Welcome to our new podcast: The 21st Century Teacher!
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Here at Live It Earth, we’re constantly looking for new ways to help our community of educators stay on the leading edge of teaching and learning in the 21st century. So we’re incredibly excited to announce the launch of our new podcast: The 21st Century Teacher!
It’s hosted by our own Blue Netherclift, who recently joined the Live It team as the key support person for our educator community. Blue has 20 years of experience in outdoor education, and recently worked for a number of years teaching an online-blended outdoor leadership and environmental high school program.
In the last week of each month, Blue will speak with a special guest educator about different aspects of 21st-century teaching and learning.
Episode 1: Indigenous Worldview on Learning and Orange Shirt Day
In recognition of Canada’s first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, coming up on Sept. 30, our first podcast features a conversation with Indigenous Educator, Patricia Collins.
Patricia and Blue discuss the origins and meanings of Orange Shirt Day, place-based education, and approaches teachers can take towards truth and reconciliation in their classrooms.
Sources for Educators:
Phyllis Webstad On Orange Shirt Day
Thanks for tuning in. We hope you enjoyed this podcast!
And if you’d like to be featured on an upcoming podcast, please reach out to blue@liveit.earth to start the conversation!
If you prefer reading to listening, you can find the full transcript of the podcast below.
Podcast Transcript
Hello, and welcome to the 21st-century teacher, a podcast to support educators and teachers. Each month, a special guest educator will be discussing a different aspect of 21st-century teaching and learning. The show is produced by Live It Earth, your one-stop-shop for interactive nature-based online learning. My name is Blue. And my job is to ensure that our teachers and students get the most out of our programs. And today, I'm talking with Patricia Collins, an indigenous educator that is piloting a new place-based learning model for graduating students in Grade 12. And I'll be asking her more about the origins and meaning of Orange Shirt Day, and what approaches teachers can take towards truth and reconciliation in their class.
So hi, Patricia, thanks so much for joining me on the podcast today. Can you start by giving us a little bit of background about yourself?
Absolutely. Yeah, it's wonderful to be here with you blue, I appreciate the chance to chat a little bit more about some of the work I'm involved in. So again, my name is Patricia. And presently I live and work on the unceded, unsurrendered territories of the nsyilxcən-speaking nation, the Syilx Nation on Okanagan Nation Alliance territory, the place name, where I come from is actually north of that I come from Secwepemc territory. And I'm extraordinarily grateful for being able to have the opportunity to grow up in such a beautiful part of the world and learn some valuable lessons, too, when I transferred with my spouse, and we moved here just carried a lot of that with me, and then created and strengthened relationships, because I am committed to living in right relations here on territory, in the Okanagan, and with the Okanagan people,
And you're now doing a pilot program, a land learn program, at your school, could you tell us a little bit about that?
Yeah, it's a really unique opportunity for us to work with senior young people who are in Grade 11 involved in integrated capacities. So we have four courses, actually, that we're unpacking, with project-based in one base learning opportunities. The hope is that we can re-establish a decolonized approach to learning. I always jokingly say, no test, no textbook, no teacher. And our focus is on really embedding some authentic opportunities to grow and mature and to learn through local consumption. traditions. We have knowledge keepers, and cultural coordinators and elders, who we will be honoured by bringing in and taking that opportunity to learn with them in an in situ environment of young people, their Environmental Science 12 their English, Geography 11, and Foundations of Math 11.
Sounds fantastic. And so this brings me to my sort of first key question, why? Why is place-based learning, an important aspect of learning that often gets overlooked?
Yes, I would say it's been significantly overlooked for probably the last 125 years, especially within the Euro-Western context. But it is a foundational aspect of indigenous learning. You know, the land has a lot to teach us. And when we situate learning from that perspective, it creates a value-based learning opportunity for young people. You know, yes, it's meant to be responsive and challenging. And at the same time, it's kind of a more authentic and gentler approach to education, especially when we're using some of the techniques like you know, talk in circles, sharing of narrative. And then the hope is that the young people at the end will have grown into ambassadors. And the assessment will actually come from bringing in younger individuals, possibly elementary and taking them out and participating in that sharing up the learning, which truly is the most effective assessment. If you can share it and you've learned it.
Do you find that there's a lot of relationship-building is happening? With the school, and then the local community around is that a big part of the role that you have, as opposed to just teaching the students, you're also building these other relationships outside of that.
Building Community? Yes, absolutely. One of the elders that I was really grateful to have a chance to work with Richard ogam out, he told me one time, there are two truths about learning, which is that every single person is capable of learning. And it really happens best in relationship, not only our relationship between each other, but again, our relationships with the land, you know, prime example blue, being English First Peoples class that I teach, we were out on territory last year. And we had been diving into the narrative of the four food chiefs, which is one of the pillar pieces of the narrative section here in the territory. And we're out there we're learning we have our extra ordinator, helping to guide us. And we come across the crest of this hill, and there is a nice black bear, and right there and the week, but you know, again, as a situational use the position of where we are on the land, the connection to territory, and then we're out, and we're seeing the blockers and looking at sign of black bear and talking about cycles that the bears are involved in, and our need to honour when we do see animals out on terrain like that, their place in our relationship.
So territorial land acknowledgments that we hear very often now, but before an event starts before a meeting starts, I know the organizations that I've worked at, as always a land acknowledgement of the beginning. So could you explain to people that may not have a deeper understanding of this, like, what is a land acknowledgement? And what is the significance of these acknowledgments? Like why they're important?
Well, it's interesting blue, you know, you brought up in the last few years, you're starting to see this more and more. And it's a little bit misleading, of an understanding, people think that land acknowledgments are something that's new, that it's a part of contributing to reconciliation. And it is, but it's actually a very old tradition. And by contributing the land acknowledgement, and speaking on authentic land acknowledgement, we can really honour wisdom in the tradition of the territory where we find ourselves in the footsteps of people who left footsteps for 10s of 1000s of years, long before we arrived. So you know, for myself, personally, I'm often in other places for my work and my learning. And I do always humbly acknowledge how blessed I am, to be able to have the opportunity to be in these areas. And traditionally, it's also a component of your actual identity, your lived identity, and a land acknowledgement would proceed even mentioning your kinship ties. Because it situates and connects you to a territory. And then as a visitor, when I speak of my commitment, and where I am, on my path to being in right relation with the territory and the people who are here. It does actually speak to being a person who values reconciliation.
I just wonder, as you're saying that, is there a time that you use the land acknowledgement as an educator, when would be the times that you feel appropriate to use it?
Well, thanks for asking that blue, because there's a lot of teaching around this. And, you know, what I've received as a teaching is that it's a part of an introduction, I think it's really important for people to understand that as a visitor to territory if you're welcoming somebody else, you are not to actually include a walk in your land acknowledgement, because you don't have the right to do that. And so I use it as a part of my introduction, you might see some people using it as a signature with an email. However, that's not something that was in the teachings that I received. In fact, I was guided away from that as not actually an accurate representation of a London acknowledgement. So I use that in my introductions to new people. And when I'm in a new space, I will include not just the territory that I live right now, but an acknowledgement further back to having been raised on the territory of the nation.
But is there a certain way of doing it because I've heard of one way is to not actually mention any of the local nations?
I would say best practice, to absolutely offer a land acknowledgement that expresses your gratitude, especially your gratitude to the people that did, the territory or the nations collectively, that started the territory.
Which brings me to the third and final question, which is September 30 is coming up. This is orange shirt day. And as of this year, it's now also going to be the truth and reconciliation day. So it's a new statutory holiday. So first of all, what are the origins of orange shirt day? And is this a good learning opportunity, I just wonder if you've got some tips around maybe for teachers that, you know, want to embrace this day, as learning, you know, what they could do?
Well, the influence of the learning for yourself as an educator, as well as for the young people that you work with is undeniable, a lot of folks know now or recognize now that weren't sure they actually evolved here in British Columbia, from the experience of an individual. And what I like about seeing Phyllis or hearing Phyllis speak is that you know, Phyllis is an individual who is a contemporary, you know, setting went to residential school, she's, she's still with us today. And she speaks so eloquently about her experience when she had this new shirt, you know, she was so proud. And off to school, she goes on the very first day, grandmother, you know, indigenous people have an exceptional value for learning. And to honour this first day, her grandmother bought her a new shirt. And the first thing that happened was that the shirt was taken from her. And it really represents everything else that was taken that was stripped from it, individuals who were forced and forcibly placed into residential schools. So when we acknowledge residential schools, we are speaking to the survivors that are here with us and those that are not anymore, their experience, their resiliency, their fortitude. And, you know, as Canadians, there's a reason why truth comes before reconciliation, we have to look transparently at those dark chapters in our collective past and the collective pass of colonization and talk actually sit and think, okay, Phyllis, is still with us today, residential schools were here for over 150 years. You know, there are estimates that between 150,200 1000 indigenous in new matey and First Nations, youth were taken to residential schools, I have colleagues who were teachers, close to my age, that went to residential school. And the truth of that has to start to be spoken. You know, as educators at all grade levels, we can gently fried awareness with young people, we have a responsibility to explain and also share the realities, the lived realities of this horrific time in the industry. And you know, blue, I've sat, even in the last couple of years, I've sat with young people, and we've been reading a novel, or we've had a residential school survivor coming in to speak to us. And at 15 or 16, they're looking at it confused, and they're saying, Why am I just hearing about this? So I'm blessed to have a lot of nieces and nephews, and they've asked me, you know, Auntie, how long are people going to continue to, you know, talk and learn about residential schools, we find it really hard. And my response is always, we will continue to have these conversations until there isn't a single individual in this nation that doesn't have a strong understanding of foundational understanding of these variances.
So I just wonder, are there any activities or projects that you've done in the past, or ideas that you have you would share in how to it's a difficult subject, I mean, it's not an easy subject to open up in a classroom, whether it's in a physical classroom, or you know, whatever kind of space it is, any kind of ideas that you could offer. Obviously, there's the wearing of the orange shirt, but of course, there can be more.
There can be more and there should be more. I mean, in every class from a math classroom to an E classroom, there are activities that can be brought in, in a humanities context, especially with the younger grades, to expose young people really gently to the concepts is important. We don't need to further traumatize you. And we need to be really respectful, even more. So when we have Have indigenous learners with us to not have them feel isolated, have them feel and I see this a lot of times or I have in the past that I feel like we're making progress, where there's a burden put on indigenous people and indigenous learners to actually speak to some of this. And it's just an absolute no-go in my mind to be in pointing and isolating indigenous learners in class and asking them to share the activities that I would suggest involve really small gentle reads or watches. There's a great piece called chit-chat. Oh, and it's been brought to film and then you know, an activity where you ask young people if you are going away, what would you bring with you to remember your friends and family. And in the story, the little girl packs her suitcase, and she brings the things to remember Grandma, her parents, and even some rocks and some stuff from nature to bring with her to remember her home. So little things like that. I also really like food, a celebration of a tradition. So you could bring in a guest that would offer an opportunity to share a traditional activity at the older grades, you can also connect with residential school survivors, and have that firsthand, really authentic experience. There's a variety of books that are available, honest to goodness blue, especially with the information that's available on a variety of different websites, including the Gladys that we knew the resources are appropriate for K to 12. There are ways where accessible.
Some really good ideas that And in a way, I hope that teachers do take the opportunity because of course now, orange shirt Day is a holiday. Whereas before orange shirt day, everybody was coming into school, wearing the orange shirts, so I'm hoping they can still be space-bound in the week around the holiday is a strange thing to call it. But um, but yeah, yes, definitely.
I've seen a variety of schools, both independent schools, and public schools have a whole entire week of options for young people. And these can be synchronous or asynchronous. And we have a number of national organizations that put out including, you know, there's reconciliation walks, that can be organized for schools, there's so much stuff, but at the simplest level, to share some understanding and ask the young people to bring that learning forward to other people in their lives is incredible.
Yeah, that's a really, really good way to end this conversation. And I could talk to you for another hour easily. So thank you so much for taking the time with your show. I think it's really good work that you're doing. And it's really inspirational. I think you know, some of your approaches to the work. And yeah, thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule, the beginning of the school year. So good luck with how that's going.
I appreciate that. I'm very appreciative Blue, and thank you for taking this topic as one of your first topics, highlight the importance of this recognition and this acknowledgement of these events for all Canadians.
Thanks for joining us on the 21st Century Teacher, and we look forward to seeing you next time. Please do subscribe so you don't miss out on the next show. And also don't forget to check out our fantastic online learning platform which is liveit.earth. Thanks again and we'll see you soon.
