I never learned much about First Nations Culture growing up, and it was not until late in my undergraduate degree that I began to learn about their history within Canada. Fast forward eight years and I am immersed in a school where First Nations culture and traditions are embraced and valued in day to day operation.
Indigenous people’s knowledge comes mainly from experiences, perceptions, thoughts, and memories, including shared experiences in the form of dreams, visions, and signs interpreted with the guidance of healers or elders. (Battiste, 2016) It was a culture where “No one has ever ‘looked up’ anything” (Ong, 1982). First Nations people thrive within this community centered on oral traditions (Battiste, 2016). Memories, stories, and traditions are passed down throughout generations to preserve their culture. Elders, in First Nations culture, are the keepers of the past and as Ong (1982) points out, have a significant role in the preservation of the culture. Even within today’s literate society, my experience has been that First Nations Elders are still of great importance within the culture and their memorable storytelling remains paramount to pass on traditions, customs, and values to the younger generations. However, this heavy reliance on oral tradition has come at a cost.
(In an attempt to keep within a decent word count I will assume some prior knowledge of the role residential schools had in the loss of tradition First Nations culture.)
Growing up in a traditional First Nations community, children received all their education through observation, practice, and wisdom from elders and community members. When European settlers arrived, their education and political systems were used to assimilate First Nations children and this “severely eroded and damaged indigenous knowledge” (Battiste, 2016). Quilling, beading, hide tanning, hunting, storytelling and religious ceremonies were all commonplace within Aboriginal communities. However, many of these practices were lost because the children were taken for months out of the year and were forced to learn a Eurocentric worldview. Therefore, because oral cultures rely on redundancy (Ong, 1982), many lacked the traditional teachings that were passed down. Children were not able to recall. Therefore they did not know. However, this culture has been resilient, and a plan of action has been introduced that outlines what needs to be done so that this traditional oral culture can begin to thrive once again.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada was created to begin the hard conversation surrounding residential schools. A Call to Action was established to start the revival of a culture that has lost much of its identity. One of the main sectioned outlined in this Call to Action surrounds Education and the development of culturally appropriate curriculum (TRC, 2015).
Battiste (2016) talks about the complex and diverse ways of teaching indigenous knowledge within schools. She speaks about the fact that the only way to truly revive this culture is to make indigenous people the custodians. Within the past two years, my school has taken this challenge head-on with the inclusion of many elders and community members. Bringing Back the Buffalo is the theme that has been taken on by our school and focuses on regaining much of the cultural practices that were lost throughout generations.
“Artists Lorne Kequahtooway, Joely BigEagle-Kequahtooway and Thorina Wilson from the Buffalo People’s Arts Institute were brought into the school to share traditional teachings about the Buffalo, conduct community hide-tanning workshops and teach students to create jewelry, hand drums and moccasins using beads, parfleche, and buffalo leather. “ (Cataldo, 2018)
Along with these traditional teachings, we are also participating in smudging, sweats, and learning Cree from our elders. (I could go on for pages about my school and the steps we are taking to include traditional oral teachings, but for the sake of length I will leave it at that.)
My school’s goal is to break the cycle of poverty within our community, and we believe that incorporating traditional oral culture will be vital to the success of our students. Knowing who you are and what your cultural history is, will allow the students to begin to form a more complete identity. Recalling traditional teachings and practices will go a long way into knowing who they are.
“You know what you can recall” (Ong, 1982)
References
Battiste, Marie (2016). Research Ethics for Protecting Indigenous Knowledge and Heritage in Ethical futures in qualitative research: Decolonizing the politics of knowledge. (pp. 111-132) Routledge.
Cataldo, S. (2018). Bringing back the buffalo. Saskartsboard.ca. Retrieved 2 June 2018, from http://www.saskartsboard.ca/8-features/663-bringing-back-the-buffalo.html
Ong, W. J. (2013). Orality and literacy. Routledge.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action [Http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/File/2015/Findings/Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf]. (2015). Retrieved December 3, 2017.
Carri-Ann Scott
June 4, 2018 — 8:25 am
Hello, David.
The title of your post drew me in. The concept that “you only know what you can recall” is one that would be foreign to many of the young people today for whom Google has become a verb.
I readily admit to being one who overly relies on the information stored in my pocket computer (aka phone). In my teens, I had dozens of telephone numbers stored in my brain for easy recall. Now I struggle to remember my daughter’s number. I hesitate to say that the struggle is indicative of my age (and overuse of brain cells perhaps) but it is also a sign that I have bought into the mantra my children parrot, “I don’t need to remember, I can look it up!”
When relating the concept of recall to indigenous studies, I would highlight that many of the facts being relayed would be important not only for cultural reasons but also for pure human survival. If one could not hunt a buffalo or grow crops according to the weather patterns, they might starve. Through the journey your school is taking, you are not only reviving culture, but also reviving knowledge.
In Toronto, there is a school devoted to Afrocentric culture. The concept, similar to that of the loss of indigeneity, is that many children of African heritage have lost their traditional values which are contributing to an increase in crime and poverty within the diaspora.
In Canada, we pride ourselves on being a melting pot, where cultures merge and meld. We trust that we are better for it. Perhaps the time has come to question what we have lost?
When my kindergarten children mix red and blue, they get purple. But what happens when they add green, and brown, and yellow, and orange. Do we lose the vivid joy of the individual colours? Would we be better served by valuing each colour and creating a mosaic instead of a melting pot? Many feel that, compared to the US, we are already a mosaic (Peach, 2005). However, I would suggest that the cultural assimilation we see (and expect?) in mainstream society and the impacts on the youth who are unsure which path to follow are indications of the distance we still need to travel.
Culture is not only necessary but imperative to the healthy image of our selves. I applaud the efforts you are making to ensure that it is not lost to the First Nation community you serve. I wonder what else we can do to encourage cultural celebrations from all over the world and keep the recall alive.
References:
Africentric Alternative School. (n.d.). Retrieved June 4, 2018, from http://schoolweb.tdsb.on.ca/africentricschool/
Peach, C. (2005). The mosaic versus the melting pot: Canada and the USA. Scottish Geographical Journal, 121(1), 3-27. doi:10.1080/00369220518737218
george backhouse
June 6, 2018 — 5:25 pm
Hi David,
Like Carri-Ann, it was your catchy title that drew my attention to your post. I really enjoyed reading what you had to say. What stood out most is your message about culturally inclusive education. I believe this is extremely important. Even more so now, in modern times, because everything is moving so quickly and we rarely take the time to reflect on our history (both its beauty and its ugliness). I would like to speak to culturally inclusive education. In particular, I would like to speak to the place of language within that framework and how it has also served a dual purpose in education.
My country of origin is South Africa. It is a beautiful country with a very tainted past. We also had a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It was disbanded not long after the fist proceedings. One reason for this is that the public felt it became a vehicle for blame and did not move to real, meaningful dialogue for the reconciliation. The riots that led to the eventual toppling of the Apartheid Regime, were initiated in response to the language curriculum in South African public schools. Black school children were forced to learn Afrikaans. To them this was the language of the oppressor. They decided to do something about it and took to the streets.
Many years later, Afrikaans is still a compulsory language in public schools. However, school children are able to receive instruction in their mother-tongue until the third grade. Thereafter, they can choose to continue in English or Afrikaans. Not so long ago, there was a move towards making it compulsory for South African school children to learn a Black African language. This project failed miserably. Firstly, there are no textbooks in any of the Black African languages. Secondly, are no teachers trained to deliver a curriculum in a Black African language.
However, and most significantly, there are no universities that offers courses or lectures in a Black African Language. Most South African school-leaving youths want a university education. In order to do so, they need to learn either English of Afrikaans. There is only one Afrikaans university in South Africa, which means that English is, really, their own option. Furthermore, a post secondary education in Afrikaans is very limiting in a world that is becoming increasingly more globalised. Thus the most vocal opponents to the introduction of compulsory Black African languages in South African schools are the Black youths themselves.
I find this fascinating. Like the Indigenous People in Canada, the Black Africans of South Africa were an oral culture. Prior to the arrival of Europeans in South Africa, the entire body of their knowledge was contained in the story-telling capacities of the elders or their skills specialists (hunters, fishermen, traditional healers etc.). This knowledge is slowly fading away, despite the best efforts of the government to keep it alive. The most significant barrier that preservationists experience is represented by language as it relates to social mobility. Until Black African languages enjoy the same prestige that European languages do, it will be a bitter struggle to revive and sustain the culture.
There is much that is beautiful about the Black African languages and cultures (11 in total in South Africa). Other South African languages are peppered with their wisdom and insights. The way of life they represent is both peaceful and deeply reflective, yet it barely has a place in the fast-paced and capitalist society that characterizes modern life. It is a great pity that all of this beauty is in danger of being irretrievably lost. Already the last of the true San people (known traditionally as “Bushmen” though this term has fallen into disuse) are dying and taking their language and culture with them.
In view of this, I cannot help but wonder what it might have been like if these people had developed technology that might have preserved their culture and way of life. There are efforts (both on the linguistic and anthropological fronts) to collect and preserve records and artefacts of these ancient peoples. However, these attempts are weak impressions of the actual thing. When a language dies, the world is a poorer place for it. Alongside language death is the death of the knowledge and culture of the people that spoke it.
mackenzie moyer
June 7, 2018 — 6:47 pm
David,
That sounds like an excellent learning environment to be immersed in, both for students and yourself. I’d imagine this type of learning being apprenticeship-focused. Looking forward to seeing more of your posts related to this experience.
Has your school shared anything on YouTube? Would be interested in seeing how the process works, maybe some text-based content.
david nelson
June 10, 2018 — 5:48 pm
Hi Mackenzie,
We do have twitter as well as a Youtube channel.
@MTMSRegina
Here is a quick intro video from our Youtube channel!
Video
sally bourque
June 7, 2018 — 9:41 pm
Hi David, Carrie-Ann, George and Mackenzie,
I too was drawn in by your title and really enjoyed reading this entire thread. It’s late now and I’ve been working on the computer for hours so I’m not sure what I’m about to write but I wanted to acknowledge these posts.
Being the technology addict that I am, Indigenous language and technology always make me think about this Augmented Reality App for accessing Indigenous stories:
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/8qk9w5/augmented-reality-vancouver-indigenous
As I googled for the above, I also came across this video, which I thought was a neat intersection of technology, art and stories.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noPFpWMdWcA
david nelson
June 10, 2018 — 6:24 pm
Sally,
That Augmented Reality thing is very cool! I was lucky enough to get into the summer session put on by UBC that dives into VR. I wonder if this type of infusion of culture and technology could be used in the VR world?