Memories of a grade 5/6 Indigenous Life inquiry - part 1, pre-contact: “What was life like for the people who lived here first?”

“...The students said they wished they could learn outdoors like that every day, and surmised that life (and education) for Indigenous children must have been the ultimate and ideal way of living and learning...”

I can’t sum this one up easily. There was SO MUCH meaningful learning for my students and for me. Here’s the story of part 1 of this inquiry. (Be sure to read part 2 right after).

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Memories of an Indigenous life inquiry, part 1: 

“What was life like for the people who lived here first?”

While looking for living things during our Backyard Bug inquiry, some students found food and other items which they remarked may have been food sources in the past for the Anishinaabe people who once lived on the land where our school now sits. One student asked if after our bug inquiry we might learn about what life was like for Indigenous people who once lived there. Everyone loved this idea.

We began by imagining life in the past, and thought about our basic needs for survival - food, water, shelter, warmth. I prompted the students to imagine how they could meet these needs in our forest. 

Thanksgiving was approaching, so I presented a challenge: before thanksgiving (around the time when Indigenous groups may have historically celebrated harvest feasts), they would need to set up a dwelling place for their ‘family’(with shelters that would keep them safe, dry, and warm) and they would need to prepare a full harvest feast of their own (with fruits, vegetables, grain foods, protein foods, and drinks).

The students wondered what materials I would give them or what they could bring from home, and I told them that I would give them nothing unless it would authentically fit with the realities of life for Indigenous people who lived in our area. (Every time the students asked about certain objects and materials, I said, “you’ll get those later, when ‘the Europeans’ arrive.” Throughout the whole inquiry, they were waiting with anticipation for the day ‘the Europeans’ would finally arrive...)

Initially, students began by building structures in the forest. Since I would give them no materials “until the Europeans arrived,” the students went home night after night and did research to meet the needs that arose for them each day. They learned about such things as how to use rocks as tools, how to sharpen sticks, how to make rope from milkweed plants, and how to make cedar tea. They made bows and arrows, snares, fishing implements, and rabbit traps. They learned about what plants are edible (and medicinal) and also brought food items from their gardens at home. They learned about the importance of corn, squash, and beans, so I provided some of each of these staple foods to each family. They learned to crush corn into flour using rocks, and how to make containers from pumpkins, squash, and clay. Even after school, students met each other in the forest to continue planning and playing.

When conflicts arose between family members, we took time to learn about Indigenous governance structures, decision making processes, and ways of being in community. Students were interested in the meanings of names of Indigenous people we learned about, and they named each other according to their family members’ unique traits, special abilities, or valuable contributions to their groups. The students loved their names and loved their homes and families. They were proud of their teams and their efforts. Each group named themselves as a ‘nation’ - e.g. “The Long Dome Nation.” Students’ personal identities and their new identities as nations were very significant and a source of pride to them. 

Besides learning about basic survival needs, the students were also interested in learning about what else Indigenous people did for enjoyment and entertainment. We learned about the importance of storytelling in Indigenous communities, and we wrote stories of our own to share (acted out as plays). We learned about Indigenous games and played several during gym classes. We watched videos of Anishinaabe musicians and dancers on YouTube to learn about Indigenous music (past and present), regalia, and to learn some dance steps so we could create our own dances for the harvest feast. The students loved the music of A Tribe Called Red, and when a visiting group of Indigenous drummers and dancers performed at our school, the students were giddy with excitement and anticipation of what they were going to see. They were mesmerized throughout the performance, and afterward expressed how honoured and privileged they felt to have been able to see real Indigenous peoples sharing some of their culture and traditions with them - to see and celebrate in real life what they’d spent so much time researching about.

Before the feast, students wrote essays to communicate and summarize all they’d learned about Indigenous life to that point. They asked if the feast day could be a FULL DAY of outdoor learning, so I had them do a persuasive writing assignment to explain why that would be valuable for their learning. 

We spent a full day outside in the forest to fully immerse ourselves in the outdoor experience. The students said they wished they could learn outdoors like that every day, and surmised that life (and education) for Indigenous children must have been the ultimate and ideal way of living and learning. 

(Stories of this inquiry will continue in the next post . . . Life after European contact . . . )

Note: During the time we were building structures outdoors, we were also learning indoors about Indigenous homes, which created a perfect connection to the grade 5 science unit about structures.