Aboriginal Beliefs, Values, and Aspirations in Contemporary Society

• Video support is available in NFB releases:
• Okimah: 51 min. (NFB C9198039/E2000) - Focuses on the annual goose hunt in Moose Factory,
Northern Ontario;
• The Gift: 48 min. (NFB C9198 057/E2000) - Explores the powerful bond and spiritual
relationships that continue to exist between Indigenous Americans and corn;
• My Village in Nunavik: 47 min. (NFB C9199 066/E2000) - Shows how the filmmaker Bobby
Kenlajak remains attached to the traditional way of life and the land.
• The North American Indian Travelling College (Akwesasne First Nation) has published good
material on Iroquoian traditional teachings, especially Iroquois Stories by Joseph Bruchac.
• Author and anthropologist Hugh Brody has published sensitive observations of Inuit and First
Nations customs in his books Maps and Dreams and more recently The Other Side of Eden.
• Excellent quotations are interspersed throughout the Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal
Peoples, in which testimony was recorded verbatim.
Teaching/Learning Strategies
1. The importance of the four seasons (spring, summer, fall, and winter) should be reinforced by the
teacher. Students are divided into groups, and symbols, traditional activities, and ceremonies are
listed on chart paper or an overhead.
2. Using specific cultural groups associated with geographical regions, students identify the importance
of specific symbols, traditional activities, and ceremonies that individuals and communities valued in
the past and value today.
3. Students focus on specific objects (e.g., drums, totem poles, carvings, designs, regalia, dolls, birds,
animals associated with clans) and explore how these objects and symbols reinforce cultural
achievement.
4. Oral reports, supported with materials, photographs, or drawings, are shared with class members.
5. Elders could be invited to share stories, or stories are read, that reinforce cultural beliefs and
practices.
6. Individual research on Aboriginal writing and artists, activists, and political leaders, both male and
female, would enrich this lesson sequence.
Assessment & Evaluation of Student Achievement
• Journal entries from Activity 1 are assessed. Group reports represent an alternative method of
assessment.
• If there has been previous focus on local or regional beliefs and practices, this is an opportunity to
locate resources on cultural groups beyond provincial or regional boundaries (e.g., Mi’kmaq of Nova
Scotia, Plains Cree, Blackfoot, Dene on Northwest Territories, Inuit of Nunavut, Tlingit of British
Columbia, Haida of British Columbia).
• As students are expected to compare and contrast beliefs, symbols, and ceremonies of different
cultural groups, the teacher needs to ensure that adequate resources exist to support this activity. See
Appendix 4.1.1.
• Worksheets assigned with videos are assessed for completeness, understanding, and application. See
examples in Unit 2, Activity 4: Assessment & Evaluation of Student Achievement.
Accommodations
Student groupings are established so that direct teacher support for high-needs students is available.
Limited criteria and expanded criteria for the collage/poster could be pre-established for selected
individuals and groups. Detailed worksheets could be used to focus on key aspects of videos, if
individual research tasks are overly challenging for some students.
Unit 4 - Page 4
• Aboriginal Beliefs, Values, and Aspirations in Contemporary Society - College Preparation