cultures-of-belonging/seven-grandfathers-teachings/

References:

Cameron, S., Carr, S. & Fung, J. (2021). Dani the Dino. [Video Game]. Twine.