This November, the OISE Library is bringing Indigenous culture into the classroom! Stop by the book display in the OISE Library lobby to check out some of these books highlighting Indigenous people, cultures, and stories. Please ask staff for help.
Looking for ways to bring Indigenous ways of thinking into the classroom? Teaching Truly: A Curriculum to Indigenize Mainstream Education addresses the relationship between Indigenous people and the education system and provides suggestions for ways to bring Indigenous approaches to individual subject areas such as mathematics or music. Living Indigenous Leadership: Native Narratives on Building Strong Communities discusses leadership concepts appropriate to building strong Indigenous communities, written by Indigenous women from Canada, the United States, and New Zealand. We also have access to this book as an ebook. For an arts approach, Strength and Struggle: Perspectives from First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Peoples in Canada contains a wide range of short stories, essays, poetry, comics, music lyrics, and other pieces of writing and artwork by Indigenous authors and artists. Each piece includes discussion questions to prompt afterthought and aid in classroom use.
For an exploration of how Indigenous and non-Indigenous activists can build relationships and work together for Indigenous rights and self-determination, check out Alliances: Re/Envisioning Indigenous-non-Indigenous Relationships. Meanwhile, “Our Indian Princess”: Subverting the Stereotype addresses representations of Indigenous people and stereotypes in art and imagery. On the teaching side of things, Aboriginal History and Realities in Canada provides a range of teaching materials and lesson plans for grades 1-8 than can be used when teaching about Indigenous peoples and histories.
Interested in stories about the lives of Indigenous individuals? Check out the Tales from Big Spirit series, including The Poet: Pauline Johnson and The Rebel: Gabriel Dumont. This series profiles some of the great Indigenous figures from Canadian history – as short graphic novels! Another series profiling Indigenous people in North America is The First Nations Series for Young Readers. This series includes titles such as Great Women from our First Nations and Men of Courage from our First Nations. Each book in this series tells the stories of ten remarkable Indigenous people in North America. If you’re looking for a story about Indigenous youth, check out Shannen and the Dream for a School, which tells of Shannen’s campaign to get a school built in Attawapiskat First Nation in Northern Ontario.
Looking for children’s books? We have many dual-language books in several Indigenous languages! On display in the OISE library lobby are just a selection of our dual-language books, featuring 8 different Indigenous languages: Nokum is My Teacher (Cree), The Diamond Willow Walking Stick (Michif), Living in Harmony (Ojibwe), Corneille Arc-en-ciel (Ojibwe and French), Muin and the Seven Bird Hunters (Mi’kmaq), Unipkaaqtuat Arvianit: Traditional Inuit Stories from Arviat (Inuktitut), Uumajut: Learn About Arctic Wildlife (Inuktitut), Beneath Raven Moon (Kwak’wala), We are the People: A Trilogy of Okanagan Legends (Okanagan), Yamozha and his beaver wife (Dogrib), and How the Fox Got His Crossed Legs (Dogrib). Many of these books have accompanying audio CDs. More dual-language books in these and other languages may be found here.
The OISE library also has a number of Indigenous kits of activities for the classroom. The Full Circle: Ways of Knowing kit addresses important social issues that Indigenous people in Canada, such as land, residential schools, health, and matters of identity. In addition to a booklet containing teaching materials and lesson plans, this kit also contains a DVD with audiovisual materials as well as additional teaching materials. For younger audiences, try out the Northwest Coast Native Animals Matching Game or stop by one of the puppet display racks to check out some of our Northwest Coast-designed hand puppets!
You may also want to check out some the online resources available, such as the Indigenous Studies Portal from the University of Saskatchewan or the Deepening Knowledge Project, which contains links to many useful materials for both teachers and students. Additional online resources may be found is the library’s Aboriginal Perspectives library guide.
