Student Tasks

Begin with Your Experience

Before watching any of the videos in this section, reflect on the questions below. Once you’ve watched all of the videos, return to these questions and your answers. Did your thinking change? What new ideas could you add to your answers? 

• How can “learning” help us live Mino-bimaadiziwin (the good life)? 
• What are the most important lessons you’ve learned? How did you learn these important lessons?
  • Did you think of a lesson from a school context? Why?
  • Think of the most important lesson you’ve learned outside of a classroom—what made the lesson important? 
  • What do you think the purpose of learning might be? 

Listening to Teachings

Indigenous Knowledge | Learning: Video 1
Keegan, a mental health land-based instructor at Matawa Education and Care Centre, shares with students the canoe paddling route over ten days through the Makokibatan River and Lake in Northwestern Ontario. 

Indigenous Knowledge | Learning: Video 2
Graeme Saukko-Sved, a Geomatics/Environmental Technician at Four Rivers Environmental Services Group with Matawa Tribal Council, teaches Matawa Education and Care Centre youth how to navigate with a compass and a mapping exercise.

Indigenous Knowledge | Learning: Video 3
Graeme Saukko-Sved, a Geomatics/Environmental Technician at Four Rivers Environmental Services Group with Matawa Tribal Council, teaches Matawa Education and Care Centre youth about the impacts of glaciers on land forms. 

Questions:

• What are some important differences between the learning on the canoe trip and learning in school classrooms?
• These topics that students learn about while on these trips are part of the Ontario curriculum. Why might these topics be “important” knowledge for everyone to know? Why might the teachers in these lessons think this is important knowledge to know? Are their reasons the same?
• What important lessons might we learn from these school trips about living in a good way? 

Indigenous Knowledge | Learning: Video 4
Morris Shapwaykeesic from Whitesand First Nation speaks about the teaching of “history” and how the spirit of reconciliation allows people to take a hard look at the past.

Indigenous Knowledge | Learning: Video 5
Morris Shapwaykeesic from Whitesand First Nation compares traditional teachings and city survival skills.

Questions:

• Morris compares traditional teachings and city survival skills. What are the purposes of learning these two types of teachings? What value does Morris place on each? What value do you see in each? What can we learn about living in a good way from these two types of teachings?
• How does Morris describe learning in a history class? 
• How does he talk about learning from his elders and his grandmother? What important lessons might you learn about living in a good way from these stories?

Indigenous Knowledge | Learning: Video 6
Elder Tony De Parry from Ginoogaming First Nation shares his message for young people.

Questions:

• What do you think Tony means when he says “you have a photographic memory”? 
• What might be some important differences if you learned using this lens? 
• What important lessons might you learn about living in a good way?