Course: NDA3M Current Aboriginal Issues in Canada
Unit: 1 Perspectives
Module: 1 - Perspectives
Time (Periods): 5
Expectations: IDV.04, IDV.05, REV.05
Content:
Activity 1: Perspectives
Activity 2: Origins
Activity 3: Native People
Activity 4: Famous Native Canadians
Assessment:
Diagnostic: Perspectives T-Diagram
Formative: Origins: Oral Tradition, Vocabulary Quiz
Formative: Famous Native Canadians – discussion/oral
presentation/fact sheet
Resources
Vocabulary
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Avon Maitland District School Board
Course: NDA3M Current Aboriginal Issues in Canada
Unit: 1 Perspectives
Module: 1 - Perspectives
Time (Periods): 5
Activity 1
Perspectives
a) How perceptions are formed.
i) To start this activity students could look at optical illusions to show that
things are not always the way they seem.
ii) Have students complete the left hand side of the T-Diagram to
organize their perspectives on Native people.
iii) Discuss: How have the ways that they see native peoples been
developed?
(1) Have students create a web diagram to organize their ideas
(a) Media
(b) News
(c) School
(d) Work
(e) Family
b) Focus on media
i) Show: Images of how native people are portrayed in the media;
commercials, TV shows, advertisements, Movies.
ii) Show video: The Movie Reel Indian and or Warpaint and Wigs to see
the treatment of native people in movies.
iii) Have students complete a Video Study.
c) Questions
i) Define the words in the vocabulary list.
ii) List and describe examples from your own life where you (or someone
you know) have been stereotyped.
iii) List examples from recent events in the news in which aboriginal
people have been stereotyped.
iv) Comment on the effects that stereotyping has on the individual as well
as society.
v) What happens, in our society, to those who do not “fit the mold”?
vi) Complete the left hand side of the T-Diagram to submit.
Vocabulary:
a) Opinion
b) Fact
c) Perspective
d) Stereotype
e) Objective
f) Subjective
Resources:
a) Chapter 1 Introduction: Understanding Aboriginal People’s Perspectives
Reed, Kevin. Aboriginal Peoples: Building for the Future. Canadian
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Avon Maitland District School Board
Course: NDA3M Current Aboriginal Issues in Canada
Unit: 1 Perspectives
Module: 1 - Perspectives
Time (Periods): 5
Challenges Series, Don Quinlan (Series Editor) Toronto: Oxford University
Press 1999
Teacher’s Notes:
a) Use the information from the T-Diagram to assess the student’s current
knowledge and what the students would like learn – questions that the
would like to have answered.
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Avon Maitland District School Board
Course: NDA3M Current Aboriginal Issues in Canada
Unit: 1 Perspectives
Module: 1 - Perspectives
Time (Periods): 5
Activity 2
Origins
a) Have students read an account regarding the creation of a group of native
people.
b) How would the information be passed on?
i) Oral Tradition
(1) Problems with orla tradition?
c) Compare the terms: Allegory, Myth, Folklore, Legend – what are the
differences/similarities
d) Watch/Read an example of Native Indian Folklore.
i) The Man, the Snake and the Fox.
e) Have students complete one of the following activities:
i) Write a story in the fashion of Native Indian folklore.
ii) Illustrate the creation myth of Turtle Island.
iii) Illustrate a selected Native story
iv) Illustrate an Urban myth
f) Text:
Oral Traditions
i) Read Pages 4 – 9
ii) Complete questions 1 - 4
Vocabulary:
a) Allegory – a story in which the meaning or message is represented
symbolically
b) Mythology – traditions or stories involving supernatural characters that
embody popular ideas about nature and society
c) Oral Tradition – information that is passed from one person to another by
word of mouth
Resources
a) Oral Tradition, Chapter 1: Origins of the First Peoples, , Roberts, John.
First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Peoples: Exploring their Past, Present and
Future. Toronto: Egmond Montgomery Publications Ltd. 2006
Teacher’s Notes
a)
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Avon Maitland District School Board
Course: NDA3M Current Aboriginal Issues in Canada
Unit: 1 Perspectives
Module: 1 - Perspectives
Time (Periods): 5
Activity 3
Native People
a) Textbook: The Wheel of life activity
b) Discussion: How would you define a Native person?
i) Objective Criteria: as defined in The Indian Act, Charter of Rights and
Freedoms? Bill C-31
ii) Subjective Criteria: Self determination, community acceptance
c) Read: Government Documents
d) How are Native people categorized?
i) Legal, Status, non Status, Treaty, non-Treaty
ii) Linguistic - Algonkian
iii) Cultural (Geographic) – Plains
e) Complete a map of the linguistic groups add labels for the cultural
groupings.
Vocabulary:
a) Aboriginal– in Canada includes Indian, Inuit and Métis peoples
b) Inuit – an Aboriginal people living in the Arctic regions of Canada
c) Métis d) First Nations – an Indian band or community, excluding Inuit and Métis
e) Indigenous – born in a region
Resources:
a) Chapter 35 Changing Images, Reed, Kevin. Aboriginal Peoples: Building
for the Future. Canadian Challenges Series, Don Quinlan (Series Editor)
Toronto: Oxford University Press 1999
Teacher’s Notes:
a)
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Avon Maitland District School Board
Course: NDA3M Current Aboriginal Issues in Canada
Unit: 1 Perspectives
Module: 1 - Perspectives
Time (Periods): 5
Activity 4
Famous Aboriginal Canadians
a) Introduce the students to a current famous Canadian Native person
such as Shane Yellowbird
b)
c)
d)
e)
i) From the material determine what information is important
(1) Family Background
(2) Personal Background
(3) Challenges
(4) Successes
Research: Choose one of the following Native people to research their
biographical information.
i)
Dan George (Actor)
ii)
Jay Silverheels (Actor)
iii)
Norval Morrisseau (Artist)
iv)
Benjamin Chee Chee (Artist)
v)
Robbie Robertson (Musician)
vi)
Buffy Sainte-Marie (Musician)
vii)
Ovid Mercredi (Politician)
viii)
Phil Fontaine (Politician)
ix)
Jordin Tootoo (Hockey Player)
x)
Paul Okalik (Politician)
xi)
Donald Marshall
Create a one page information sheet which includes:
i) A picture of the person,
ii) Personal Biographical information
iii) Successes * what contributed to these?
iv) Challenges * how did they overcome these?
v) Source list – websites, books etc…
Share you’re the information in class.
Submit your Information Sheet for evaluation.
Vocabulary:
a)
Resources:
a) CBC News feature about Shane Yellowbird
Teacher’s Notes:
a)
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Avon Maitland District School Board
Course: NDA3M Current Aboriginal Issues in Canada
Unit: 1 Perspectives
Module: 1 - Perspectives
Time (Periods): 5
Expectations
Overall Expectations
IDV.04 describe Aboriginal perspectives related to issues of identity and
sovereignty;
IDV.05 describe the impact of media, literature, and popular culture on
contemporary Aboriginal society.
REV.05 demonstrate an understanding of the interrelationships that characterize
an Aboriginal world view.
Specific Expectations
ID1.04 explain how Aboriginal people find their identity in the larger community
(e.g., in the extended family) as well as in themselves;
ID2.03 compare Aboriginal people’s definitions of their identity (e.g., in the
autobiographies of Aboriginal individuals) with those of non-Aboriginal society
(e.g., in court decisions on Aboriginal rights).
ID2.04 evaluate the ways in which the identities of contemporary Aboriginal
people are influenced by media, literature, and popular culture.
RE1.02 describe how an Aboriginal world view defines and promotes close
relationships (e.g., to the land, family, community, and culture);
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Avon Maitland District School Board
Course: NDA3M Current Aboriginal Issues in Canada
Unit: 1 Perspectives
Module: 1 - Perspectives
Time (Periods): 5
Resources
Textbook Material
a) Oral Tradition, Chapter 1: Origins of the First Peoples, , Roberts, John.
First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Peoples: Exploring their Past, Present and
Future. Toronto: Egmond Montgomery Publications Ltd. 2006
AV Material from LRC
b) Billy Two Rivers (26940) ISA 2006 DV
c) Canadian Identity (26015) SA 1992 DV
d) Inuit Legends (26842) SA 2002 DV
e) The One Tonne Challenge (26983) ISA 2005 DV
f) Plastic Warriors (26935) SA 2004 DV
Websites
g) Media Awareness - http://www.mediaawareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/aboriginal_people/index.cfm
Videos Reviewed
h) Native Indian Folklore 32712, VH 1
i) The Movie Reel Indian, Images of Indians Series, 1979, Distributed by
Canadian Learning Company. (available from the LRC V4162)
j) Warpaint and Wigs, Images of Indians Series, 1979, Distributed by
Canadian Learning Company. (available from the LRC V4160)
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Avon Maitland District School Board
Course: NDA3M Current Aboriginal Issues in Canada
Unit: 1 Perspectives
Module: 1 - Perspectives
Time (Periods): 5
Vocabulary
Aboriginal – in Canada includes Indian, Inuit and Métis peoples
Allegory – a story in which the meaning or message is represented
symbolically
Fact – something that is true, something that actually exists ro
something that cn be verified
Indigenous – people born in a region
Inuit – an Aboriginal people living in the Arctic regions of Canada
Mythology – traditions or stories involving supernatural characters
that embody popular ideas about nature and society
Objective – expressing or dealing with facts or conditions as
perceived without distortion by personal feelings, prejudices, or
interpretations
Opinion – a person’s ideas and thoughts towards something
Oral Tradition – information that is passed from one person to
another by word of mouth
Perspective – a particular attitude toward or way of regarding
something – a point of view
Stereotype – a standardized mental picture that is held in common
by members of a group and that represents an oversimplified opinion,
prejudiced attitude, or uncritical judgment
Subjective – modified or affected by personal views, experience, or
background
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Avon Maitland District School Board