Chapter 1: “Finding My Way: Emotions and Ethics in Community-Based Action Research with Indigenous Communities” (Leonie Sandercook) Chapter 2: “Notes from the UNDERBRIDGE” (Christine Stewart with Jacquie Leggatt) Chapter 3: “Re-valuing Code-Switching: Lessons for Kaska Narrative Performances” (Patrick Moore)
| TASK
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KEY QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTIVE JOURNALLING
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SUGGESTED LEARNING ACTIVITIES
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| Before
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• What is your understanding of storytelling?
• What are your experiences with storytelling?
• What is story? What does story mean to you in your life?
• Why have told you stories?
• Who would have the right to tell your story?
• What might you learn after reading this section?
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Before starting the book, a whole-class Land Acknowledgement should be done for the place in which the classroom/school is located. This should be followed by guiding questions (either as small- or whole-group discussion).
• What is the significance of the land acknowledgement?
• What stands out for you, or what do you connect with?
• What’s missing? What do you feel should be changed or added?
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| During
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• Whose voices are missing?
• What more do we need to know?
• Whose voices do we need to hear?
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Students will start with a partner, and talk about the following questions:
• What is a place that is important or significant to you? Why?
• How do you care for this place? Have you cared for it? Ask for students to share with the whole class. (Students or teacher should document the responses on chart paper or whiteboard.)
Afterward, whole-class moderated discussion:
• How might you feel if someone trashed this place? Or said you can no longer visit it or be there, and prevented you from doing so?
• How does this connect to the experiences of some First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Peoples past and present?
If possible, doing whole-class activities with Canadian Geographic’s Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada Giant Floor Map would be of benefit to the learning about place and land. (It is available for loan through the CGwebsite; see Further Links at the end of this guide.)
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| After
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• What are authentic ways that you come to understand your existence and the existence of others?
• How have the authors suggested ways to come to understand story?
• Are there voices that would help you understand your perspective in the space that you occupy? Whose might they be?
• Are there voices that would help you understand Indigenous perspectives in a more authentic way?
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In class, students should read Who Is a Settler, According to Indigneous and Black Scholars (either shared online or prepared as a printed document) and/or watch TedTalk “I Am a Settler-Colonizer,” by Dr. Amanda Morris. In groups of 3–4, students should discuss and document the suggested prompts:
• According to the various scholars we heard from, how would you describe who is a settler?
• How are their points of view similar? How are they different?
• Why should we think about who is a settler? How does this help us understand and further reconciliation?
• If someone feels discomfort and/or guilt about being a settler, whose responsibility is it to help the person to deal with these feelings? What actions might one take to shift these feelings?
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