Educational Resources

Source: CBC

Focus: Secondary Students

Summary: How has the North been impacted by forces of colonization and why have many Canadians not known about the history, geography, and society of the Inuit? This episode explores the history and geography of the North; examines the distinct culture, language, and politics of the Inuit; and recognizes the impacts of colonization on the Inuit.

Possible teaching connections include Geography, History, Social Studies, Indigenous Studies, Civics, and Anthropology. Learn how to use this resource here.

Source: Native Land Digital

Focus: Grades 9-12

Summary: Native Land is a tool that maps out Indigenous territories, treaties, and languages. We initially began in North America and have spread increasingly worldwide, and new areas are added regularly. This tool is not meant to be an official, legal, or archival resource. It is instead a broadly researched and crowdsourced body of information. It is meant to encourage education and engagement on topics of Indigenous land—particularly, where you are located. Native Land brings about discussions of colonization, land rights, language, and Indigenous history tied to our personal histories. We hope this guide makes you, the reader, want to know about the land you live on.

Source: Great Bear Sea

Focus: Grades 9-12

Summary: The Great Bear Sea serves as a useful British Columbia case study to consider how development and management of resources in an area might be planned and implemented to ensure sustainability for generations to come. The Exploring the Great Bear Sea Environmental Science Grades 11 & 12 Curriculum Resource is a five-lesson unit of study that takes an inquiry-based approach to exploring themes of collaborative planning and research, Indigenous Knowledge, sustainability, and stewardship. Through this unit, students will take an in depth exploration of collaborative sustainable resource management and planning through the lens of the Great Bear Sea, addressing a variety of Big Ideas, content, and curricular competencies in the Environmental Science Grades 11 & 12 area of learning.

Source: University of Victoria

Focus: Intermediate/ Senior students (and post secondary)

Summary: Curriculum Connections for Ontario

A guide for teachers is available for each of the 12 Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History, and includes background materials, activity sheets and detailed lesson plans for one or more grade-specific units for elementary or secondary students. Some suggestions are relevant for college and university classes. Just fill in our online registration form and download the guides in PDF format.

There are short, focused, age-specific, single-lesson MysteryQuests lesson plans relating to one or more of the Mysteries.

You can also download classroom posters.

Source: Historica Canada

Focus: Grades 6-8

Summary: Popular narratives of Canadian history have most frequently been told from the perspective of European settlers. As a result, Indigenous experiences have often been neglected or excluded from the telling of our country’s history. For a more comprehensive understanding of Canada’s history, it is important to examine it from Indigenous perspectives. Doing so requires students to explore the depth, breadth, diversity, and regional variation of experiences of Indigenous peoples in the land that is now Canada. It is also necessary to examine the legacy and consequences of colonialism and the repressive policies to which Indigenous peoples have been subjected.

This guide aims to engage students in thinking critically about our historical narratives, and help them consider how both individual and collective worldviews shape – and are shaped by – history.

Source: Native Knowledge 360

Focus: Secondary students

Summary: This online lesson provides perspectives from Native American community members, images, objects, and other sources to help students and teachers understand the efforts of Native Nations of the Pacific Northwest to protect and sustain salmon, water, and homelands.

Source: Walking Together: Education for Reconciliation, Alberta Teachers’ Association

Focus:  Senior students

Summary: Many Indigenous Peoples share a holistic world view that has humans living in a universe made by the Creator and needing to live in harmony with nature, one another and with oneself. This world view has an interconnectedness and interrelatedness to all aspects of living on this earth. Each Indigenous culture expresses this world view in a different way and with different practices, stories and cultural items. First Nations ceremonies and cultural practices including powwows, sweat lodges, smudging, singing and dancing are expressions of spirituality within this holistic, balanced and harmonious world view.

Source: First Nations Education Steering Committee (FNESC)

Focus: Grades 2-12

Summary: The BC First Nations Land, Title, and Governance Teacher Resource Guide is designed to support the understanding of traditional and contemporary forms of First Nations governance specific to First Nations in BC. It provides background information relevant to all teachers and students, and provides suggested activities and resources for grades 2 to 12.

This guide is divided into six different multi-grade thematic units as well as additional support material.

The introduction offers key information to support and guide teachers in facilitating the respectful and meaningful inclusion of Indigenous knowledge and perspectives in the classroom. While the first four units are organized by grade level, teachers will find activities in all of them that can be adapted to other grades as needed. Unit 5 and 6 can be applied to Grades 4-12.

Source: Alaska Native Knowledge Network

Focus: Secondary Students

Summary: Observing Snow is intended as a journey to bridge the gap between the old and new, the traditional and the scientific, Native and Western approaches to education. A generation of sharp young minds from Native communities are encountering substantial roadblocks when faced with the typical western school curriculum. Observing Snow is an attempt to teach basic core subjects, especially science, and listening and reading comprehension, using materials that make sense to the Alaska Native student. Snow is a natural choice. Everyone who lives in the interior subarctic has a personal and intimate knowledge of snow.

Source: Indigenous Arts and Stories: Senior Writing

Focus: Senior English students

Summary: Canada’s Indigenous peoples have a strong storytelling tradition. Stories are passed down through generations as a way to share a community’s origins, history, spirituality, morals and life skills. This is your opportunity to interpret and engage with this tradition.