Native Women’s Association of Canada

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Name: Ashley Bueckert (Wet’suwet’en Nation)
Grades: 5, 6, 7, 11, 12
Subject Areas: Social Studies
Artefact /Place/ Skill: Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) & Indigenous Feminism
This is for my matrilineal line, and all the strong Indigenous women. I hope to one day further my curriculum research on Indigenous feminism to create a bright future for our upcoming Indigenous generations.

Making Space

How might teachers prepare their students to work with this content? What background knowledge might be required?

  • According to the Indigenous Knowledge and Perspectives: Social Studies K-12, students in Grade 7 can assess the significance of people, places, events, or developments at particular times and places. For example, identify specific examples of influences and contributions from ancient cultures (e.g., writing system, number system, philosophy, education, religion and spirituality, visual arts, drama, architecture, timekeeping) and assess their significance.
  • It would be beneficial for the teacher to prepare their students to work with this curriculum by:
    • Review of past and current policies and procedures that have affected the Indigenous women.
    • Overview of the history of the Indigenous woman’s role.

Practice Humility

How might non-Indigenous teachers sensitively work with this subject? What might they need to consider in their own positionality?

  • Non-Indigenous teachers can sensitively work with this subject by being mindful of the fact that Indigenous students in the class are children of these Indigenous women so to approach the topic cautiously as there may be triggers within the lessons.
  • The content isn’t a learned knowledge for some students but is their everyday life.
  • It is important for teachers to allow themselves to also become a support for their students when approaching controversial content.
  • After the lesson teachers can educate their students on health and wellness areas or host a talking circle to able their students to voice their emotions.

Acknowledge Sources

What can teachers do to find good supporting resources? How should they be cited, especially when it comes to Indigenous knowledges?

  • When citing it is very important to remember that learned knowledge does not solely come from the internet, news, television, or literature. On topics pertaining to Indigenous matters it is important to talk to reliable sources which would be an Elder as they are the purest form of knowledge and can share that knowledge within the classroom through oral teaching and traditions.
  • I would recommend that the teacher educates themselves on the First Nation in which their school is residing on. It would be extremely beneficial to create positive relationships with the surrounding nations as that opens doors for guest speakers and allows the class to be included in a substantial form of reconciliation.

BC Curriculum Connections

How does it relate to BC Curriculum?

Click on the subject area below to expand the section.

Social Studies

Big Idea(s):

  • Canada’s policies and treatment of minority peoples have negative and positive legacies.

Curricular Competencies:

  • Use Social Studies inquiry processes and skills to — ask questions; gather, interpret, and analyze ideas; and communicate findings and decisions.
  • Develop a plan of action to address a selected problem or issue.
  • Construct arguments defending the significance of individuals/groups, places, events, and developments (significance).
  • Sequence objects, images, and events, and recognize the positive and negative aspects of continuities and changes in the past and present(continuity and change).
  • Differentiate between intended and unintended consequences of events, decisions, and developments, and speculate about alternative outcomes (cause and consequence).
  • Take stakeholders’ perspectives on issues, developments, or events by making inferences about their beliefs, values, and motivations (perspective).
  • Make ethical judgments about events, decisions, or actions that consider the conditions of a particular time and place, and assess appropriate ways to respond (ethical judgment).

Concepts & Content:

  • Past discriminatory government policies and actions, such as the Head Tax, the Komagata Maru incident, residential schools, and internments.
  • Human rights and responses to discrimination in Canadian society.
  • Levels of government (First Peoples, federal, provincial, and municipal), their main functions, and sources of funding.
  • Participation and representation in Canada’s system of government.

Big Idea(s):

  • Economic self-interest can be a significant cause of conflict among peoples and governments.
  • Systems of government vary in their respect for human rights and freedoms.
  • Media sources can both positively and negatively affect our understanding of important events and issues.

Curricular Competencies:

  • Use Social Studies inquiry processes and skills to — ask questions; gather, interpret, and analyze ideas; and communicate findings and decisions.
  • Develop a plan of action to address a selected problem or issue.
  • Construct arguments defending the significance of individuals/groups, places, events, or developments (significance).
  • Ask questions, corroborate inferences, and draw conclusions about the content and origins of a variety of sources, including mass media (evidence).
  • Sequence objects, images, or events, and recognize the positive and negative aspects of continuities and changes in the past and present (continuity and change).
  • Differentiate between short- and long-term causes, and intended and unintended consequences, of events, decisions, or developments (cause and consequence).
  • Take stakeholders’ perspectives on issues, developments, or events by making inferences about their beliefs, values, and motivations (perspective).
  • Make ethical judgments about events, decisions, or actions that consider the conditions of a particular time and place, and assess appropriate ways to respond (ethical judgment).

Concepts & Content:

  • Global poverty and inequality issues, including class structure and gender.
  • Roles of individuals, governmental organizations, and NGOs, including groups representing indigenous peoples.
  • Different systems of government.
  • Economic policies and resource management, including effects on indigenous peoples.
  • Media technologies and coverage of current events.

Big Idea(s):

  • Religious and cultural practices that emerged during this period have endured and continue to influence people.
    • Author's Notes: The implementation of residential schools to convert Indigenous peoples to practice Christianity/Catholicism to assimilate and overtake the population to gain power. This aspect affected Indigenous peoples as the role of mother and daughter were taken and replaced with assimilation practices. These events contributed to setting the intergenerational trauma cycle into motion.

Curricular Competencies:

  • Assess the significance of people, places, events, or developments at particular times and places.
    • Recognizing that the lack of education on the suppressive and unnerving hurdles Indigenous women have had to combat ultimately contribute to the harsh stereotypes inflicted in their everyday lives.

Concepts & Content:

  • Features and characteristics of civilizations and factors that lead to their rise and fall
  • Origins, core beliefs, narratives, practices, and influences of religions, including at least one indigenous to the Americas.
  • Interactions and exchanges between past civilizations and cultures, including conflict, peace, trade, expansion, and migration.
    • The connection of Indian residential schools, the Sixties Scoop, Indian Act, and MMIW to the roles such as motherhood, Indian status, and various other areas that were ripped away from Indigenous women.

Big Idea(s):

  • Cultural expressions convey the richness, diversity, and resiliency of B.C. First Peoples.
  • Understanding the diversity and complexity of cultural expressions in one culture enhances our understanding of other cultures.
  • Indigenous peoples are reclaiming mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being despite the continuing effects of colonialism.

Curricular Competencies:

  • Assess the significance of people, places, events, phenomena, ideas, or developments (significance).
  • Assess the credibility and justifiability of evidence, data, and interpretations (evidence).
  • Infer and explain different perspectives on people, places, events, phenomena, ideas, or developments (perspective).

Concepts & Content:

  • Colonialism and contemporary issues for indigenous people in Canada and around the world.
  • Diversity of B.C. First Peoples territories and communities.
  • Sacred texts, traditions, and narratives of cultures.

Big Idea(s):

  • The identities, worldviews, and languages of B.C. First Peoples are renewed, sustained, and transformed through their connection to the land.
  • Cultural expressions convey the richness, diversity, and resiliency of B.C. First Peoples.

Curricular Competencies:

  • Assess the significance of people, events, places, issues, or developments in the past and present (significance).
  • Assess the connectedness or the reciprocal relationship between people and place (cause and consequence).
  • Explain different perspectives on past and present people, places, issues, or events, and distinguish between worldviews of today and the past (perspective).
  • Using appropriate protocols, interpret a variety of sources, including local stories or oral traditions, and Indigenous ways of knowing (holistic, experiential, reflective, and relational experiences, and memory) to contextualize different events in the past and present (evidence).

Concepts & Content:

  • Traditional territories of the B.C. First Nations and relationships with the land.
  • Role of oral tradition for B.C. First Peoples.

First Peoples’ Principles of Learning

Which First Peoples’ Principles of Learning apply?

  • Learning involves patience and time.
    • The First People’s Principles highlights the awareness that knowledge and understanding is built over time, often requiring a recursive approach to teaching and learning.
    • The awareness of discrimination against Indigenous women has improved slightly but is still prevalent today through the representation of Indigenous women in the media, missing Indigenous women in Quesnel B.C, and the Highway of Tears. As more Indigenous knowledge is revealed to the general public the more compassion there is for the intergenerational cycle that was sent into motion as a result of colonization.

Inviting Community

What is one way that teachers could work with community members for this project?

  • Teachers could work with community members by contacting an individual within their school district such as head of Indigenous Education. Seeking assistance from a co-worker who has a connection to the local Indigenous groups is beneficial as you are able to acquire information and resources in a professional and non-invasive manner.
  • Through the connection the incorporation of Elders and Knowledge Keepers would be beneficial to the lesson as the students are able to create the connection between people and content.

Indigenous Perspectives

How does your lesson relate to decolonization or reconciliation of education?

The topic of the Native Women’s Association of Canada and its connection to Indigenous feminism relates to the decolonization and reconciliation of education.

  • The education of the discriminatory history and current events surrounding Indigenous females is crucial to ending the stereotypes inflicted by media outlets that ultimately justifies violence against Indigenous women through lifestyle choices.
  • Indigenous women are our matrilineal lines, daughters, friends, and our future. It is of great significance to ensure education to all groups of people to create not only a brighter, but a safer future for the upcoming generations.