Indigenous Voices

By Lila Armstrong, Leah Crowell, and Beth Lyons

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Theme: Diversity
Sub-Theme: Indigenous Voices
Grade Levels: Elementary (K–3) | Middle School (4–8) | High School (9–12)

Learning Focus

Exploring, sharing, and discussing stories about the lives, joys, and experiences of Indigenous peoples is important as it relates to the land we now call Canada and our moral imperative to move forward with the Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. As readers connect with stories by Indigenous storytellers, they are also working to connect to the land on which they live, work, and play.

Identity: How does learning about the lives, joys, and experiences of Indigenous peoples help me to understand my identity as it relates to the land we now call Canada?

Skills: How might exploring stories that can be shared with the next generation teach me about understanding, appreciating, and keeping those stories alive?

Intellectualism: How will I commit to learning about the Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and how I can make a plan of action for my own role in the reconciliation process?

Criticality: How can we integrate old knowledge with new ways more deeply and naturally?

Joy: How does connecting with stories by Indigenous storytellers help me to connect to the land on which I live, work, and play? How might I share the joy of that connection with others?

Note that these learning goals follow Gholdy Muhammad’s equity framework for learning: Historically Responsive Literacy Framework. Using this framework, goals are set to ensure that students are making deep connections and being introspective at the same time.

Elementary Level

By Beth Lyons

Featured Books

On the Trapline
By David A. Robertson
llustrated by Julie Flett
(Tundra, 2021)

*Also available in FR: Ligne de trappe par David A. Robertson, illustré par Julie Flett (Éditions Scholastic, 2021)

A Walk on the Tundra
By Rebecca Hainnu and Anna Ziegler
Illustrated by Qin Leng
(Inhabit Media, 2011)

Minds On Provocation

Ask students to think about a time that they were outside with a family member enjoying nature. Have students close their eyes and visualize what the experience was like. Prompts could include: What did the weather feel like that day? What sounds could you hear? What plants and animals did you see while you were outside?

If time permits, you could have the students share their visualizations by recreating their memories using loose parts, drawings, or oral storytelling with the class.

Read, Plan, and Practice

Display the covers of both featured books and ask students to share what they notice and wonder about them (e.g. both covers have an adult and a child, the people are outside, the titles have unfamiliar words such as trapline and tundra). Ask students to make predictions about what the books might have in common.

Day 1
Start by reading A Walk on the Tundra. Stop to discuss the moments when Anaanatsiaq (grandmother) teaches Inuujaq something about the land or plants. Work with students to create a list of all the things Inuujaq learns.

Pause on the page where Inuujaq remembers being hungry in the summer. Ask students if there has been a time when they ate fresh fruit or vegetables grown locally where they live. You could start a list of local foods to reference later.

Continue reading until Anaanatsiaq explains to Inuujaq all the ways plants can be used. Work with students to discuss how plants have been used in their life/home/school. A scavenger hunt for materials and objects made from plants could be done after reading the book.

Day 2
Tell students that as they read On the Trapline, you want them to be on the lookout for connections to A Walk on the Tundra. What might they notice is the same? What is different? What connections might they make to their own experiences?

Stop at the page where Moshom describes the trapline as “where people hunt animals and live off the land.” Ask students what they think this means and if they have any examples to share.

Pause a few times when the story shares the meaning of Cree words. Ask students if they noticed that some of the words in A Walk on the Tundra were also in a different language. Tell them to listen for more Cree words and that you will return to this idea.

Stop at the page where the community has a feast. Ask the students to listen carefully to the description on this page. What do they notice about this part of the story? What do they wonder?

After reading, have students share the connections they made between the two books. Help guide them towards seeing the respectful use of resources from the land, the way the land sustains and feeds people, and how the children learn from older family members (specifically grandparents).

Make, Tinker, and Modify

Inquiry Provocation:
Gather pictures or real examples of fruits, vegetables, and other foods grown and produced in your local region. Work with students to create a list of which foods they have tried, which foods are new to them, which foods are cooked with other foods, and which foods they eat with their families. What foods are missing from the display? Work to add foods from other parts of the world where students may have originated from or continue to have family. As the display grows, use a map to track these places that represent the lived experience of the students.

Create:
This is an opportunity to invite the home community into the class by having each student and their trusted grown-up provide a recipe that is special to their lived experience. Students can illustrate the recipe and share connections to their memories of eating various foods in their home.

Use the glossaries from both books to create a multilingual display in your classroom. Include the words for family members, places, foods, etc. from the books and add to it with the home languages of your learners.

Reflect and Connect

Work with students to connect their learning and new questions from these books to previous learning about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Orange Shirt Day, and Treaties Recognition Week. Then go deeper and introduce a land acknowledgement. Gather books written and illustrated by Indigenous authors that relate to these topics and themes, and develop a plan to explore these books and create new inquiry questions to be answered.

Additional Canadian Books to Support This Sub-Theme

A Day with Yayah
By Nicola I. Campbell
Illustrated by Julie Flett
(Tradewind Books, 2017)

Thunder and the Noise Storms
By Jeffrey Ansloos and Shezza Ansloos
Illustrated by Joshua Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley
(Annick Press, 2021)

A Walking Curriculum: Evoking Wonder and Developing Sense of Place (K–12)
By Gillian Judson
(independently published, 2018)

Use A Walking Curriculum to explore the land around your school. Learn about the plants that grow nearby, what uses they might have, and how they have been used for food, materials, or medicines.