Indigenous Writes
by Chelsea Vowel
Indigenous Writes CRP.pdfIn Indigenous Writes, Chelsea Vowel, legal scholar, teacher, and intellectual, opens an important dialogue about these (and more) concepts and the wider social beliefs associated with the relationship between Indigenous peoples and Canada. In 31 essays, Chelsea explores the Indigenous experience from the time of contact to the present, through five categories – Terminology of Relationships; Culture and Identity; Myth-Busting; State Violence; and Land, Learning, Law, and Treaties. She answers the questions that many people have on these topics to spark further conversations at home, in the classroom, and in the larger community.”
http://www.portageandmainpress.com/product/indigenous-writes/
Chelsea Vowel is Métis from manitow-sâkahikan (Lac Ste. Anne) Alberta. She and her family currently reside in amiskwâciwaskahikan (Edmonton). She has a BEd and LLB and is mother to three girls, step-mother of two more.
Chelsea is a public intellectual, writer and educator whose work intersects language, gender, Métis self-determination and resurgence. She has worked directly with First Nations researching self-government, participating in constitutional drafting, and engaging in specific land claim negotiation settlements.
https://thewordonthestreet.ca/toronto/canlit150/indigenous-writes/
Sample Essays from the Novel.
C.Vowel The Myth of Progress.pdf"The Myth of Progress" Essay
C.Vowel What is Cutlural Appropriation.pdf"What is Cultural Appropriation?" Essay
Curricular Connections
Reading: Reading With Fluency: Vocab Wall
Collect definitions and examples of new words found in the essay. Post digitally or physically as understandings grow.
Writing: Using Knowledge of Form and Style: Blog Post or Poem
Vowels' Essay are personal in nature and more reflective of a “conversation with a smart friend” according to journalist and honorary witness Shelagh Rogers. Help students develop conversational writing style.
Question: Develop a first person style poem, personal essay or blog post to share your ‘unlearning’ of an Indigenous stereotype.
Chris Tindal from Acres of Snow
Oral Communication: Reflecting on Skills and Strategies: Podcast or Spoken Word Piece
Media: Creating Media: Websites with New Google Sites
A great way to feature some of learning and unlearning your students have been working on is through google sites. Create reflections, artwork, maps, media pieces, songs, written works that reflect Indigenous realities, instead of stereotypes. All staff and students have access to google sites through their pdsb.net accounts.
Essential Questions and OLGs
- Who are Indigenous people? Where are they? Do I know them or are they in museums? Why are they famous all of a sudden? Who are settlers? How were both groups treated differently in the past, and are they treated differently now?
- What are treaties? What are the Canadian treaties and how are they used? Who are ‘treaty people’? What is terra nullius and how does it apply in Canada?
- How are stereotypes formed? Why are they used? How did so many Indigenous stereotypes form? What are the realities of being Indigenous?
- How are words different when you read them as opposed to when you hear them? Which do you prefer? When you combine seeing and reading how does that impact your understanding? What would happen if most texts included words in different languages to help express meaning or improve cultural understanding?
- How is personal writing different from academic writing? Can personal writing be academic or vice-versa? What forms best express different styles and means of writing? Do advertisements count as writing or are they art?
Key Quotation
"A more accurate and less self-serving history, a more honest reality, is ours. It is our birthright, whether we have been in these lands for thousands of years or arrived yesterday. We are all being denied a real identity, one based on more than colonial myths. It is not only Indigenous people who want to reclaim that birthright. Millions of people living in this country are trying to come to grips with their own personal histories- histories that more often than not fail to accord with the official narrative" (121).
Trigger Warnings
“The purpose of trigger warnings is not to cause students to avoid traumatic content, but to prepare them for it, and in extreme circumstances to provide alternate modes of learning.” Lockhart
Information about historical treatment of Indigenous communities and settler privilege.
Discussion Strategy: Talking Circle
Promoting discussion, sharing feelings, being personally accountable for our own feelings and understanding how our words affect others.
Alberta Education; Our Words, Our Ways: Teaching First Nations, Métis and Inuit Learners, 2005, p. 163
https://www.learnalberta.ca/content/aswt/talkingtogether/facilitated_talking_circle_fact_sheet.html
Text to Self Connections
The Team Game - Bob Gronowsky
Self Government and the Indian Act
The Team Game.doc.docxTreaties In Canada Guide_English.pdf2012_Building_on_the_Legacy_of_NWAC_Faceless_Doll_Project.pdfText to Text Connections
Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf
The National November 12, 2014.
Atchakosuk: Ininewuk Stories of the Stars by Wildred S Buck
Atchakosuk Ininewuk Stories of the Stars by Wilfred S Buck.pdfQuestions
Atchakosuk_ Ininewuk Stories of the Stars Activities.pdfAnswer Key
Answer Key 1_ Atchakosuk.pdfText to World Connections
The Sharing Circle APTN
Understanding Aboriginal Identity by PearPawMedia
Potential Strategy from Mini Lessons from Literature Circles
Text Coding (Pg 100-105)
Encourage students to use shorthand to make notes on their thinking as they read including: ideas that confirm or confuse them, repeated or unknown vocabulary, and authorial intentions.
