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lellmilon$Message from Laura Buker.

Gillies, Nicole

Kitchkeesick, Stephanie

Larieaa, Bruna

Papah, Eva

Roundsky, Dora

Shewaybick, Leon

Front cover artist: Leon $hewaybick

Lakehead University HBED 21.30 - Teachers of Aboriginal Learners

August 20ll

The second Matawa HBED cohort began at Lakehead university, Faculty ofEducation this fuly ?01'1,. The summer courses focused on integrating our Aboriginalhistory, culture, language, and knowledge throughout the curriculum.

This publication, "Empowering our cultural Learning,,, emerged from thoughtfuldialog discussions, and reflection on building innovative learning environments inAboriginal education.

It is with deep appreciation towards this summer's teacher scholars, that I lift myhands, as they are the vanguard leading the way for our children's success in school.

It has been a privilege to continue the journey with our HBED scholars. They arevalued for their hard work, conscientious learning and deep care for our children.

Miigwetch,

Dr. lolehawk Laura Buker

ephanie KitchkeesickOur Students Matter:

Let's Show ThemThroughout my educationaljourney, I was fortu-

nate to have many influential educators. Thesewere the teachers in my life who were sincere intheir efforts to challenge me to gain a deeper un-derstanding in everything that I was learning.These were the educators who made me feel that I

could achieve much more than I thought I was ca-pable of. I was truly inspired by my teachers thatshowed a real passion for my future. I believe thatthis helped me thrive in school and after school. ltmeant a lot for me to know that my educatorscared and believed in me. lt was an importantfactor in my educationaljourney and will be in allof our Aboriginal youth, Our educators need tofocus on forming positive. appropriate relation-ships with all of their students.

Educators of Aboriginal learners can build ahealthy relationship with their students by showinginterest and participating in cultural activities. Ateacher can ask the learners what they know andare willing to share about their culture. The educa-tor can temporarily trade places with the studentto learn from them. This shows the student thatthere is respect amongst them. This also showsthat the educator values who the student is andwhere they come from. lt sends the message thatall knowledge is worthy of learning and not just theknowledge that the educator brings to the table,By having the students share and teach about theirculture, they learn pride, confidence, and leader-ship characteristics; they learn their identity. Theseare qualities that will help the student become astronger learner inside the classroom.Humour is a valued personality trait amongst First

Nations people. This statement alone should ex-plain the importance of humour when teachingAboriginal learners, Aboriginal learners feel themost comfortable when they are in their own envi-ronment. By integrating humour into the class-room, students will feel a sense of belonging to thegroup and also a feeling of co:nnection to the edu-cator. When teachersland students interact on apersonal level, students apen uB rnor€ and want tohear what the teacher.h,as'to

Jokes, funny stories, and riddles intrigue ouryouth. lf an educator can learn to relax and relateto the students, this will eventually come aroundfull cycle and the students will learn to relax andrelate to the teacher.

Our students also need to learn that their futurematters not only to them, but also to their families,friends, ancestors, people, and educators. lt mat-ters! Why does it matter? lt matters because Ab-original people have had their fair share of strug-gles throughout history. ln the beginning, First Na-tions people educated each other daily throughstorytelling and life experiences. The residentialschool period began in the 1840s and settled downin the 1980s, although the last residential schoolclosed in L995. The Federalgovernment mandatedcompulsory school attendance in 1920; this forcedchildren into residentialschools. Our children suf-fered spiritual, cultural, mental, and physical abusewithin the walls of residential schools. ln 1972, thelndian Control of lndian Education policy waspassed. This meant that Aboriginal children couldnot be forced to attend residential schools and thatFirst Nations people were allowed to educate theirown. This was an enormous step in Aboriginaleducation. This policy proves that our ancestorsand our people care deeply about our students' fu-tures.

As a mother, friend, Aboriginal person, and educa-to1 I have a passion in empowering Aboriginallearners to pursue a bright and positive future. lt isindisputable that I encourage all students topursue lifelong learning.

iItt

Bruna larittaSharing A Story

My name is Bruna Larizza lwas born and raised in

Thunder Bay, Ontario; I am currently in the BA, BEd

{lndigenous Learning) at Lakehead University'

While attending my full-time studies, I am also

working at the Thunder Bay Public School Board. I

have been in an elementary school that is primarily

aboriginal students. I have learned the importance

of storytelling and how much impact it has on chil-

dren. As months went by working at the school, I

observed the children learning and discoveredmore about the children's background.

They appear to focus more when Aboriginal cultureis incorporated into the curriculum. Storytelling has

the ability to convey values. One story we focused

on was, "Shi-Shi-etko". 5hi-Shi-etl<o had 4 days untilshe returned to residential school. She would leave

her family and everything she knows to attend resi-

dential school. The residential school system was a

Federal government and Church run school, whichwere designed to solve the lndian "problem". She

spends her last days at home preserving the beauty

of her world- the tall grass, shiny rocks, the dancing

sunlight. Her motheq father and grandmother want

her to remember her nativerroots arld'watt&r her

return in the spring to contin"ue passing down

fully a teaching story can be as a link to learning

for children. Through the experience of listening toth,is.'=tory on residential school, I was able to see

$tffiglyit impacted the children's attention

$'P= 'anilf'a'rili'.

Stories are a lot more than just amusemen| theyare how we direct ideas, experiences dreams and

losses. Down through generations, Aboriginal oral

stories have been told to share knowledge, spiritu-ality, and wisdom. The saying "a picture is worth athousand words", can sometimes tell a finer story

thari words.

lD.!.:::::a:::).,).!::...

::::::: :J

r,uary of a story. ln addition, I observed how power-

Iilucation BringsUs,..

trIIIIIIIItif

Curiosity HopesDreams Routines

Rituals LimitsFantasies

Competence Encour-agements

Motivation

Coping AdjustingCollaboration

Compromise Doubtslndependence

Sense of belongingSelf-Advocate Men-

torship Transition

DynamicContentmentHarmony

ResponsibilityRewards

CompassionSelf-ldentity

Dedication

Choices ConflictsDecision-making

OpportunitiesAcknowledgementSelf-evaluation Chal-

lengesEnthusiasm

Determination

Eua PaRalr

Buililing leamuoilMy personal philosophy on education starts at an

early age. Early learning is important because itforms the foundation for lifelong learning. lt takes aform in guiding children and youth along their pathof interest in life as in careers and what theychoose to become when completing their educa-tion.

Not all children and youth know what they wantto become or choose to become, while in school orduring their journey of life. For example as formyself, I wanted to become a teacher while in el-ementary school because I was influenced by a fa-vourite teacher that taught me while going toschool. As time went on, I entered my secondaryand college schooling. I choose the social fieldwhere I became involved with the community,youth, children and school.

Today, l'm back in a schoolsetting and working as

a Tutor Escort. Last school year, I worked as a TutorEscort for six months and was later offered a posi-tion as a Student Success Counsellor for fourmonths. ltook on the task and was working withstudents from grades 7 - 9.

One of my duties was to assist the grade 8 and 9students in filling out their high school registrationforms and their educational assistance forms forfunding. These students have dreams to pursuetheir secondary education out of the communityand the forms also helped to provide counsellingwhen needed. During this time, l'm interacting withthe students and getting to know them as in build-ing trust and a positive relationship.

ln April, the principal at our school asked me tocoordinate and plan a Career Fair for the wholeschool from grades JK to 9 and a Career Challengefor grades 7 to 9. This was a special task that I en-joyed planning. The Career Challenge took thewhole school day with stations set up that wereseventy minutes in length.

The students were divided into teams where ateacher was responsible to keep track and rotatethem when their time was up to move on to a dif-furent station. There were four stations that chal-lenge the teams in Science, Shop, Cooking,aijg .,.,,

"Music/Art Drama. Teams were given instruc-tions and tasks to perform in each station and thisinvolved team work, leadership, listening, com-municating, and interacting among the students.

Watching and listening to the students was goodto see and hear because they're interacting witheach other, even the shy students and studentsthat aren't really motivated in doing anythingwere actually communicating, laughing and shar-ing amongst their groups. The Career Challengeinvolved skills which are required for personalitydevelopment. There was interpersonal skills, pre-sentation skills, team spirit, right attitude, flexibil-ity, presence of mind, time management, workethics, listening skills and communication skills in-volved throughout the Career Challenge.

The next day in the evening, the school invitedthe community and parents to come and seewhat the students did throughout the CareerChallenge. Judges were selected amongst thecrowd to do a taste test on the four different potsof soup that the teams made during the Cook sta-tion. The teams also preformed out their acts andtalents in singing and puppet shows in theMusic/Art Drama station. ln the Shop station, theteams made bridges out of pasta and given oneglue bottle to use and they were tested to see

which team made the strongest bridge and howmany weights it took to break. The team with themost weights to hold the pasta bridges were thewinners and they won a Gino's pizza each. Overall,the students, parents and community enjoyedthemselves and had a good time with laughterand cheering.

ln conclusion, we as educators need to showsupport, guidance, encouragement, pride, posi-tive self-esteem, praises, trust and respect to-wards our students. Also as educators, we need tocreate a positive classroom atmosphere thatshows respect for our aboriginal perspectives tobenefit the students and:Barents involved: [V[,bst,,,,,

llora fiounil$ku

Bu llying

My name is Dora Roundsky and l'm from Wapeke-

ka First Nation. I have been working at Rev.Eleazar

Winter Memorial School for fourteen years now. I

started working as a tutor escort for one special

need student, and work in the special educationroom for couple of years. Today l'm working as a

classroom assistant. I like working with the stu-dents and l'm happy to be the part of their lives

during the weekdays and be there for them when-ever they need help frorn me. l'm going to talkabout bullying because it is a worldwide problem

that occurs around us every day and everywhere.

Thousands of teens wake up afraid to go to school

and to be out there enioying the life they want tohave all because of bullying. lt is a form of aggres-

sive or violent behavior shown to children who arequieter, who are shy less out going. Children are

hurt every day for their appearances, how theylook. Back home where I came from, there are chil-dren and teens who are bullied and were bullied. I

remember a couple of years ago when I was "surf-ing the myknet" honnepages, I came across a teen'spage. There was a box where you could write themessage and I lookecj at the box. I couldn't believewhat I read after I look at it. lwrote somethingdown on that box just to stand up for that teen and

to tell that person writing terrible things that it isn@t nice what he is doing on website. Since thatday, I have never seen anytfiilg rt$d$ive written on

tirat page. That teenager wha$$$$llied, dr:offifiorut of school, stayed home that tim_9 and thnfiffii,iaour he got diabetes. He is now on insulin toffiffisuGar down. That's why I said, "Uutiying *fp$t.hi@drren in their life a*,*1f;i}if: heal }:1Eu3{rffi '

l

Parents, community and school should be more in-

volved in bullying prevention. Bullying is not just a

school issue. Bullying always happens outside the

school. Communities need to become more orga-

nized to deal with bullying. For exarnple, it would be

helpful to organize a conference with a speaker and

share information on prevention programs to deal

with bullying. And lastly, parents should be more in-

volved in their child's interactions with other chil-

dren. Children should be encourage to reach out totheir parents for help and the parents shouldn'tturn tlrem away when they ask for help cause itmight lead to deeper problems.

Bullying is a very serious problem and lthink it can

be stopped when everyone is available to help in

every way they can.

miigwetch.

^,.'i. ", ,

. .;,a.t)...:'::

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fffi, he got dlabetes. He ls now on lnsulln Iog€ryrwsuGar down. That's why I said, "Uutiying *fp$t.hi@d-en in their life and their health." Even sornd #,cornmil suicide and that's even a bigger problern to ,'"

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llollllt8 m r0 illy Trailirions

Leon Shewaybick

Booshoo, my name is Leon Shewaybick and myspiritual name is "Howling Bear" and I am part ofthe Eagle Clan. I am from and reside in Webequie,Ontario in a remote northern small communitywith a growing population of eight hundred fifty.

I am proud to say that I was raised from a tradition-alfamily background and a family who believed in

spiritual teachings. Ever since I can remember, I

was taught at a very young age about our ways,

our culture, our tradifions, our ceremonies, and

customs as aboriginal people. My father, my grand-

father, and my uncle were my teachers as I wasgrowing up.

When I was trying to learn the traditions, otherchildren always teased me because I would go intothe sweatlodge with my grandfathe[ or becauese I

was always with my grandfather in preparing thelodge. As I started to know some of the things I

wanted to learn that never stopped me from doingwhat I loved to do in spite of all the criticism I was

getting from my peers. As a young boy I was always

curious about the drum, the pipe, the sweat lodgeand everything else my grandfather was doing. I

would ask questions and he gave answers. Whywas he doing this? Or why does he smoke his pipe

every morning and offering tobacco? He taughi me

a lot that day and I will never forget the things hepassed on to me.

#.4,y,SAr$, tr hay,e:been working at our local

:.thli r,s a*iilassroorn.assista nt. I h e I d* :::::

uft

F.e,n And

It gave me a good insight that this is what I want todo is teach.

I will continue to do this as iong as I can, knowingthat some young people are starting to have thatinterest Iike I did when I was growing up. lt trulyhas helped me spiritually and physically and most

of all, knowing my identity. I will keep holding on

to my traditions.

fiiir?= ll

Lakehead UniversitYHonours Bachelor Education (Aboriginal) PI

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored

in a retrival system or by any means, without the prior permission of

the publisher or; in the case of photocopying or other reprographiccopying.

Copyright 2011 by Lakehead University Faculty of Education,

Aboriginal Education

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