The Running Thunder Cree Dancers and the Ukrainian Shumka Dancers came together to create a new production called Ancestors & Elders. This is a beautiful one-hour dance performance interconnecting two significant communities of Treaty 6. It tells the story of the first Ukrainian settlers in Alberta and their relationship with the Indigenous people of Treaty 6 territory they encountered. This performance utilizes music, movement, and poetic oral storytelling to depict a visual story.

• Listen: Below is the transcribed first poem/oral story told in the performance. Have students listen to that part of the video once or twice (time stamp 4:47-6:04).

  • As they listen, have students write words in their journal that stand out to them or words this reminds them of as they listen to the video (this starting point can help students reflect later).

“My girl you don’t know why we dance, maybe you don’t know why we have to dance, where it comes from, how we almost lost the dance, how the dance almost lost us. Dance never be lost, may it find you, maybe you don’t know the stories, maybe you learned them, maybe you feel too much, all that stands between you and the land. May the dance bring you back. Dance, my girl, dance. Let the land rise up in you. Bring you back to the music. Dance, to learn the stories. Dance, to try to understand the silence……that has been our survival, and beyond that…. still the song.” (time stamp 4:47-6:04)

• Reflect: Have students reflect on how it makes them feel. Students can use their jotted words/word cloud to support and inspire their reflection process. This can be done via visual journaling, sketch notes, writing, etc.

• Then have them respond to the following: how do you feel dance is being portrayed here? Is it important, and how so?

Have students listen to the remainder of the video Ancestors & Elders or other parts of the video. There is also a downloadable and ready to use lesson below you can give to your students containing 4 excerpts. A preview is on the left.

Objective(s):

• To understand there are different stories and perspectives happening at the same time and place.

• To compare and contrast different oral stories and poems.

Students will be asked to analyze how land is being portrayed in the excerpts included in the link below. Then, they will engage in comparing and contrasting the relationship of land depicted in these excerpts.

This lesson has been put into a student pdf for download or online use.

Ukrainian and Indigenous Story-Telling - Different Stories, Same Land

The oral accounts in Ancestors & Elders have plenty of literary and poetic devices, they are great examples of how personification is impactful in storytelling.

Objective(s):

• Analyze the impact personification has on oral storytelling.

• Create your own story or poem using personification techniques.

After analyzing the excerpt for personification techniques and highlighting key words with that device, students can try their own. Then, students are asked to write a story or poem using personification techniques to show the significance of a cultural practice, activity, ceremony or anything else to either their culture, family, identity, value system, and/or passions.

This lesson has been put into a student pdf for download or online use. Adjustments can be made by using a different oral story and/or changing the poetic device.

Ukrainian and Indigenous Story-Telling - Personification and Story

Students will be introduced to a form of public art that has been around through the ages. Through learning about modern murals, students will see how cultural art and movements can have international impacts by learning how the U.S.A and Canada were inspired and impacted by Mexico's use of murals. Learning about murals frees us from the idea that art is something private that needs to be protected and makes it something by the community and for the community. They can also engage in how someone's art can become part of a public discourse and political protest. They will practice adding to a public message by finding a mural of interest and adding their own art to it.

Objective:

• To learn what murals are and the different ways they were and are being used.

The lesson is adapted into Google Slides for easy in-class use. See following link.

What is A Mural

Artists use images to symbolize and represent a story, message and/or feeling they wish to communicate. And we engage in a conversation with an artist by engaging with their art as we try to understand, connect and make meaning from it. This is a great way to have students of all ages engage with symbolism in art by using the “CROP IT” method. You may choose any of the murals in “Strong as a Forest” (see murals here) or any other image you desire.

Objective:

• To analyze how artists use colors, shapes and images to depict a message to the viewer.

• Ask students: what images or symbols do you see in the mural? (Mural is on the left)

• Tell students to frame a part of the image that caught their eye, or stood out most to them.

• This can be done both physically and virtually.

  • Physically - create small cutout frames students can use to frame part of the image. See the example to the left.

  • Virtually - students can crop out or screen capture a small segment of the image and paste it on a blank document. See example of cropped image to the left.

Pre-reflection:

Ask students to reflect on the cropping they chose in their journals. Use the following prompts:

• Why did you choose this? (Is it because of their background knowledge, their own experiences, their cultures, the colors, or something else?)

• What do you think this cropping you chose might symbolize? Why do you think that?

Pair-and-Share - Have students share their choices and responses.

• • Extension for Early Finishers: come up with a collaborative question they wonder about this image or have them create a combined image of their croppings to see if it inspires new lines of thought.

Context of Murals and Artist Perspectives:

• • Show the PTR videos about the Strong as Forest mural and/or read the pgs 86-100 of the Legacy book together to hear from the artists themselves. Video links below.

Paint The Rails Corona Station: Carla Shares her mural pieces for the project (Part 1)

Paint The Rails Corona Station: Adrian Shares His Work He Created For The Mural(Part 2)

Post-reflection & Closing:

Ask student to respond, discuss or journal using the following questions:

• Did hearing other's responses make you think of something new or surprise you? How do your responses connect?

• How did looking closely at small portions of the image help to deepen your understanding of its meaning and impact? If it did not, explain why.

• How did watching the videos or reading more about the murals from an artist's perspective affect your understanding? Explain.

• Can we only engage in understanding art with explanations from an artist? Why or why not?

This lesson plan is inspired by the “Crop It” lesson on the following link https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/teaching-strategies/crop-it

Modern murals are largely community oriented and used as a form of expression and political protest. It is a way to show resistance, revolution, and hope for both past and present. It allows for accessible public discourse given its use of public space to display messages while broadening what it means to engage in debate beyond “eloquent speech”. This lesson explores with students the following guiding question:

How can public works of art memorialize the history, struggles, and triumphs of the individuals and groups that make up our communities and be used as a form of civic participation?

This lesson is adapted into Google Slides and is ready for in-class use at the following link.

Murals - Historical Struggle and Community Resistance.