At
St.Willibrord’s School some creative approaches were taken this year to
increase understanding of Aboriginal cultures, in particular Mohawk culture.
This is especially relevant at this elementary school because approximately a
third of students are from the Mohawk community of Kahnawake. Bullying along
cultural lines is not uncommon, and a young teacher Melissa Iannicello took it
upon herself to address the issue.
Her
initial idea was to create a one-day event near the end of the school year, to
have workshops and guest presenters in for cultural activities. As a winning
strategy, she outreached to Mohawk students and parents to help her plan the
day, which quickly turned into a club focused on promoting awareness of
Aboriginal cultures, and anyone was welcome to join. Non-Aboriginal students
began to show up, and together the students learned a lot and demonstrated
reconciliatory relationship development. The group brainstormed ideas on what
they could do.
The
group helped to organize a full day of activities on June 11th, set
to coincide with 3rd Annual “Our Dreams Matter Too” Walk on
June 11, 2014 – a project of the First Nations Child and Caring Society. Students in all grades
participated in activities like beading, traditional food tasting, oral storytelling
(from a local community member), and lacrosse.
However,
there was also an important activity that emerged later in the planning.
Melissa had arranged for the Kairos Canada Blanket Exercise to happen with a
grades 3-6 students. This interactive theatre activity was done in class in
order to help provide better knowledge about how land was removed from First
Nations and to understand more about the Indian Residential School system.
Although this is not yet in the curriculum, with 16 of the 25 students in the
group being Mohawk, it was quickly obvious how important this history was to
cover. The students and other teachers responded so well to the Blanket
Exercise that it was decided to repeat it during the cultural day.
In the end Melissa saw the day as a
huge success, “I couldn't have asked for better! So many teachers came to thank
me and tell me how well organized it was. One particular teacher, when doing
the Blanket Exercise, was asked by one of her students why she didn't teach her
the history learnt during the activity during class time. Now this teach wants
to incorporate it into her teaching in the next years to come. Everyone was blown
away by the information we learned. “
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