ECCU 400
My family3/20/2020 During this time, I spent a lot of time communicating with my family through Facetime and other forms of technology. I decided to use this time to learn a little more about my family and where they came from, using this new knowledge and learning from my language profile completed in another course I learned a lot about my family heritage.
The main two cultures that my family is from is German and Ukrainian. Although, the main cultures are German and Ukrainian I am also Polish, Icelandic, Irish, and Scottish. My grandma and grandpa on my dad's side of the family, still take part in Ukrainian cultural things such as they attend church spoken in Ukrainian. Then on my mom's side my grandma speaks German, but doesn't attend German events that happen in the community. I began to think about our official languages being English and French. None of my family speak french even though it is one of Canada's official languages. I attempted to learn it in Elementary school and High school but has since lost a lot of my connection with the French culture as the people around me knew nothing about it. Knowing I have a lot of cultural identity in my make-up gives me an understanding that I do not know enough about my culture, and that I would like to learn
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Treaty Walk3/18/2020 I believe that treaty walks should not be a form of completing a checklist, but to experience daily throughout our lives. I believe a treaty walk is any kind of connection with the treaty people, through a form of spiritual connection with the land.
The treaty walk I chose to participate in this week was around Wascana lake. This walk took about 35 minutes, and allowed me to gain connect with the land of the treaty people. Around Wascana lake you can find the four directions sculpture it connects to the medicine wheel, "which reflects the positive forces in life related to mother earth (Wascana Center, 2020)". One highlight that I experienced during my treaty walk is over looking treaty 4 land on Wascana hill. While on Wascana hill, you can see a great amount of the City of Regina. I really felt at peace and that I had a great connection with the earth as I walked the trails along Wascana Lake. This is a treaty walk that I will definitely want to re-encounter, and would recommend this walk to other's wishing to experience a treaty walk. "A strong communion with the spirit of all aspects of the earth provides a unique perceptual lens through which all activities of daily life become an expression of spirit (Kaminski, 2016)". My Treaty Story...2/26/2020 I am a white Canadian citizen; who was born and raised in Canada. My dad's side of the family is from Ukraine and my mom's side of the family is from German. As a Canadian who was born and raised here, I know my family was not and that we had come to Canada to seek a place to live but that First nations people have always lived here and had owned the land first.
I recognize that I am living on Treaty 4 land; which is the traditional territory of the Cree, Saulteaux, Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota people, and the homeland of the Métis Nation. As we are all living on treaty land, we are all treaty people. This statement is intended to emphasize that all people have treaty rights and responsibilities. I believe this statements helps to bring reconciliation between Canadian people and First Nations people. Although there is still a lot that needs to be done in order to fix the history between First Nation people and Canadian people. I also believe that there is many issues still going on about the prejudices surrounding First Nations from a white perspective, such as racism issues. This is why I believe that it is important to for each and everyone to learn about the history of First Nation people through Education to give everyone a better understanding of our history and who the First Nation people are. This would truly allow us to fight discrimination and bring reconciliation between First Nation people and Canadian people. Treaty book talks1/30/2020 The book I have chosen to look at and write about is "When we were alone" by David Alexander Robertson. This is one of the many responses to the Truth and Reconciliation commission's 94 calls to action, this book was written to educate the youth as young as kindergarten about residential schools.
This book is set for ages 4-8 but can be used in a variety of ages. This book is set around a young girl who learns about how her grandmother kept a sense of their culture while attending residential schools. This book could be used to teach young students about residential schools, in simpler terms to allow an understanding from them. It brings in child friendly language and illustration to help teach about residential schools so we do not repeat the past. Some interdisciplinary connections to Treaty Ed in Grade 2 are, English outcome "CR2.2 View and explain (with support from the text) the key literal and inferential ideas (messages), important details, and how elements (such as colour, layout, medium, and special fonts) enhance meaning in grade-appropriate visual and multimedia texts", Social Studies "DR2.1 Investigate stories of significant events and persons in the local community's history to describe the contribution of those who lived in the community in earlier times". Some potential lessons that could be used with this story book are; what's important to me?, looking at children's history or culture, how children should feel at school, every child matters shirt. Being an Activist1/22/2020 An activist is described as any person that campaigns for social change, this can be in any from such as writing a letter to an important member to try and make a change, or it can be as form of a protest. Our rights define that we have the right to stand up to something we do not believe in, in order to try and make it better for the world.
Somethings you need to become an activist is to make sure you are well aware of the cause you are wanting to change, to help promote your cause and educate others. It may also be a necessity to find others that are wanting to bring cause to your change, as the more the people the more willing others are going to be willing to listen to your view on the cause. Some problems with activism "is a “contentless” label that traverses political issues and social movements (Smucker, 2020)". Sometimes negative stereotypes affect peoples opinions when they are formed around activism. Activism today has centered around a specific identity, and is considered like a hobby. When it comes to challenging entrenched power, we need it to be more than just a certain stereotype, we need to encourage and motivate anyone to stand up for what they believe in. Everyone should be open to express their views and be willing to make a change, instead of sitting back and complaining about it. This could be a spiritual treaty practice as Indigenous people are keepers of the land, they have become leaders in fighting for the social and environment movement. They are spiritual activist as they most likely are not out on the streets protesting but Indigenous people are spiritually fighting to take care of the environment as they focus culture around being connected to the environment. They take action from a compassion and empathy point of view about the cause. As a white Canadian citizen, my treaty rights are to honor the treaty relationship. As I know Indigenous people lived here way before my family and other white settlers have lived on treaty land. This will lead to long lasting reconciliation, when we all honor treaty rights. I also need to make sure I am well educated around the treaties, to educate the youth and help reconciliation happen between Indigenous members and members of Canada. I also have to understand the past history of our mistreatment to Indigenous peoples, to work towards changing and advocating for change to the treatment of Indigenous peoples. 4 Seasons of Reconciliation1/13/2020 Although, I have learnt a lot about Treaty education throughout this course and other education classes while working towards my degree. There is still a couple things I am cautious about in regards to treaty education. My biggest fear that I have coming out of treaty education, is not having as much knowledge that I would have hoped to have.
I believe that teaching about treaty education and the history of white settlers negative impact on Indigenous peoples are important for students to learn about because we need to help with the reconciliation process, and to help history not repeat. Since, this is such an important topic I believe my fear stems from not getting enough education around Indigenous culture and history. As I did not start learning about Treaty education until my university school years. I also have a fear of teaching this because I am a white settler, who was born and raised her and people may believe I shouldn't be talking about Indigenous topics since that is not my background. I hope when I get my degree, I have a education and philosophies formed around Treaty education, to make an inclusive classroom for those children. Especially because the rate of Indigenous students in classroom's are increasing. There may be no set way to teach treaty education, but teaching it is important for all students that will go through the education system, starting at elementary and educating throughout the rest of their lives. AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. |