Media.Knet.Ca

From First Perspective http://www.firstperspective.ca/fp_template.php?path=20060830teachers

Teaching the teachers about First Nations' culture -August 30, 2006 - by Holli Moncrieff

For years, The Manitoba Museum has been educating students about First Nations culture, so teaching the teachers was a natural progression.

In 2001, First Nations children accounted for one in four of all Manitoba children under 15-years-old. School divisions have been striving to incorporate more First Nations culture and heritage into their curriculum, which is where The Manitoba Museum comes in.

A few years ago, Winnipeg School Division #1 asked the Museum to develop Aboriginal Education Days. These Professional Development Days for teachers explain all the First Nations resources and school programs that the Museum has to offer.

Teachers are then taken on a tour of the archaeology and native ethnology labs, where they have the rare opportunity to view artifacts that aren't currently on public display.

"Our current goal is to raise awareness and respect for Aboriginal culture," explains Lila Knox, Manager of Educational and Interpretive Programs. "When the teachers meet someone like Katherine (Pettipas, Curator of the HBC Collection and Native Ethnology), who's dedicated her life to the preservation of these artifacts, they realize how important this history is."

During the lab tours, the teachers meet Pettipas, her assistant curator, Tanya Cochrane, and Curator of Archaeology Kevin Brownlee. Each curator delivers a short, animated presentation about their area of specialty.

"Several school divisions have made a commitment to Aboriginal education, but all teachers should be incorporating respect for all cultures into their curriculum," says Knox, herself a former teacher. "In order to respect a culture, you have to learn about it."

Brownlee, a Cree from Norway House, is committed to ending stereotypes that have been perpetuated against First Nations people in the educational system.

"I hate the term 'nomadic', because it implies that First Nations people were just moving around aimlessly, with no purpose, when they were actually tracking the migration patterns of the bison, fish, and caribou they relied on for food," he says. "It's the same with the word 'primitive'. Early native people were not primitive-they were highly sophisticated hunters, farmers, and miners, long before the point of European first contact."

During an Aboriginal Education Day held recently with teachers from Earl Grey School, Brownlee explained the high level of skill that went into making early First Nations cooking vessels, arrowheads, and the atlatl, a remarkable spear thrower than can reach distances of over 100 metres.

"If each teacher takes even a small bit back to classroom with them, it's well worth it," says Brownlee.

The visit to the Native Ethnology lab included a presentation by Jenny Meyer, an Ojibway and long-time volunteer of The Manitoba Museum, on the intricacy of First Nations beadwork.

"We're the right people to hold these training sessions," Knox says. "We have the expertise available, we have the collections, and we have a long history of presenting Aboriginal education to school groups. This way, teachers get the information from the best source."

The incorporation of First Nations culture into the school curriculum is important for all students, Knox adds.

"Non-Aboriginal students need to grow up sensitive of the people around them, respecting other cultures and honouring them," she says. "It's a teacher's job to prepare their students for the world, and it's only natural that they are trying to serve their students in the best possible way."