Little Divas girls' program - March 15th

On March 15th, the Little Divas program came back together to start a new thematic exploration. This week, we would begin to explore Indigenous history and issues.

To start the day as we always do, we gave the girls the opportunity to do an ice breaker discussion session. We actually had two ice breaker questions today. The first asked the girls to reflect on how they felt about the dance sessions that they had been doing the previous two weeks, and how they felt about themselves after they got to film the dance in the green screen studio. This served as a great opportunity for the girls to express how much they enjoyed creating and filming the dance, and also as a way to solidify the themes we were exploring with the dance sessions - body positivity, self-confidence, and varied ideas of what is "beautiful". After we reflected on and wrapped up our discussion about the dance sessions, we asked the girls another ice breaker question, which was, "If you could have any job, would job would you have?" As always, this question allowed the girls to start using their creative brainstorming skills, and also to reflect on what things they are passionate about and what they see for their own futures if there were no barriers holding them back from exactly what they wanted. As usual, we also did an ice breaker game, which was the classic circle clapping game Stella Ella Ola. In this game, everyone sits in a circle and puts both hands out to the side, palms up. Everyone's hands overlap each other's, and as the Stella Ella Ola song is sung, they clap each other's hands one by one, as if you are passing the clap around the circle. When the song stops, if the last person is able to clap the hand of the person next to them, that person is out. But if the last person is able to pull their hand away quick enough and the person passing the clap misses their hand, then the person who was passing the clap is out. This continues until there is one winner left! I remembered playing this game when I was younger, so it was great to see the girls playing the same game so many years later. 

After our discussions and ice breakers, we began our introduction into learning about Indigenous history and issues in what is now known as Canada. Since the girls speak French and go to a French school, we started by giving them the French word for Indigenous, which is "Autochtoune", which essentially translates to "native". We then defined the term Indigenous for the girls, and explained that there are Indigenous people all over the world, and that it means that those people were the original people who were on those lands first. We also explained that there are a number of terms for Indigenous peoples, including Aboriginal, First Nation, Native, etc. We also talked about some specific Indigenous groups from countries such as the Congo and Jamaica, and explained that some Indigenous groups are still alive and well, and others, such as the Taino people from Jamaica, were killed off. We also looked at some Indigenous groups from what is now known as Toronto, such as the Anishinaabe and the Haudenosaunee. We then recalled how we defined the term Indigenous, which is the people who were first on a particular land, and explained that the word can also be used to mean where you originally come from (where you are indigenous to). We asked the girls to discuss where they and their families are indigenous to, which was a great discussion about their heritage and cultures, and the countries that their families came to Canada from.

Next we did a True/False activity involving statements about Indigenous history and issues in Canada. One on side of the room, a "True" sign was posted, and on the opposite a "False" sign was posted. Based on the statements that were read out, the girls had to move to the side of the room that they thought aligned with the statement that was read. Once they all chose which side of the room they thought the statement matched with, we asked them to explain why they chose that side of the room for that statement. Here are some of the statements that the girls had to determine were true or false:

• There are no more Indigenous people in Canada because they were all killed. [Answer: False - there are 1.5 million Indigenous people in Canada, and there's an Indigenous community centre just up the street!]
• A nation is a group of people who all share the same culture. There are six different nations of Indigenous people in Canada. [Answer: False - Indigenous people don't all have one big culture, there are lots of different cultures and groups. There are 600 different nations of Indigenous peoples in Canada, and they have their own languages, ceremonies, and traditions.]
• European explorers came to Canada and took the land from Indigenous peoples without their permission. [Answer: True - the government let Indigenous people keep only a tiny bit of their land. Those tiny bits of land are called reserves.]
• Indigenous peoples weren't allowed to do their own ceremonies, speak their languages, or have their own governments, and they had to ask permission to leave the reserves. [Answer: True]
• Residential schools closed 50 years ago. [Answer: False - residential schools only closed in 1996. For this question we first asked the girls if they knew what residential schools were, and what happened there if so.]
• Canada said it was sorry, and now the problems are being solved. [Answer: False - what kinds of problems are still happening to Indigenous peoples?]
• In Canada we are lucky that everyone has access to clean water. [Answer: False - Grassy Narrows First Nation does not have clean water because the government dumped toxic waste in their water supply. They have been asking the government to fix it for decades, but they have not fixed it.]
• Indigenous parents are less likely than other parents to have their children taken away from them by the government. [Answer: False - why do Indigenous parents get their children taken away?]
• Indigenous people are now taking the government to court because they get less money for their schools and healthcare, and oil pipelines are being built on their land without their permission. [Answer: True]

This was certainly an eye-opening exercise for the girls, and some of the facts definitely seemed to shock them. It was a very important learning opportunity, especially since education in schools about Indigenous issues can often be unreliable. 

For our art activity for the week, we introduced the girls to an art form that can be found in some Indigenous cultures - rock painting! 

We asked the girls to paint 3 rocks; one rock that was about your culture and heritage, one rock about where you live now, and one rock that's a positive message, perhaps about what we can do to take care of the land we live on, or perhaps something that should change for Indigenous people. 

We hope that the girls will remember what they learned about Indigenous history and people in this session, and perhaps even share their new knowledge with friends and family who may not be aware of these issues or the fact that there are still significant problems facing Indigenous people in Canada and all over the world today.