Learning is holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential, and relational (focused on connectedness, on reciprocal relationships, and a sense of place)

First Nations Education Steering Commitee

Let me tell you a story.

It starts with a seed, no larger than a grain of sand. Embraced by cool, damp earth, this seed takes root and stretches up towards the air – the warmth of the light. Up, up; reaching, growing. Soaking the water into its stem, this plant – no longer can it be called seedling – thrives under the fiery sun. Until, one day, the air, water, and earth grows cold. The plant begins to wither. It dries up. Settles back into the earth.

This is a story that is familiar. It is our story – the story of life. It can take many forms – change the characters or the setting, but the plot remains the same: “birth, youth, parents and elders” (Paterson).

I read it [Jane Eyre] every year or two. Each time it’s different. It tells me different things.

– April Hoffman, Definitely, Maybe

Stories. Novels. Narratives. These were my family and friends, guiding me through social situations. These were my teachers, leading me through my moral, personal, and physical development. Like the character April, I return to my favourite books many times. Often once a year, sometimes multiple times in a year. Like April, each time I read a story it tells me something new about myself, and the world around me.

Stories are traditionally told over and over. A child’s understanding of a specific story might differ from that of a young adult or adult. Children might appreciate the entertainment. Adults might appreciate the spiritual teachings. The same story might offer something to listeners of all ages. Listeners are expected to learn from their experiences and to use stories to guide their decisions throughout life.

“Walking Together” (3)

This return to a story – circling back – is reflected in both Harry Robinson’s stories, and Green Grass, Running Water. With Robinson’s, he helped Wendy Wickwire to understand that multiple tellings is necessary for true understanding through explicit instruction, which Wickwire further passed on to listeners (Robinson). In King, the listener discovers this lesson through a cyclical journey.

The notion of the cyclical paradigm – the medicine wheel – is one in which I am extremely familiar. Within my art therapy practice, I follow the holistic health model which “encompasses the physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual world” (Archibald 7) – a model that First Peoples have followed for generations (7). The arts and creativity lend themselves naturally to this model, in the way they transcend cultures and traditions (30).

I have also brought this practice into my teaching philosophy. As Dr. Paterson mentions in lesson 3:2, the holistic model – the medicine wheel – is “also a tool for teaching”. In one sense, when students are struggling in one area of life, learning will not be as successful. I see this weekly: student who are tired, not getting enough rest (physical) will not be able to bring their full self into the classroom.

With Covid-19, more and more students are overwhelmed and stressed; their mental, social, emotional, and spiritual health is being impacted.

These five areas of health are all connected. If one is low, the others will begin to drain as well. In healing, one cannot truly be well until all areas are working together in harmony.

In another sense, learning is holistic in that it is multimodal (Gardner; Klein). There are a variety of ways to learn – visual, kinesthetic, musical – all which can complement each other and provide the learner with a well-rounded education. This also reflects that everyone is different, interacts and understand the world in different ways. This, in turn, creates different perspectives; creates slightly different stories.

It is this that King captures so well – the understanding that different people have different stories to tell. He provides the reader/listener of Green Grass, Running Water with four perspectives, four tellings of the story, to give a well-rounded narrative,

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The differences between the four old Indians are as substantial as their similarities. For one thing, they all come from different Native cultures. But the differences between them are finally like the differences between white and Native. King sets them up in such a way—through chance—that the oppositions refuse to fully reconstitute themselves. All kinds of differences show themselves as interconnected, rather than opposed to each other. And it is through storied dialogues that that they reveal their connections.

Chester (52)

Chester’s writing on Green Grass, Running Water highlights the cyclical connection of life even further. This cyclical understanding is present in Green Grass, Running Water as well. The characters lives are intertwined to each other, and to their pasts; to the four old Indians, to coyote. It is through intervention on the part of these latter characters that these connections come about. The reader is guided through the story in a way that at first feels detached, but soon has their eyes opened to the connections they had previously missed.

This cylce that King brings into Green Grass, Running Water immitates how we learn from society. When we first encounter something, we can only interpret based on our experiences to date. We learn, either from this encounter or other interactions, and when we encounter something a second time, we are more prepared.

Each our our perspectives, our understandings, our truths are unique.

The Anishinabé say someone is speaking the truth with the term w’daebawae. This means they are telling the truth as far as their words and experience can take them. Elders’ experiences make them people who know the truth in this sense of the word. It does not mean they know the one truth and that all others are incorrect.

“Walking Together” (2)

“The Dené Tha’ […] call oral storytelling emot’li, which means ‘words to live by'” (“Walking Together” 3-4). We live, we learn from stories time and time again. King shows us this, time and time again. Now what will we do with it?

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Works Cited

Archibald, Linda and Dewar, Jonathan. “Creative Arts, Culture, and Healing:

Building an Evidence Base”. Dancing, Singing, Painting, and Speaking

the Healing Story: Healing through Creative Arts, Aboriginal Healing

Foundation, 2012.

Chester, Bianca. “Green Grass, Running Water: Theorizing the World of the

Novel”. Canadian Literature, vol. 161/162, 1999.

Definitely, Maybe. Adam Brooks, dir. StudioCanal, 2008.

“First Nations Perspective on Health and Wellness”. First Nations Health

Authority, www.fnha.ca/wellness/wellness-and-the-first-nations-health-

authority/first-nations-perspective-on-wellness. Accessed 19 March

2021.

“First Peoples Principles of Learning”. First Nations Education Steering

Committee, www.fnesc.ca/first-peoples-principles-of-learning/.

Accessed 19 March 2021.

Gardner, Howard. “Chapter 18: Multiple Approaches to Understanding”. The

development and education of the mind: The selected works of

Howard Gardner. Routledge, 2006, pp. 159-167).

King, Thomas. Green Grass, Running Water. eBook, Harper Perennial,

2012. Richmond Public Library.

King, Thomas. The Truth About Stories. eBook. House of Anansi Press Inc.,

2011. Halifax Public Libraries.

Klein, Sheri R. “Holistic Reflection in Teacher Education: Issues and

Strategies”. Reflective Practice, vol. 9, no. 2, 2008, pp. 111-121. 

Paterson, Erika. “Lesson 3:2”. Canadian Literature, University of British

Columbia. 14 March 2021. Lecture notes.

Robinson, Harry. “Introduction”. Living by Stories: a Journey of Landscape

and Memory. Wendy Wickwire, editor. Talon Books, 2005, pp. 1-30.

“Walking Together: First Nations, Métis and Inuit Perspectives in

Curriculum”. Excerpt from Aboriginal Perspectives, 

www.learnalberta.ca/content/aswt/oral_tradition/documents/oral_tradi

tion.pdf. Accessed 17 March 2021. 

Wilbur, Matika and Keene, Adrienne, hosts. All My

Relations, www.buzzsprout.com/262196, 2019. Accessed 16 March

2021.