How does power alter relationships? To answer this, we need to look back at our last unit in humanities, which was all about power in history. The first thing that we did in this unit was we read a comic book about Louis Riel, a controversial figure with immense power from the 1800s. This book was very interesting to read because of the mix of artistic styling and historical information. We wrote a few summaries about this book, both written and animated. The book was an interesting way to see history in a new light.
An important topic that we learned a lot about was the history of Manitoba. We learned all about how Parliament used their power against the Red River settlement and had them sign treaties giving their land away for little to no money and resources. We also learned a bit about the Canadian Pacific Railway and it’s history. We learned a lot about the CPR during our trip to Calgary, which I’ll link here. One of the other main topics we learned about was the Cariboo Gold Rush. The lure of gold to Europeans led many of them to the Eastern coast of Canada, however after the gold ran out it left the local towns in economic troubles. The power in all of these events moved throughout time to different people or groups.
The main project of this unit was to create a short 2-3 minute animated video showing a transfer of power between a person or group of people. The first step was to choose a topic. I chose to make my video on the CPR syndicate, a group of men who invested heavily in the Canadian Pacific Railroad. I then typed out about 2 or 3 pages worth of notes to base a story about. Then, I put everything into a story about the CPR. The story was then turned into a storyboard. This step was one of the hardest because I had to plan out my entire animation. Then, I could start drawing. I worked everyday for weeks to make my animation. I used an app called Flip a Clip, which allowed me to flip through multiple images in order to make them look animated. I drew out every picture one at a time, and printed out images to trace over for some scenes. After a lot of hard work, I finally had a finished product that I was proud of.