Winter Count – Summary
Category: ECCU 400
Winter Count: Week 9
In week nine, we discussed the interwoven issues between racialization, education and treaties. After reading “Multiculturalism, colonialism and racialization: Conceptual starting points”, I gained a more detailed understanding of the myth of multiculturalism in Canada and its relation to education. This winter count symbol is two people of different colour with a heart in between them to represent that we are all the same inside. I drew this symbol to represent the true unity that is needed among people. This week I learned that in order to achieve the true form of multiculturalism that we are seeking in Canada is to implement an anti-bias curriculum.
Winter Count – Week 8
In week eight, we attended an Office of The Treaty Commissioner Treaty Workshop. For this week’s symbol I drew a book and a person speaking to represent the wealth of knowledge the workshop provided me with. I thoroughly enjoyed this workshop and found it very valuable to my professional development because of all the resources we were provided with. This week we were also tasked with reading a document from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. I really connected with this resource because of my experience working with First Nations and Metis Services in Saskatchewan in which the mission statements and information provided by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission were valuable resources for the work that we did.
Winter Count – Week 7
In week seven we discussed the importance of teaching treaty in schools and analyzed the Saskatchewan Treaty Education Curriculum. For this winter count symbol I drew a school house in the center of a medicine wheel to show the needed integration between education, indigenous knowledges and the shared history of Canada. In Tupper and Capello’s “Teaching treaties as (un) usual narratives: Disrupting the curricular commonsense” the importance of treaty education is a main topic. However, they discuss the untold stories of treaty. Often in treaty education there is a simple formula that is followed that is orientated around the western colonial lens of treaty making. This week I learned that effective treaty education provides many perspectives or knowledges and focuses on the untold stories of treaty.
Winter Count – Week 6
In week six we discussed the creation and meaning of treaties. This symbol is to represent the true spirit and intent of treaties which was to come to living and non-expirable agreements that benefited all. This week I learned that initially the treaties were a representation of a merging of cultures that had the desire to coexist peacefully. However, these agreements soon became a way of Europeans gaining manipulative power over the First Nations people. These learnings came from Chelsea Vowel’s “Treaty Talk” in Indigenous Writes.
Unit Plan: Sharing & Honouring Relationships and Agreements as Treaty People
View here.
Unit Plan Overview
Grade: One
Length: 3 Days (45 min/day)
Subject: Treaty Education, Arts Education, English Language Arts, Health, Science and Social Studies
Content: Students will examine how sharing contributes to treaty relationships.
Winter Count – Week 5
In week five Karen West (an Indigenous Curriculum Consultant) spoke to our class about indigenous knowledges and the connections we can make to curriculum using different ways of knowing. For this week’s symbol, I drew a beaker to represent science and an outline of a medicine wheel to represent Indigenous knowledges. Prior to hearing West speak in our class, I struggled to see the connections that can be made to Indigenous knowledge and teaching science. What I have learned from this week is there are many deep and interwoven connections between both concepts.
Winter Count – Week 4
In week four we completed our place stories. I wrote my place story on my family farm. From this assignment, I learned that no matter one’s heritage we all have a connection to land and place. For this week’s symbol, I drew Saskatchewan with wheat to symbolize my connection to the land of the province.
Winter Count – Week 3
In week three we read Dwayne Donald’s “Forts, Curriculum, and Indigenous Metissage: Imagining Decolonization of Aboriginal-Canadian Relations in Educational Contexts”. The thing that stuck out to me most from this reading was the separation between Indigenous peoples and Euro-Canadian people in education. This symbol is to represents the divide between the two socio-cultural groups. The crown represents the Euro-Canadians and the Leaf represents Indigenous peoples.
Place Story
View here.
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