The power of partnerships...

Sorry to bombard you with another long winded regale of my experience on this journey. So much has been happening that it's nearly impossible to keep up.
On Monday our two senior classes spent a full day at the Mendel Art Gallery. On a whole, it was a pretty amazing day. The students spent time rotating through the gallery learning about message and content, and then into the studio to create. They learned a few new art techniques, and clearly understood that art is about sending a message. It's pretty amazing and cool if you stop to think about it. Art can engage us and speak a powerful message without using a single word. We viewed Steeling the Gaze: Portraits by Aboriginal Artists.

These portraits were full of symbolism and messages. Some of the messages were more disturbing than others as they tackled stereotypes of the First Nations and Metis culture. Words like gang member and alcoholic subtly placed on t-shirts in beautiful photos gave way to the harsh reality of what comes to mind for many when they think of First Nations people. The beauty of children and their innocence was apparent when many of them said they didn't "get it." They didn't get it because they hadn't heard some of these stereotypes, not because they lacked the understanding of a stereotype. Wouldn't it be amazing if in the future these stereotypes became something of the past and most of our youth grow up and never learn these misconceptions and generalizations?

There was so much information to mine out of these photos that I think I'll have to follow up with some of the on-line links offered through the Mendel. The gallery is huge and the acoustics aren't great for teaching and discussing, and that leaves me with a feeling like our look at this art isn't quite over yet. Our tour guide was amazingly kind, gentle, and encouraging of all the students, as she led them through the gallery and art activities. Here are some examples of the graffiti art she had them do.

The goal was to create a positive "I am" statement in graffiti style on black paper with pastel. They turned out wonderful. The Mendel Art Gallery sponsored a portion of their time with us, which is another amazing gift and opportunity for our students.

The next day our students spent the afternoon with two First Nations guests, Alexander Kennedy and Josephine Kennedy. They spoke to our students about growing up on reserve. Alex spoke of spiritual beliefs, attending day school, and wisdom passed down from his grandfather. He tied this all together at the end by explaining the Idle No More movement. Josephine spoke to us about her experiences in residential school. Her stories were sad and haunting, but also hope filled. She explained how the residential school experience left many First Nations people with difficulty loving and parenting and masking pain with alcohol. She spoke to our students for an hour and a half, and I don't want to minimize her amazing presentation, but I also want to be sensitive about broadcasting her story online. The students connected with these two individuals and had many poignant questions to ask them. One of my students told me that meeting them made it clear how difficult residential schools were. I wish I had copied down a direct quote, but she said something along the lines of, "She is here all these years later speaking to us about her experience, and you can tell from her voice, her body, and her face that this is painful and her heart still hurts." I heard several students say that meeting these two people helped them to understand the harm done by our government.
So now all the learning around treaty, the Indian Act, and residential schools is not so abstract. It also became clear to the students that while this happened before they were born, it didn't happen too long ago, and the impact is still evident today.
I have to acknowledge that our funding for this project comes from the Saskatchewan Arts Board through a TreatySmarts grant. We also need to acknowledge our partnership with the Mendel Art Gallery, The Saskatoon Tribal Council and the Office of the Treaty Commissioner. These important partnerships and funding help us to create rich learning environments where students have a deep understanding.

The creative fire...

Our school was fortunate to receive a TreatySmarts grant this year, and we are using this grant to explore identity and culture and how they influence art. The unit starts off with the front-end loading of the information pertaining to Treaties, and will culminate in a slam poetry night at the Broadway Theatre. Ideally our students will write poems that pertain to the FNIM content they learn in class and speak passionately for peace, tolerance, acceptance and understanding for all people.
Our first exploration into identity and art was an assignment on Ted Harrison. I chose the questions: Is it possible to express your identity through art? Basically students had to view Ted Harrison's art and then guess who he is. I asked guiding questions and recorded their ideas on the board. Later we read his bio and looked at pictures of him. We discovered that some of the assumptions we made about him were accurate, but some were not. We then moved into the creation phase. Students were instructed to copy Harrison's style and create a piece of art that expresses their identity. After their art was completed, they were to write a reflection on how their art does or does not represent them. The final part of the assignment was to write a 1-3 paragraph biography on Ted Harrison, and to write a similar autobiography in third person about themselves.

Surprisingly many students had troubles copying this style of art. Maybe it was the combination of trying to combine a style with their identity. When I asked this inquiry questions, I assumed that the answer would be yes, but now I'm not so sure. Maybe the answer is yes if you are given free reign, but when you must mimic someone else's style it becomes more difficult.

Today we started to explore stereotypes exposed through art. We found this thought provoking First Nations Artist, Keesic Douglas. His art tackles stereotypes though photography. A teacher candidate took the lead on this lesson and showed the students Douglas's art. We discussed the meaning of the word stereotype and tried to list the stereotypes expressed through the art. This lead to a lively discussion about stereotypes that we all face. Tomorrow we will have students create a collage of the stereotypes portrayed in the media. They will be allowed to cut words and photos out of magazines for this collage. The difficult part for them will be to find stereotypes that are specific to them. While they are working on their collages, I will have students come one at a time for a black and white photo shoot. Once their collage is complete, they will begin the work of recreating the style of Keesic Douglas. Their materials will be their own photo and a sharpie. They can use words and pictures to draw on their photo and expose the stereotypes they are subjected to. Keesic Douglas's work depicts the stereotypes that First Nations people face, and our art likely will not. We will need to do this with a measure of cultural sensitivity, but with the idea that tolerance and acceptance of ALL people is the our common goal.

Finally, we will put all of our work into zines. Zines, short for magazines, are self published mini magazines that target a small niche. As we work over the next few months, the students will each build their own zine with art, poetry, and reflection.

Next week we begin working with two slam poetry artists. They will help teach our students about slam poetry and eventually lead them through the creation of their own slam poems. Working with these artists, as well as the Mendel Art Gallery, would not be possible without the TreatySmarts Grant, and the Saskatchewan Arts Board. For this opportunity, I am grateful.
For those of you who don't know what a slam poem is, here is a video:



 Here is the assignment the students worked through:

   Identity Inquiry Project by