Aboriginal culture woven into curriculum

Posted: May 22, 2012 10:10 a.m.

(L to R) Thunderbird Lodge educators Vee Whitehorse and Kelly Polaski present sweet grass and tobacco to Rick Seaman, an associate Professor of Mathematics and Computer Education. Photo: Faculty of Education

Rick Seaman, associate professor of Mathematics and Computer Education, has a unique opportunity to use his Math Education expertise to assist two teachers, Vee Whitehorse and Kelly Polaski, in the work they are doing with youth at Leading Thunderbird Lodge, located in Fort San in the Qu’Appelle valley.  Vee and Kelly teach Saskatchewan curriculum to male youth who have come to the Lodge to heal from difficulties related to drug, alcohol, and solvent abuse.  Alongside their healing process, the youth work on their education.  Though the youth have First Nations or Métis background, Vee says, “The boys who come here have great diversity among them. They come from all across Canada, from reservation and urban locations, and from a variety of cultural backgrounds.”  Their education is also diverse with some who have never attended school to those who have with different levels achieved. This makes teaching a challenge. 

Through their ongoing conversations with Seaman, they are realizing a new vision for the curriculum they teach. Rather than trying to teach subjects separately, they have envisioned a horizontal curriculum that cuts across subjects, something suggested to them through their meetings with Seaman.  This horizontal curriculum allows them to look at what they are already doing with students and recognize curriculum objectives, common essential learnings, and subject strands within the activities in which the students engage. “We try to connect everything to the curriculum, to make it relevant so that the material we produce can be used by any school in Saskatchewan,” Kelly explains. 

For instance, one of the activities they do with their students is to make a drum.  The youth learn the process from the sweat before the hunt, the killing and the offering, to the preparation of the hide and the cutting, measuring, and constructing involved in the final product, the drum. The preparation of the hide requires that the student measure out the proper amounts of deer or elk brain, the oil from the animal’s feet, water, and soap.  Through scraping the hide, applying the mixture, stretching and jumping on the hide, the fibres are separated and this softens the skin for use.  Smoking the hide is also important for keeping the fibres apart.  Throughout the project, students learn and demonstrate various math skills including: radius, circumference, and angles. They learn to identify parts of the animal and aspects of its habitat.  When the project is finished, Vee explains to the students that they have been doing math. The youth are surprised that they have shown ability and competence in math, something they may have seen as irrelevant as a subject in school.   Vee and Kelly are working to develop chemical formulas for the process of tanning the hide.  They are developing resources, lesson plans, and collecting pictures so that anyone in a public school system can teach in the same way. 

Vee is careful to show how the creation story frames all of his lessons and stories.  His lessons emphasize values such as respect, wisdom, and humility.  For instance, each spring the students raise a teepee.  Each pole of the teepee represents values that are necessary for a good home, for good relations.  While learning the traditional stories, students are representing what they learn.  As an example, while learning the story of the Corn People, students are growing traditional, sacred corn in the classroom, measuring the growth, and eventually grinding the flour and making it into food.

Field trips are also an important element of their curriculum.  They travel to historic monuments around Fort Qu’Appelle, and ask questions about treaties.  Kelly has done some research and has found where Treaty 4 was signed.  He has found that there were supposed to be 16 Chiefs who signed Treaty 4 but he can only find 13 signatures.  “This is a research project for any kid in any school—investigative learning, this is it!”  says Kelly.  

As they continue envisioning a horizontal curriculum, they are excited by the possibilities. Kelly says, “Rick gave us a challenge: Relate the curriculum to Native culture and to the present....None of this would have happened the way it did without our conversation with Rick--He led the way.” 


The above story was originally published in the Faculty of Education’s latest edition of Education News.  To read other articles from that publication visit: http://education.uregina.ca/index.php?q=newsletter.html