❗️TRIGGER WARNING❗️

This post details information regarding the Residential ‘Schools’ and the Indian Act. Some information detailed in this post may trigger unpleasant feelings or thoughts. The Indian Residential School Survivors Society encourages you to take time to care for your Mental and Emotional well-being. Please contact The Indian Residential School Survivors Society toll-free 1 (800) 721-0066 or 24hr Crisis Line 1 (866) 925-4419 if you require further emotional support or assistance.

 


 

Hello internet! In our latest Humanities project, Case for a Nation, we discussed nationalism of the past and of today. Our goal was to create an Instagram post regarding a historical topic that showed nationalism.

I chose the Indian Act as my topic, though I regret not requesting if I could research colonization that took place in the Philippines; the country where my parents were from. I initially decided on researching the Indian Act because it wasn’t something I thought I was familiar with. However, the more I researched it, the more I realized I had already known about the Indian Act. Especially in the past year, with the consequences of Residential Schools having been brought to light, I believe that a lot more people are aware of the damage that has taken place. I shall further discuss this topic later in my post.

 

“How can an understanding of nationalism of the past, help us make sense of today?”

Before we can actually analyze nationalism of the past, we had to first understand what exactly nationalism is. We did a reading in class, then a whiteboard activity to better understand the meaning of nationalism. Admittedly, the word still confuses me, and I’m not sure how to feel about it. Personally, I believe that there are both good and bad aspects of nationalism, especially when it’s taken to the extreme.

 

 

❄️ Current Events: Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics

We also did a presentation in class regarding an event that is currently happening today. My presentation was actually way back in February, so mine was about the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. This wasn’t exactly a usual presentation, in the sense that we had to create it in Basecamp, an application regularly used in PLP. Therefore, here are some screenshots of my presentation.

 

🤝 Confederation Simulation

The Confederation Simulation was a simulation of the Confederation that took place in Canada in 1866. This was basically an event in which people of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, and Canada West & East joined together as a federal union. I was part of the Nova Scotia group with Faith, Mateo, and Jocelyn.

After researching Nova Scotians of the time period, we used historical perspective to decide how we can benefit from the Confederation “as Nova Scotians”.

Following a few failed presentations, here is our final list of demands:

I also took notes on the demands from other nations:

Unfortunately, after King Harris laid out the terms of Confederation, our group decided not to join since we had more cons than pros. I think that some of our “demands” from our presentation went unheard, which might mean we could have done a better job. I reflected upon this experience in a paragraph, as shown below.

 

✍️ The Indian Act of 1876

Now that we had a solid understanding of historical perspective and nationalism, we began researching our topics. I honestly feel I could have improved in terms of my research, since despite the 2 days we were given to fully research our topic, I still did not have a complete understanding of the Indian Act. I wish I could say I now do, but if I’m being honest, my knowledge of it does not go further than surface level. I feel that a lot of the reason why is because after coming back from our Loon Lake Learning Advance, our work in Humanities was suddenly pressed forward at a pace I was not prepared for. It was a bizarre difference in comparison to the time we spent researching our environmental topic in our People & the Environment project.

My classmates, Fraser and Dana also researched the Indian Act. It was said that this project would be individual, though as time went on, I found myself working with them more than I had previously expected. Considering I aimed to work on my collaboration competency for this project, I’m certainly not complaining. 

Here is a draft of the caption I wrote for the Instagram post:

Here is a caption that my group members and I agreed upon for the final Instagram post:

Once we agreed upon a caption, we began created our images. Since some people in the class were actually not working with a group, everyone was required to make 3 images so that it would be fair to those who worked individually. We were encouraged to create a photo with drawings on it, a photo with a quote, and a form of media of our choice.

Here are mine:

 

In the end, I decided to stick with my animation for the sake of doing something different. Though, I honestly prefer my other images more. My group requested that I make my animation fit a specific dimension size for our Instagram post so that it would be uniform throughout, rather than having my animation be on a square canvas size. I was honestly a little peeved about having to do this, since it meant I had to redo my entire animation. I wish I had spoken up about it, though I decided to instead silently fume in frustration. It would be nice if I could say that I didn’t mind and actually mean it, though that is far from the truth. From that experience, I believe I should work more on collaborating with others, since I technically didn’t have to redo my entire animation. I chose to because it was easier for me to just suffer through it rather than giving people no as an answer.

Anywho, you can find Fraser and Dana’s final chosen images in a Keynote presentation we made regarding the Indian Act seen below. I removed my animation from the presentation, since the video would not have been viewable.

In our presentation, I discussed how I wanted my animation to represent the making of the Indian Act, and the consequences because of it. In the beginning, a feather is seen drifting through the air. This represents the freedom Indigenous societies had prior to the Indian Act. Later, a feather is used as a quill to write it out. A graveyard is then shown, to portray the consequences, specifically the deaths of children in Residential Schools. In the end, the feather has fallen to the ground, as a metaphor for how the Indian Act managed to trap and inflict damage upon people.

We were also required to write an opinion piece regarding our topic. Mr. Harris heavily enforced the idea that we can have opinions, though to have a strong opinion, we should back it up with evidence. To quote I’d Rather Be Me from Mean Girls, the musical, “Everybody has opinions, but that doesn’t make them true.” I kept this in mind when writing my opinion statement.

 

🧐 Statues & Historical Perspective

In class, we discussed the taking down of John A. MacDonald statues… and also, more locally, the taking down of the Gassy Jack statue in Gastown, downtown Vancouver. We did not actually have to hand in something for this aspect of the project, though I personally found that this was the most interesting and insightful experience throughout Case for a Nation, so I wanted to share it on my blog. We discussed the controversy of statues of historical figures, and used historical perspective to understand why those statues were put up in the past, and why they might not be appropriate today. Although the topic might not have been pleasant (when are controversial topics ever?), I thoroughly enjoyed the discussion and I’m hoping to experience similar discussions in the future.

 

📖 The Single Story

We watched a TedTalk in class titled “The Danger of the Single Story” by Chimamanda. I highly recommend giving it a watch. I connected a lot to the topic. The speaker mentioned how because she consumed a lot of British and American stories/media when she was a young child, all the stories she wrote were about things those kids did in those stories. When I was younger, I always coloured people in my drawings using a light peach pencil crayon. I did this because it was what everyone else around me did, and it didn’t occur to me until I was much older that I can use a darker brown to accurately represent my skin colour.

Growing up in Canada without any knowledge of my cultural heritage is quite the experience. I wear the same clothes as my peers, I study the same topics, and eat the same food most of the time. I find comfort in rolling with the “norm” and it took me years to accept that although I may act like my peers, I’ll oftentimes never look like them. I was told the single story of what is “normal”. It’s taken me so long to be proud of who I am, and I honestly still struggle with it sometimes.

This TedTalk wasn’t exactly a central aspect of our project, the goal of watching it was to remind ourselves not to present our topic using “the single story”, but I resonated very deeply with it, so I felt like discussing it in my summative post.

 

✅ Curricular Competencies

  • Communicate Compellingly: I can respectfully exchange ideas and diverse viewpoints to build shared understanding and extend thinking.

I communicated concisely and respectfull in my Opinion Statement, Current Events presentation, Indian Act presentation, and Confederation Simulation presentation. Both individually and within a group, I spoke and wrote about various researched topics. I feel that I effectively managed to maintain a respectful method of communication in each of my presentations.

  • Take Historical Perspective: I can infer and explain different perspectives on past and present people, issues, or events by considering prevailing norms, values, and beliefs

I took historical perspective when writing my Opinion Statement, when reflecting on British North America, and when learning about the controversy behind statues. Something Ms. Maxwell really emphasized is it’s important to acknowledge that a lot of the actions in the past were not okay… and that when taking historical perspective, we should rather try to understand the reasons and mindset that led up to that event. It does not justify the actions of the past, but it does enable us the ability to make that connection on how events of the past affect the present.

 

💫 Conclusion

Nationalism was a motive that drove many in the past, and still does today. Different aspects and groups people identify with can make up a nation. As previously mentioned, I believe that nationalism can be both a good and bad thing. It brings people together, and unifies them. However, it can also encourage people to quickly feel that one’s nation is superior to another. Having an understanding of nationalism in the past, its significance, and consequences can better our understanding of the present.