WORKSHOP FOR EDUCATORS

Suitable for Grades 3 to 12 - Universities - Community Colleges

Thunderbird is an educator on most things First Nations. Her performances meet provincial curriculum requirements for units in Native Studies. As a result, she is a much in demand speaker and performer at educational institutions all across Canada.

Her performances and teachings are geared to the specific grade requested (Grade 3 to University and Community Colleges). She uses a combination of lively interaction with her audience, the dynamics of live theatre, storytelling, songs, drums and shakers.

Her teachings include correct definitions, correct historical information and facts, contemporary social and political issues all illustrated by dramatic and humorous stories. Students of all ages have a lot of fun learning to drum on authentic Native hand drums and shakers as well as learning songs some of which are in the original Indigenous languages including: Sm’algyax, Seneca and Ojibwa.

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Make Teya Peya Part of Your Professional Development Day, other Teacher Training Events or Educational Conference

Thunderbird has a passionate interest in how the history, culture, spirituality and the contemporary lives of Native peoples are portrayed and conveyed to the rest of the world. For far too long, the information has been relayed, often inaccurately, with a decidedly NON-Native interpretation.

She, along with other Teya Peya Speakers, seek to debunk many of the myths and outright inaccuracies that are still taught in the educational system. For example, the Bering Strait Theory - there is not a shred of proof that indicates Turtle Island's Indigenous people migrated from central Asia. At the time, there was a huge wall of ice that spread across the top of the world making such travel completely impossible. The Indigenous people already on Turtle Island, knew about the wall of ice. Let us just put this ridiculous notion to rest shall we? LISTEN TO THE ELDERS!

For more Facts and Fantasy

Much Indigenous education continues to be taught in isolation. For example, in Ontario, the new Grade 10 Native Studies course, Aboriginal Peoples in Canada, asks the following question: Describe the key aspects of the Indian Act and the impact they have on the lives of Aboriginal peoples.

How is this to be answered when the student has had no previous introduction to a subject as comprehensive as this?
Why only the key aspects of the Indian Act?
The Indian Act is the most racist documents ever written by a western democracy -- what parts would be considered KEY when the entire Act was designed to control and oppress every aspect of Native Life, by taking away rights enjoyed by every other 'free' Canadian.
This approach does not require thoughtful discourse, but merely a subjective answer by students with little preparation and understanding of previous history and the devastating impact the Indian Act had on Native societies in the last hundred and twenty-nine years.

WISDOM OF THE AGES: INTRODUCTION
TO THE STUDY OF FIRST NATIONS
HISTORY, SPIRITUALITY AND CULTURE

By simple definition the study of First Nations culture and history is interdisciplinary. It meets the criteria for Social Studies, Native Studies, Politics, Geography, History, Music, Visual and Dramatic Arts.

Native societies include the cultures and traditions of a wide variety of Indigenous Peoples with a myriad of rich, complex societies that lived large and well for thousands of years. The study of First Nations people is now placed within the context of Canada, a country that regularly touts to the rest of the world how proud it is of its ‘sea to sea’ cultural, linguistic, racial and religious diversification.

Unfortunately, little has been done in the way of clearly delineating the diverse Indigenous heritage this country enjoys. Rather, the study of Indigenous cultures tends to be lumped under one generic heading with an assumption that all Native people are alike. In the sense that Indigenous cultures suffered the same sorts of cultural genocide and assimilationist attempts by the dominating European cultures in recent history, this is true, Native people are alike.

However, there are three very distinct groupings recognized under the 1982 Constitution Act: First Nations, Inuit and Métis. Within the First Nations group there are approximately 609 culturally distinct tribes.

In the sense that all Indigenous people share common cultures, nothing could be further from the truth. Having said that, much like those countries who have Catholicism as their spiritual base for example, most Native cultures also enjoy some universal beliefs and understandings which are tied to their circular-based spirituality. However, cultural differences between, say Italy and Spain, both Catholic countries, are are very distinct. It is no different with Indigenous nations. Cultural differences between the Pacific Northwest Coast and the Plains First Nations are quite significant...what happens in the world of the Inuit is vastly different from the Mi'kmaq or Métis.

It is incumbent upon all peoples to know each other and understand and celebrate the differences.

Contemporary Canadian society has created complex situations in which decisions regarding Native land use policies, construction of private and public facilities on Native land, self-determination issues, renewable resources, belief systems and the preservation of wildlife are not easily resolved or understood.

In order to understand the complexities, it is necessary to understand some of the characteristics of tribal spiritual, political and social practices. For example, spiritual belief and reverence for the land is foremost among the characteristics which distinguishes First Nations people from other groups. Native people also have a keen sense of the historical process and of the passage of time.

In pre-European contact times, there was a long historical ‘Oral’ tradition in which history, culture, knowledge, traditions were passed down to succeeding generations through storytelling thereby keeping tribal traditions strong and vibrant. Native rituals, beliefs and practices attempted to deal with situations in the moment. They may be ages old, but their relevance in ‘real time’ is incalculable.

Native Studies enhances all people who choose to live here.

Students should be given a range of knowledge from a pre-contact Native point of view so they can truly understand the importance of First Nations culture to the overall strength of Canada.
Students should have the opportunity to feel that resonant connection to a rich culture that has existed since the time before time began.
Students should have an opportunity to research the incalculable contributions Natives people continue to make to Canada.

First Nations history cannot be taught in isolation -- it is circular. For thousands of years, the First People lived distinctive lifestyles founded on the concept of a balanced, harmonious and orderly relationship with the natural world.

Much like the great circle of life, Native history is also circular, each event impacting on the next event and so on. Selective history coupled with non-Native interpretation combined with pockets of information and areas of study do not allow for a comprehensive picture of what happened to a once proud people who freely roamed the land non-Natives know as Canada, and First Nations people know as Turtle Island.

This is what the Ontario curriculum endeavours to do, and it simply does not work.

Therefore, to try and teach Indigenous Studies only from, say, a contemporary perspective does not place the rich history of Native people within wide enough parameters.

What is happening now is based on what happened in the past. Students need to know about the past to be informed about the present and the future!

Seven Steps to the Colonization of North America's Indigenous People:

Destruction of Food
Introduction of Foreign Diseases
Fall of the Matriarchy
Imposition of Christianity
Theft of Land
Indian Act
Residential Schools

Pre-European Contact - Up to 1491 It is important to understand that prior to European contact, First Nations people lived well-ordered lives with finally honed social, political and spiritual practices and structures. To know the Ancestors and how they lived is to place in context how recent history has unfolded. Topics: the beauty and importance of the oral narrative as the cultural grounding of Indigenous Peoples; the sophistication of social and political structures; the equality of women and men; Five Ethics; Five Beliefs; general Spiritual beliefs.

1500 - 1700 An understanding of the relatively respectful relationship between Indigenous People and Europeans despite rampant disease and attempted imposition of Christianity.

1812 - 1849 An understanding of the great change in attitude on the part of the Europeans after the War of 1812 to one of negativity, oppression, and pure colonialism/patriarchy; how this change impacted on the lives of the Indigenous people at the time, and subsequently their descendants. Topics: Disease, determined imposition of Christianity, fall of the matriarchy, theft of land.

1850 - 1950 An understanding of the various laws, policies and colonialist attitudes that included rampant Euro-centrism and notions of manifest destiny. Topics: Treaties, theft of ancestral land, starvation as a weapon of oppression and control, Indian Act, Indian Agents, Enfranchisement, Reserve Lands, Oppression of Women, Reserve Land, Residential Schools.

1951-Present An understanding of the issues and challenges facing Indigenous peoples into the present. Topics: Self-Determination, Land Claims; Lawsuits against Religious, Changes to Indian Act, Institutions vis-a-vis Residential Schools, the vital importance of women in the process, 1982 Constitution Act and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, The impact of the Charter on Land Claims and other lawsuits; amendments to the Indian Act such as Bill C31-reenfranchisement of Women but not their children.