Ormstown - Teachers inspired to educate themselves and bring Aboriginal history into the classroom

At Ormstown Elementary School grade 3-4 teachers Emilie McCaig and Joy Palmer became part of a growing number of educators who are taking it upon themselves to include more connection to Aboriginal cultures and history in their classrooms. The Provincial Resource Team of the CLC Network are hoping to see more teachers joining this avant-garde, turning their schools into sites of reconciliation.

With the help of CLC Coordinator Kim Wilson, the teachers carried out two new activities with their classes. First students were first introduced to key concepts and an historical overview using the Blanket Exercise. A facilitator came from Ottawa to lead this interactive theatre-based lesson one afternoon. As, with most students who first learn about the negative aspects of colonial history, including the Indian Residential School (IRS) system, they were surprised and angry.

However, this opened a discussion about appreciation of First Nations culture, which is especially important in their neighborhood, that is almost entirely non-Aboriginal, but which is geographically very close to large Mohawk populations. This immediately made an impact on one of the key goals the CLC had in mind for this project, “Students are informed, engaged and caring citizens.” The one Mohawk student in the class began to share more of his language, names in his language, etc. One student said to his teacher:  “You can re-do this activity anytime!”

This history lesson allowed the students to be even more open and receptive on a subsequent field-trip to the Tsiionhiakwatha/Droulersarchaeological site. The site is a full scale historical reconstruction of an Iroquoian village (circa 1450) where approximately 500 St.Lawrence Iroquoians established a village near the La Guerre River in what is now the municipality of Saint-Anicet.

They recommend this field trip to other teachers as it was educational and hands-on, “The visuals alone were awesome and everything wasn’t behind a showcase. Sitting on actual beds in the longhouse, for example. They got to see how enclosed a family of 5 would be living in. Students were able to make comparisons from then to today.” They also learned that women were very strong leaders in traditional Iroquoian society. A booklet of activities was also received to take back to school with questions for students as a quiz or as follow-up class discussion. 

Students seemed to concur with their teacher’s assessment:

 “I enjoyed sitting in the real animal skin and feeling the different ones."

“The long houses were really cool!"

"It's was so cool to see, it covered some of the stuff we covered in class."

" I liked Seeing their tools."

"I enjoyed all of it, was really cool to see how the lived."

"It surprised me how they played games like lacrosse, but with different rules"

"Interesting how men and women had their own job.”

“Womens [sic] were very important in their culture"

Ms. McCaig also participated in a teacher’s training by VC on the 100 Years of Loss Kit which is a curriculum kit covering the IRS history. She’s ordered a French version of the kit and is planning to begin incorporating more of this important history into her classroom next year.