EF5/6 First Nations rough notes 1

·        Focus of BC new curriculum- First Nations

First Nations ways of knowing, culture, history in Canada

Words that people use – Native, Aboriginal (etymology- word history, word origin Latin ab – beginning), First Nations

Indian – not used now, older term

My school experiences- none of the history, social studies, literature, English 12

First People’s English 12

·        science focused on First Nations

The focus was on Europeans, settlers, White men in Canada

·        male-centred, Euro-centred

·        Government controls education and what kids learn

·        racism towards First Nations people “Indians”

·        dismissive, belittling, negative

·        lots of First Nations kids in my school, segregated

·        seemed normal

·        Tell this story

·        policy at my university – have to finish your degree in seven years

student/ professor –led initiative to change it to 10 yrs

·        racism against First Nations – BCTF AGM story

700 teachers

“equity-seeking groups” wanted representation

·        First Contact Canada

http://aptn.ca/firstcontact/

First Contact of Europeans with First Nations

·        First Nations -Who they are?

·        Small groups

“What do you know about First Nations people in Canada?”

Generate ideas on LCD

·        First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples constitute Indigenous peoples in Canada, also called First Peoples. First Nations came into common usage in the 1980s to replace the term Indians

·        Aboriginal, Indigenous

·        First Nations- Indigenous people in the South (below Arctic Circle). Half of all First Nations bands are in Ontario and BC.

·        Inuit are the Indigenous people who live in the North. Used to be called ‘Eskimo’- disparaging term from French Esquimaux, from Montagnais ayas̆kimew ‘person who laces a snowshoe’. Montagnais, or Innu, are the Indigenous inhabitants of an area they refer to as Nitassinan, which comprises most of the northeastern portion of the present-day province of Quebec and some eastern portions of Labrador.

Discredited etymology ‘raw fish eater’

Website: https://www.itk.ca/about-canadian-inuit/#nunangat

Show map: “Inuit Map”

·        Metis a person of mixed Indigenous and European-American ancestry, in particular one of a group of such people who in the 19th century constituted the so-called Metis nation in the areas around the Red and Saskatchewan rivers. Metis comes from the French word ‘métis’, which means ‘mixed’.

·        Talk about origin of the word ‘Indian’ due to geographical misunderstanding

Cuba, - West Indies

Christopher Columbus 1492

“Red Indian” – don’t use that name anymore

“East Indian” – don’t use that name anymore

·        Where did they come from?

·        First Nations Creation Stories / Creation Myths

myth – legend, fiction, story, has a lot of meaning to the culture

Greek myths – Ancient Greece

Echo was in love with Narcissus, narcissist

·        Read “The Beginning of the HaidiGwaii World” on LCD