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.
The link above provides an interactive map for students to view the Indigenous place names of various locations in BC. It explains which dialect the place name comes from and also the meaning behind the place name.
This resource helps students see that where they lived went by another name and that there was significance to that name. It helps students understand that the land was taken away from the Indigenous Peoples and their home got renamed but now, work is being done to officially recognize the Indigenous place names again. Having the map be interactive and online makes it easier for learners to navigate versus looking at a physical map found in the classroom.
Biidaaban (The Dawn Comes) is a stop motion movie about an Indigenous youth who is trying to revive the sap harvest in their neighbourhood in Ontario. The movie is a good introduction to stop motion animation and also demonstrates to students that stories can be told without using dialogue. This movie is a good example of how you can connect technology with Indigenous culture as an integrated unit in Language Arts, Art, and ADST.
Biidaaban First Light is a VR experience where users see a version of Toronto as if it was reclaimed by nature. The experience weaves in parts of Indigenous culture such as values and language. The video linked is an interview with Lisa Jackson who was one of the designers of the project. One term that I liked that she mentioned was Indigenous Futurism which talks about bringing views of Indigenous cultures into the modern/future times instead of only stereotyping that Indigenous cultures are only part of the past. This would be a neat experience for students as they would be able to see a city they recognize in an entirely new lens.
This story was shown to my students by our Indigenous Resource Teacher ahead of National Indigenous Peoples Day. I enjoyed listening to this story as it portrayed Indigenous peoples in a positive light and in a more relevant way that connected with the students. The book talks about Indigenous heroes and how their actions have impacted the world. Students recognized some of the names listed and wanted to research further on their history. For example, one of my students remembered hearing the name Sacagawea from watching the movie “Night at the Museum”, but did not know that she was such an important person in North American history. Another student wanted to research Jim Thorpe as they only knew he was an Olympian but did not know about his history. Having stories like these that are more relatable to the students helps engage them and entices them to learn more. When learning about Indigenous cultures, students often see it as something external to them as if these cultures were from a long time ago or from a far away place. Books like these make students see that things are closer to them than they initially realized.
With my research topic being: “How can we weave, using technology, Indigenous knowledge into curriculum so that it engages our youth today [and allow for hands-on learning]?” I thought that a podcast would be a great way to use technology to connect Indigenous knowledge with the curriculum. The Secret Life of Canada is a history podcast that talks about the history of Canada that is not found in textbooks. It dives into the darker past of Canada which includes some topics about the treatment of Indigenous people throughout Canada’s history. This CBC podcast is hosted by Falen Johnson who is Mohawk and Tuscarora from Six Nations.
When researching about mixed reality and Indigenous culture, I came across this cool video about how a Heiltsuk artist named Shawn Hunt worked with Microsoft Vancouver to create a transformation mask equipped with Microsoft’s HoloLens. Transformation masks were traditionally used during ceremonies and demonstrated the transformation of usually an animal into a spiritual being. Using 3D print technology and the HoloLens, he designed a technological transformation mask where the wearer/viewer is the one who is transforming.
This is well beyond the scope of a classroom but it brings up the potential for educators to blend technology with Indigenous culture. In the video, Shawn Hunt talks about how it is difficult for Indigenous cultures to compete against television and other forms of media so instead, he tries to encompass technology to help tell their stories. I think this mix of tradition with technology is the way to go to help our youth today connect with Indigenous culture and the invaluable lessons/traditions they are trying to pass down.
Background information about transformation masks:
One of the units I teach in Science is about climate change and one of the topics I discuss is Old Growth Forests as it is a topic that is relatively unknown to my students. They have heard of planting trees after cutting down trees but what they may not have known was that these “second-growth” trees are not the same type as the ones that were cut down. The old growth forests are not economical for the forest industry as they take too long to grow so they instead grow trees that grow quickly so that they can cut them down and start the process again for manufacturing their products. This greatly affects the carbon sinks as the old growth forests absorb significantly higher amounts of carbon than the trees being used to replace them. I also talk about the Indigenous perspective regarding the logging of old growth forests and how it is affecting their culture and way of living.
Clayoquot Sound is an example of Indigenous-led conservation strategies being used to help preserve old growth forests and why the work that is being done there is significant.
At my school, some of the classes are learning about the cedar harvest and how cedar was used by the Indigenous communities. One of the purposes that was discussed, was cedar weaving. This year, some of our primary grade classrooms were fortunate to be able to have a lesson about cedar weaving from Jessica Silvey through Zoom. They each made cedar bark mats and she talked about how the cedar was prepared and how the cedar had many uses. It was a valuable experience for the students that was hands-on and engaging.
I have included a link to her website below for people who may be interested in seeing her availability for hosting workshops.
This resource provides the Indigenous history for many parts of the city of Burnaby. Students often learn about the history of their province in a wide scope but there are limited resources available for their local environment. Growing up and now teaching in Burnaby, it was very interesting learning about the history of my city in a different lens and seeing how the land of each of the different regions in Burnaby was used. Hopefully this type of resource becomes more popular with the other cities as it would be very interesting to learn about the history of those areas as well!
This resource ties together BC Science Curriculum content with Indigenous content. It provides the Indigenous perspective on topics such as evolution, energy systems, and climate change. By giving additional perspectives, students are able to get a deeper understanding of the topics. In this case, with energy systems and climate change, students are able to see how different cultures viewed where they got their energy from and also how they are affected by climate change differently. In addition to information, it also provides various activities for students to work through to build their understanding.
