Reflection On Indigenous People

Indigenous people are members of a large spiritual family that believe their number one problem is having life out of balance. They believe the cause for this problem is lack of remembering. They also believe that balance in life is more important than what happens in the afterlife. They have a sense of where they belong by following the rhythms of life. They aim to restore harmony and there are many different indigenous religions that go about it.

This is the first lesson of the unit over the Algonquin and Iroquois Indians. This lesson will serve as my pre-assessment. I will show a video without sound and ask for the students to write their thoughts down in their notebook. Later on in the lesson we will revisit the same video with the sound on to see how similar our thought were from the first video, and to now apply known knowledge.

The Department has a mandate to support Indigenous peoples in their pursuit of healthy and sustainable communities and broader economic and social development objectives. It provides funding for programs, services and initiatives to First Nations, Inuit and northern communities and governments, as well as to Indigenous and Metis organizations. The Departmental priorities are aligned with the issues that are most important to Indigenous peoples. The following are some of the more prominent issues facing First Nations in BC.

The indigenous people of Japan and Russia are called Ainu. Ainu is also referred as Aino, Aynu and Ezo in ancient text. The history showed that they spoke Ainu language and other varieties of languages. They lived mostly in Hokkaido, the Kuril Islands, and Sakhalin. The people who still called them Ainu live in those regions. The exact number of the population of Ainu is still unknown. There are confusing and conflicting issues with Ainu due to mixed heritages, which result in hiding their identities. There is much intermarriage in Japan, which causes the loss of identities of real Ainu. The official estimates of the population of Ainu are

The history of Canada spans over hundreds of years. There have been endless defining occasion’s in our country's history that have constructed, and shaped our country. Canada has shaped as a nation politically, economically and socially through many consequences we have faced and many moments we have celebrated. Events such as the women's suffrage, Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope, and Stephen Harper apologizing to aboriginal people regarding what happened with the Residential School System have had a lasting impact on our country. Their significance to Canadian history is evident through the impact they have had on many of our citizens. They have played a leading role in carving our history to be the way it is today.

For centuries, humans have successfully dominated the animal kingdom. They have risen above their own physical characteristics and demolished evolutional boundaries. Like a bird soars and a fish swims, humans have surpassed their somatic disadvantages and created synthetic versions of these methods of travel. Humans have been so successful in conquering the mobility and patterns of other animal species that it has led to the societal succession of humans from the animal kingdom. Although evolutionally, Homo sapiens share common ancestors with other animals, it is a common belief that humans are in a class of their own, separated from their primitive counterparts. This is reinforced in the pattern of colonization in human societies and their

“Indigenous peoples are commonly among the poorest and most vulnerable segments of society” (World Bank, 2001). Confronted with these bleak economic statistics, nations across the world are being forced to recognize the plights of their Indigenous communities. (Peredo, 2009). Across Canada, Aboriginal communities are diverse and widespread, including First Nations peoples, Inuit and Metis, many of whom live in far isolated northern communities, and many yet in bustling metropolises. Despite the tremendous diversity among Indigenous peoples, they all share one thing- the harvesting of fish, wildlife, and plant materials has been their historical basis for economic life. For Canadian Aboriginal cultures, land means far more than property- it

Were there school systems for the indigenous people of America prior to the arrival of the Europeans in 1492?

Prior to undertaking Critical Indigenous Pedagogies, I had completed three Australian Studies topics in my undergraduate degree that were fundamentally Indigenous-focused as opposed to colonial based. From this past experience I believed that I had a basic, but ‘sound’, understanding of Indigenous knowledges and constructs for an individual from a non-Indigenous, white-privileged background. However, in reflecting upon my practicums, experiences and content covered thus far in EDUC9400, this topic has re-affirmed that I still have much to learn in terms of implementing everyday aspects of Indigenous knowledges within my pedagogy.

Throughout my schooling life, I was taught a very minimal amount, if at all, about Indigenous culture and their perspectives. When reflecting on my schooling, I was taught the biased opinionated story on the ‘settlement’ and the sad thing is I believed it. When thinking about it today, it makes me question the things I was taught. There was no discussion involved about the way Indigenous people were treated or how they felt, it revolved around the non-Indigenous. This makes me feel embarrassed and disappointed in myself, for not considering the Indigenous perspective. I became more aware of the situation as I grew older due university education. I believe others from my school did not care about the Indigenous due to none attending our school, suggesting that learning about their perspective during this historical event was pointless.

Indigenous religions, full of vibrancy and color, are often misconstrued or written off as primitive. Examples include: Animism, a belief system that stretches back to the earliest human and is still in practice today. It is thought to be a dangerous, shamanistic religious practice that is looked upon negatively. Buddhism, a religion that people believe is practiced only by environmentalists and the “hippies” of the world. The reality is it is practiced by the majority of East Asia. It has a powerful spiritual leader that has done a lot to bring awareness about the suffering of his country. And Vodou, which is misinterpreted to be a dangerous, violent religion where people participate in sacrificial rituals and wild sexual orgies. It is

My first exposure to Indigenous peoples history in Canada was in Junior High history where we learned about the British coming to Canada and their interactions with the Aboriginal peoples, including the fur trade and alliances. However, it was never discussed as to how colonialism impacted the Aboriginal peoples. After that, it was not until university where I learned more about Aboriginal people. In first year Sustainability, we learned about the current state of Aboriginal peoples in Canada. For instance, how the environmental degradation is affecting their way of living.

Chachi, Hadza, Sakha, Jarawa, Baka, Duala, and Aleuts. Have you heard of any of these names? Probably not. These are a few of the many Indigenous groups around the world. “There are between 300-500 million Indigenous people in the world” (Encyclopedia.com). To put this in perspective the United States has a little over 300 million people. What if the rest of the world would forget about the United States? This is exactly what we are doing to the indigenous population. Indigenous groups span across the world living in many different countries. Indigenous people are protected to a certain area because of their historical ties to a particular location. Each community of Indigenous people have their own unique history, religion, and culture that has been passed down for hundreds of years. Indigenous people have a very difficult time preserving their religious traditions,

Indigenous people believe that they are part of the existing entities and have rights to earned and bestowed the resources to country, self and others (Martin & Mirraboopa, 2003). They thought that physical world is co-existed with human world. So that they must protect the physical world as their guardians (Martin & Mirraboopa, 2003). Their ways of being also change when the relations change among the people and amongst the entities. The experiences of one is for all and the experiences of others are also for one; this is learnt each other through “reciprocity, obligation, shared experiences, coexistence, cooperation and social memory” (Martin & Mirraboopa, 2003, p. 210). Arbon (2008) also state that being is embodiment,

During the time spent in the course this year, I've gained so much knowledge about the First Nations culture. In the beginning of the course, I barely knew anything, with the information I have received it has opened me to the truth of my own culture, and the First Nations people's culture. It has been disappointing to find out that the information I was taught in elementary school about the First Nations people was false, and how much of it was just stereotyped. An important concept I learnt throughout the course is, the danger of a single story. This is because, I realized having only one viewpoint to a story can extremely limit the ideas we are able to obtain from it. Residential schools are extremely important in First Nations people's cultures past, as that is the cause of what almost took away their whole culture.