Explore Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing through literature, design process, collaboration, and digital literacy.
A Grade 5 class studied the novel The Barren Grounds by David A. Robertson. This book was nominated for a Manitoba Young Readers’ Choice Award that year and the learners were working toward a school-wide event celebrating the authors and books that were nominated in the Grades 4 to 6 category.
As a class, learners had explored many themes in the book connected to identity, ancestry, and tradition. These connections extended to an exploration of the Medicine Wheel and the four elements of self. At the time, the school community was preparing for a Winter Solstice event. Learners spent time in whole-class discussions connected to wellness in the winter months and the opportunities that these cold, dark months provide for self-care in special ways.
A Knowledge Keeper was invited to share teachings connected to how the bear teaches us to take care of ourselves and our communities during the winter. Learners applied these teachings to identify their own activities for wellness in the winter and collaborated to create a visual that connected each activity to the Medicine Wheel quadrants (mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional health). This was shared with families at the Winter Solstice event. Learners encouraged their families to set wellness goals using the “Do I Live in Healthy Balance Survey” from The Medicine Wheel Workbook: Finding Your Healthy Balance written by Carrie Armstrong, Kelly Armstrong, and River Armstrong.
As the class worked through the novel, connections were consistently identified between character experiences and identity and the learners’ own identities connected to the four elements of self. Learners created character maps to illustrate the connections to self for each character, the personal challenges they were experiencing, and how connection to culture promotes healing. They also wrote book reviews to share with younger grades, encouraging them to read The Barren Grounds, and were visited by the author David A. Robertson, who shared his own experiences with discovering identity and healing through connection to culture.
On completion of the book, learners engaged in a design project where they collaborated to create a model of the Barren Grounds as described by the author in the book. They worked in small groups to adapt impactful scenes from the book into short screenplays, then created character replicas from plasticine and used a stop motion program to reenact scenes from the book (with the model map as the set).
Armstrong, Carrie, Kelly Armstrong, and River Armstrong. The Medicine Wheel Workbook: Finding Your Healthy Balance. Medicine Wheel Publishing, 2022.
Robertson, David A. The Barren Grounds. Puffin Canada, 2020.
