Ways of Knowing
Pre-Reflection Activity: Mindmap
Have students create a mind map of the word knowledge.
What does knowledge mean and represent to them?
This can be repeated for Worldview and Culture.
Pair and Share: Have students pair up and discuss their mind maps. Then have each pair share with the class what they found.
Have students keep this mind map. They will add to it as they move learn more. This encourages reflective learning; allowing students to see how their learning and thinking changes and progresses.
Four Directions Teaching Resource
Have students engage with the interactive resource below. Watch the introduction together and then have students watch the Blackfoot and Cree options.
http://www.fourdirectionsteachings.com
How do they talk about learning and knowledge on the website?
How is it different from what you have been taught?
What are the benefits to incorporating or integrating more than one culture's way of being?
Talking and Walking Together
Talking Together, a discussion guide for Walking Together: First Nations, Métis and Inuit Perspectives in Curriculum, contains practical ideas for school leaders and teachers to explore the resource in groups or individually. Sample workshops and activities are designed for teachers, administrators, school board members, school council members, parents and community members.
https://www.learnalberta.ca/content/aswt/talkingtogether/index.html
Walking Together, a First Nations, Métis and Inuit Perspectives in Curriculum, is a digital resource designed to help teachers understand the holistic nature of First Nations, Métis and Inuit ways of knowing; to provide opportunity for Inuit, First Nations and Métis peoples to share their perspectives on topics important to them; and to demonstrate First Nations, Métis and Inuit perspectives in teaching and learning experiences.
Tipi Raising and Teachings
What does a house mean to you? What does home mean to you?
Tipi Raising incorporates Indigenous values, practices and knowledge. Having a lesson on Tipi Raising and what it can teach us is a great interdisciplinary and holistic approach. Engaging students in exploring the Tipi opens up not only awareness and openness to Indigenous worldviews, it helps students connect to the notion that we all have homes and traditionally, each culture had unique meanings and teachings about home.
Here are a few ways to integrate Tipi teachings in your classroom:
Invite an Elder or knowledge keeper to share teachings. Be sure to offer protocol and a gift to the Elder to start. Be aware of the unique teachings of male, female and two spirit elders and that they each carry important learnings on the Tipi.
Here is a great website that contains videos, a powerpoint activity, and lesson ideas. http://aboriginalperspectives.uregina.ca/tipianaquod/index.shtml#
In addition to this, this is a wonderful document on Tipi Teachings http://thegatheringteachers.weebly.com/uploads/3/2/1/0/32109417/tipiteachings.pdf
***These two links above on Tipi Raising and Teachings were taken from this website
Danika Littlechild shares the significance of the Tipi for the Maskwacis Cree Nation:
“As told by a Cree Elder, the poles signify the community support and are viewed as the rib cage of our mother. The crown/nest that ties the poles together at the top signifies the youth. The cord that binds the poles together signifies strength. The cover of the tipi signifies not only shelter but warmth and protection and is viewed as the womb. The flaps of the tipi signify spirituality and are viewed as an old man praying for the youth above him (crown/nest). The pins that hold the tipi together over the entry signifies the birth cycle that consists of nine pins representing the nine months of the birth cycle. The Fire in the center signifies the life force of the Treaty Six peoples.”
The entry is kept by an old man to the left and an old woman to the right. The old man represents nurturing and is the provider of provisions such as firewood and food. Working with the old man are the fire keeper/cultural keeper. The old woman is the keeper of the medicine bag and the doorkeeper of the tipi as well as the keeper of the children. All of the elements of the tipi capture the life cycle of the Treaty Six peoples and is an all encompassing model that includes the whole community. The pegs that hold the whole structure together represents the Elders who transmit knowledge through language, culture and traditions and are the most important aspect of holding the Tipi Model together.
SUBMISSION OF MASKWACIS CREE TO THE EXPERT MECHANISM ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES STUDY ON THE RIGHT TO HEALTH AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES WITH A FOCUS ON CHILDREN AND YOUTH, Danika Littlechild, Legal Counsel Maskwacis Cree Foundation