By Muryn Jordan, teacher, living and working on the unceded, ancestral, and traditional territories of the Pilalt, Ts’elxwéyeqw, and Semá:th people in Chilliwack

As educators (and citizens), we are now aware that Canada has a deplorable history with regard to its dealings and relationship with Indigenous, Métis, and Inuit people. As a child of the late 1970s, educated in the 1980s and 1990s, I do not recall learning anything significant about our national history, save some lessons around Louis Riel and potentially some artwork here and there. The children we are educating now have a very different experience in the classroom.

I graduated from the University of the Fraser Valley Bachelor of Education program in 2020. As a recent graduate, I had the benefit of taking a class in Indigenous education and had professors who supported and required us to consider social justice in everything we undertook. This school year is my third, and I am privileged to be a founding member of the new Stitó:s (place of crossing) Lá:lém Totí:lt (house of learning) Elementary Middle School, which is located along the Vedder River in the unceded, ancestral, and traditional territory of the Pilalt, Ts’elxwéyeqw, and Semá:th people in Chilliwack.

Educators face a challenge in how to indigenize curriculum while also being careful not to inadvertently misstep. I don’t know many teachers who enter the classroom without some fear and trepidation about being disrespectful, using inappropriate resources, providing a token lesson without appropriate depth or purpose, or any number of other mistakes that may arise when we consider how to provide historical information and share Indigenous ways of knowing. This is a major barrier to many of us and can prevent some from taking necessary risks and pushing outside our comfort zones. Regardless of how unprepared we may feel, I think it is vital that we keep our hearts and minds open and approach the indigenization of our curriculum with purpose and intention, ensuring that we do the personal work toward reconciliation so that we can authentically guide our students to do the same.

Last September, around Orange Shirt Day, Taleen Candy, my partner teacher, and I wanted to expand the breadth of our teaching, as well as offer our mixed class of Grade 6 and 7 students a variety of methods to express their learning. We wanted to use arts-based education to bring important learning around residential schools into our classrooms.

We started with exploring Orange Shirt Day and residential school stories and facts. We then had students explore both the book and the video for the Secret Path by Gord Downie and Jeff Lamire. We asked students to consider the way colour is used in the artwork to express emotion. Students created their own medicine wheel connected to their learning of the Secret Path and the journey of Chanie Wenjack. This medicine wheel required students to express their learning through hand-drawn images, using the colours and directions of the wheel to explore different aspects of the lesson objectives. Based on a learning experience I had during my B.Ed., we presented students with songs by Indigenous artists, such as The Jerry Cans and Supaman, and asked them to consider how music and music videos affected the message of the song. Students completed a written or artistic response to each song.

Thanks to our amazing district Indigenous Education Department and with the in-class support of our school Indigenous Education Team, students were lucky to be able to participate in the Blanket Exercise, exploring the long history of colonization on the lands and people of Turtle Island.

As a class, we learned about various aspects of the Indian Act and watched the documentary Picking Up the Pieces: The Making of the Witness Blanket about the creation of the Witness Blanket by artist Carey Newman. (This film contains some coarse language, so it should be prescreened if you plan to share it with students.) Through all of these activities we facilitated ongoing discussion, sharing of thoughts and feelings, and encouraged students to start to understand how the past has affected the current Canadian social dynamics and to understand the goal of reconciliation.

While prescreening the documentary, I had the idea to have our students, 54 in total, create their own witness blanket squares. I designed each blanket panel to represent the work of nine students, and each student was required to artistically present five truths that they would bring forward in their lives and witness about the Indigenous history of Canada. While talking about the Indian Act, we started to delve into the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report and talked with students about why we learn about these historical and current issues facing our society. We tried to impart the importance of using knowledge to identify bias and encourage empathy.

I liked the idea of using art to represent learning, as many students embrace drawing in the classroom—and when they know that their artistic ability is not going to be “graded,” there is a higher rate of buy-in by students. While many students can struggle with expressing their learning or thoughts in writing, drawing and art can give them an opportunity to really poke around in the new learning and help them internalize the lessons in a different way. I have also found that using drawing to express learning requires students to think both critically and creatively.

To help students with the transition from knowledge to images, Taleen and I did our own blanket squares, each of us drawing five truths that we carry forward in our own lives. We were purposeful in ensuring students understood that this was personal to each of them, that the image only really had to make sense to them, and that the truth did not have to be something that came directly from the learning we did as a class. Students required some help in how to represent their truth (or a piece of learning) in an artistic manner, and we were thrilled to observe students talking to each other and brainstorming ways to make their pictorial representations.

Once the drawings were complete, students were required to write an explanation for each of their drawings and to then write a summarizing paragraph stating what this process means to them in their own journey toward reconciliation. On the opposite page is a sample of student statements about the process and project.

The end result was an approximately 16′ x 3.5′ witness blanket that was displayed in our Grand Hallway.

The blanket squares and pattern that I created can be reproduced by any teacher who wants to make a blanket in their own class/school. The pattern can be made smaller or larger. It is great way to use art to support learning and create a memorable and effective piece at any grade level.

Student reflections
This witness blanket project is important for reconciliation in Canada because it teaches me about the experiences First Peoples had…and this knowledge I can pass on to others. This way, if people pass this on and on, more will come to light and we can understand to be respectful and make up for actions Canada did in the past.  – R.S., Grade 7

We bring five truths forward to recognize the things that happened in the past and to spread more awareness so things like that cannot happen again. – A.T., Grade 7

This taught me a lot about how Canada treated Indigenous people and how awful it was. This is part of reconciliation because it helps other people know more about how Canada treated Indigenous people. – K.P., Grade 7

I learned that, no matter how long ago it was, the scary effect still lasts on, and it can make it hard to live a normal life after residential schools. – A.D., Grade 7

This is part of reconciliation because it’s important that we know the truth of what happened and how we can make things better now by listening and understanding. – L.P., Grade 6