Tag Archives: children

MODULE 4 – ENTRY 5: Aboriginal Issues in Canada

This short video clip touches on some very informative statistics and data that show how the Indigenous children´s poverty compares to non-Indigenous children, how the income gap is 30% lower for Aboriginal people in Canada, how 1 in 4 children in poverty are of an Indigenous background, how 73% of the First Nations water systems are contaminated, and overall how the poor socio-economic status of the First Nations people affect their everyday life, with very little to no funding nor aid by the government. It includes various comparison charts to show the differences between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples of Canada.

Public Domain photo by DMCA

Reference:

Varga, Ethan. (January 21, 2015). Aboriginal Issues in Canada. Retrieved on July 10, 2021 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGqtcnqRRNY

MODULE 4 – ENTRY 1: PART I-GARDENS & EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

The UBC’s Point Grey Campus is located on the traditional, ancestral, unceded territory of the Musqueam People. The Xʷc̓ic̓əsəm Garden (Indigenous Health Research and Education Garden) has been at the UBC farm since 2007. Ironically, I remember vividly that I was a returning student at UBC, undertaking my Bachelors in Education in 2006/2007, and my cohort and I had a wonderful opportunity to partake in a fieldtrip to an Indigenous garden. It was in its beginning stages of being planned and created by wonderful humanitarians, students, and teachers of Indigenous backgrounds just before the main campus, near a secondary school is what I can recall. I remember walking down a street and there was an opening of land. This is where our fieldtrip began.

Public Domain photo by Wallpaper Flare

I remember a feeling of nostalgia and hope coming over me when I saw what was being done. I remember having goosebumps on my arms, because it reminded me of what my mother did at her school…she began growing a garden for the children at her school in 1976 and when I was born, she would take me with her to her school and I would watch her garden, while I played with the other students. In 2014 the Xʷc̓ic̓əsəm Garden received a traditional name from Musqueam Indian Band. Xʷc̓ic̓əsəm is pronounced phonetically as “Hw ‘ts i ‘ts u sum-”. The hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ word means “The place where we grow” and it provides a reassertion of xʷməθkʷəy̓əm Musqueam land-based protocols and principles informing land-based practices. It reminded me of the place I grew, along with the other Indigenous students at ¿Uuqinak´uuh aka Grandview Terrace Daycare Centre. This is a 3 part blog, in relation to my final assignment, which focuses on experiential learning.

Reference:

Indigenous Research Partnerships (2007). Xʷc̓ic̓əsəm Garden. Retrieved July 10, 2021, https://lfs-iherg.sites.olt.ubc.ca/the-garden/

MODULE 3 – ENTRY 1: The Indigenization of an Elementary School through Horticulture

This link, https://www.vsb.bc.ca/schools/grandview/Teaching-and-Learning/Programs/Pages/Community-Garden.aspx, shows a continuation of my final assignment. It is related to some of my previous blogs in Module 1. I am focusing on how the Indigenization of educational institutions are beginning to exist and make positive differences. The ?Uuqinak’uuh/Grandview Community Garden project was created to improve the quality of life for the children in our neighbourhood. “It functions as a living laboratory and a model of an urban ecological school yard. This is a multi-generational place for children and people of all ages in the community to learn to live more sustainably in the urban environment.” Ultimately, their mission is to continue to create a healthier, positive neighbourhood environment to improve the community as a whole, which in turn will significantly influence the educational, socio-economical, emotional, psychological and economical well-being of the Indigenous peoples.

This link, https://thinkeatgreen.ca/2012/06/27/grandviewuuqinakuuh-elementary-sets-a-high-benchmark/, shows how to nurture the next generation of young gardeners, while sharing stories of historical nature in regards to land, people and community. It ironically, is where I grew up and how I see the massive amounts of beautiful transformations of the land and the people that live, grow, learn and teach there.

This link, https://www.cityfarmer.org/grandview.html , shows how the local Grandview Community Schoolyard project has converted an underused school field to improve the quality of life for children and other community members in an inner city neighbourhood. It literally is a living laboratory of an urban ecological school yard. This has become a multi-generational place for children and people of all ages in the community to learn to live more sustainably in the urban environment. Ultimately, the mission here was to create a more healthy, positive neighbourhood environment and improve the livability of the community as a whole.

Public Domain photo by Royalty-Free Photo

References:

Abangsund. (June 27, 2012). Grandview/¿uuqinak’uuh Elementary sets a high benchmark. [Site]. Retrieved June 17, 2021, https://thinkeatgreen.ca/2012/06/27/grandviewuuqinakuuh-elementary-sets-a-high-benchmark/

Grandview/?Uuqinak’uuh Elementary School, VSB. (March 5, 2019). Teaching and Learning-Community Garden. [Site]. Retrieved June 17, 2021, https://www.vsb.bc.ca/schools/grandview/Teaching-and Learning/Programs/Pages/Community-Garden.aspx

Penner, Tracy and City Farmer, Canada’s Office of Urban Agriculture. (January 25, 2000). Grandview U’uqinak’uuh Community School Yard. [Site]. Retrieved June 17, 2021, http://www.cityfarmer.org/grandview.html

MODULE 2 – Entry 4: FINDING MEANINGFUL RESOURCES

Early Years Indigenous Cultural Safety Resource Guide. BC Ministry of Children and Family Development:

I feel, the earlier we can help support our Indigenous students the better their chances will be for success in every aspect of their lives. The purpose of this guide is to help educators who work with younger Indigenous children, families, and communities find appropriate and meaningful resources that will increase their ability to provide culturally safe and respectful care.

Where can I learn more about Indigenous people in Canada?:

This site includes resources for children of all ages. It lists Indigenous themed picture books, comic books, reading books, video games, colouring pages, fun booklets, online crossword, interactive games, “Did You Know Q & A” and a bead amaze art activity. If you click on “Explore the Indigenous Culture” it leads to more topics for children to go through, like the following: Indigenous History, Totem Pole info, Indigenous Resources, Fun Facts (Food, Language, Sports, Dance), First Nations (People, Books, Crafts). CBC Kids’ Indigenous resources display items and activities that would expose the younger generation to the beautiful culture of the Indigenous peoples in fun, simple creative ways that would capture many children’s hearts and minds in an engaging and informative manner.

The BC Aboriginal Child Care Society (BCACCS)-Centre of Excellence for Indigenous Early Learning and Child Care:

This particular site looks into helping Indigenous communities develop high quality, culturally grounded, spiritually enriching, community child care services that are based in the child’s culture, language and history. There is a team of dedicated people who help provide leadership, training, resources, and services to support Indigenous early learning and child care. They honour the memory and dedication of those that came before us and have joined them in this journey to support Indigenous early learning child care. There are amazing links to projects and videos linked to the BCACCS, for example the “The Documentation Project,” various workshops, curriculum kits and services like including hosting two preschool programs that provide quality demonstration and learning sites, outreach, networking, research, resources, and training to support early childhood educators and the Indigenous children and families they serve.

Public Domain Photo, taken by the University of Saskatchewan

References:

BC Ministry of Children and Family Development.(2018). The BC Aboriginal Child Care Society (BCACCS)-Centre of Excellence for Indigenous Early Learning and Child Care.[Site]. Retrieved May 29, 2021 https://www.acc-society.bc.ca/about/

Canada Media Fund. (2021). Where can I learn more about Indigenous people in Canada? [Site]. Retrieved May 29, 2021,https://www.cbc.ca/kidscbc2/the-feed/where-can-i-learn-more-about-indigenous-people-in-canada

Province of British Columbia. (March 2021). Early Years Indigenous Cultural Safety Resource Guide. BC Ministry of Children and Family Development.[Site]. Retrieved May 29, 2021,https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/family-and-social-supports/child-care/ics_resource_guide.pdf

MODULE 2 – Entry 2: Seeds of Promise: Grandview/?Uuqinak’uuh* School in Vancouver

Public Domain photo taken by Amanda Mills

This site is linked to my final assignment as are the entries I will continue to share in our UBC Blogs. It is a community story regarding the issue of poverty and how teachers in a local school are still to this day very committed to advocate for better conditions for the Indigenous children and their families in the city of Vancouver east end. This is an area that tends to be avoided for decades, due to the area being synonymous with crime, poverty and despair. In one corner of the district, however to this day, there are determined group of educators, children, parents and volunteers who continue to create a garden oasis for play and learning in what has always been a gathering place for people in the drug, crime and sex trades. The children of Grandview/ ?Uuqinak’uuh Elementary School now have access to a playground complete with food, flower and butterfly gardens, stands of maple trees and a Coast Salish longhouse. Since the 1970s to today, some good changes, like having committed advocates for Indigenous children and their families continue. After almost 50 years of observations from my own mother, who was a teacher in this exact area, and almost 40 years myself, we can still see that the inequity issues, like poverty, are affecting the Indigenous peoples in our local community. The key question is whether Canadians are willing to understand and address the issues of poverty?

Reference:

Caledon Institute of Social Policy. (January 25, 2000). Seeds of Promise: Grandview/?Uuqinak’uuh* School in Vancouver. [Site]. Retrieved May 18, 2021, https://maytree.com/wp-content/uploads/223ENG.pdf

MODULE 1-Entry 1: My Very First Visit to a Local Community Garden!

Please click on the following link;Grandview/¿uuqinak uuh Community Garden and select Google images to view the various pictures. Here you will get a glimpse of what my mother started back in 1979! My mom taught me about respecting Mother Earth and all it’s children, young and old. She was an educator at the small neighbouring school Grandview Terrace Daycare, which was a preschool in an innercity area, for well over 40 years. She noticed many of her students, ages 2-5 were mal-nutritioned, and the food that was available in her school did not meet the requirements for a proper and nutritious diet for any growing child. So around the time I was 2 years old, my mom began to do what she does best, she started to grow a little community garden in a little patch of soil just behind the school. She would take me to work with her and spend time teaching, working on the garden and taking care of me. She used this garden, that bore so many fruits and vegetables, to feed the children and give the remaining to the students whose families were in need. Her name is Sneh (which means love in our culture), and she has fed so many little tummies, and filled so many hearts and she is my mentor and hero! —-,—‘-(@

She is still teaching many around our neighbourhood how to garden to this day! Sneh is a teacher, friend, colleague, gardner, landscaper, protector, and most of all advocate for all the children, from various backgrounds, the majority being of Indigenous decent. Back in the 70’s and 80’s, community gardens were non-existent, just like government funding and proper food programs for those in need. Without getting too much into my very first blog, I just wanted to give everyone a chance to see what one person can do, and what it can lead to over time.

I added some links below for you to see and read about the ¿UUQINAK’UUH community garden and elementary school, wow has it grown!!!

Grandview Grows!

https://www.vsb.bc.ca/schools/grandview/Teaching-and-Learning/Programs/Pages/Community-Garden.aspx

http://www.cityfarmer.org/grandview.html

Grandview/¿uuqinak’uuh Elementary sets a high benchmark