Educational Resources

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Focus:

Summary: The talking dictionary project is an Internet resource for the Mi’gmaq/Mi’kmaq language. The project was initiated in Listuguj, therefore all entries have Listuguj speakers and Listuguj spellings. In collaboration with Unama’ki, the site now includes a number of recordings from Unama’ki speakers. More will be added as they are recorded. Eventually this site will include the Smith-Francis spellings used there.

Listuguj is in the Gespe’g territory of the Mi’gmaw; located on the southwest shore of the Gaspè peninsula. Unama’ki is a Mi’gmaw territory; in English it is known as Cape Breton.

Each headword is recorded by a minimum of three speakers. Multiple speakers allow one to hear differences and variations in how a word is pronounced. Each recorded word is used in an accompanying phrase. This permits learners the opportunity to develop the difficult skill of distinguishing individual words when they are spoken in a phrase.

Thus far over 3500 headwords have been posted. The majority of these entries include two to three additional forms.

Source: National Film Board of Canada
Focus: Secondary students and teachers

Summary: Aboriginal Perspectives, a site for high school and upper elementary students and teachers that features National Film Board of Canada documentaries by and about Canada’s Aboriginal peoples.

On this site you will be able to:

• Watch key NFB documentaries on Aboriginal themes from the 1940s to 2004.
• Learn about past and current issues relating to the lives of Aboriginal peoples through excerpts or complete films.
• Read critical commentary on the issues.
• Develop critical thinking and media literacy skills.
• Use the Excerpt Library tool to develop a personal collection of film excerpts.

Source: American Indians: First People of America and Canada – Turtle Island
Focus: Elementary/Secondary students

Summary: This website is dedicated to all First Peoples of the Americas and Canada, Better known as Turtle Island. It is a student friendly educational site about Native Americans (American Indians) and First Nations.

There are nearly 1400 legends on line and more are being added.

Source: Ottawa Inuit Children’s Centre with the financial support of the Canadian Heritage Gateway Fund
Focus: Elementary/Secondary

Summary: This site was created to provide a central location online to learn about Canadian Inuit culture. This site is designed to serve as a resource for Canadian school age children and their teachers. Its purpose is to offer new and different ways of learning about Inuit culture and what it means to be Inuit.

It is also hoped that the content provided within this site can help all Canadians learn more about this rich vibrant and proud culture. Resources for teachers are included such as downloadable colouring sheets, and various other activity sheets. The plan is to build on the content already here and make it richer and deeper as time goes by. There are also a number of very useful links to explore to further the learning process.

There are a number of video podcasts to watch and learn from as well. These podcasts cover everything from making bannock to how to make your own bone and stick game. Students can watch and try their hand at throat singing or learn about the significance of the lighting of the Qulliq (the traditional oil lamp).

Source: Virtual Museum of Canada and the Gabriel Dumont Institute.

Summary: Back to Batoche is, and will continue to be the most original and comprehensive attempt to deliver the history of the 1885 Northwest Resistance onto the World Wide Web. This interactive website will bring the colourful history of the past of Batoche as well as showcasing the abundantly rich culture of the past and present to a world-wide audience. The Flash website includes video interviews with elders, video and photo highlights from the annual Back to Batoche Festivals, Métis music, games, quizzes, photo albums, virtual tours, hundreds of pages of text to learn from, as well as a series of interactive personalized tour guides.

Source: The Algonquin Way Cultural Centre
Focus: Elementary, Secondary & Community

Summary: The Omàmiwininì Pimàdjwowin mission is to revitalize, reintegrate, enhance and protect the cultural traditions, customs, practices, heritage, language and arts of the Algonquin Nation.

The site is full of interactive stories, activities, resources and e-books that can be used in elementary and secondary classrooms.

Source: The project represents a formal partnership between Acadia University, drumsong communications inc., the Houston North Gallery, the Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth (CLEY) in the Government of Nunavut, as well as a long-term collaboration with Nunavummuit, those who call Nunavut home. Funding was provided by the Department of Canadian Heritage through the Partnerships Fund of the Canadian Culture Online program.

Summary: Explore the site to learn from Inuit of Nunavut who have lived on and cared for our land for 1000s of years.

Travel by ship via the interactive movie, with scenarios in which you will discover some of the beauty of the vast Territory of Nunavut, in the Eastern Arctic of Canada.

In the interactive movie, you will have roles and responsibilities to fulfill. When you successfully complete the challenges, including the computer games embedded in the video, you will have constructed your own virtual Inuksuk, a stone marker that shows how you have demonstrated your ability to see Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (IQ) can navigate your way forward in life.

Via the web site, you can explore the searchable databases of Inuit art, through which the digitized images of 100 carvings and 100 prints can be appreciated for their artistic merit, and which also offer insight into the deep respect Inuit have for Nature.

In another searchable database, you can watch and listen to Inuit Elders sharing the adventures of Kiviuq, a great hero and shaman in an Inuit teaching story that has been likened to Homer’s Odyssey.

The web site includes a wealth of other resources, from a set of 360 degree Virtual Reality (VR) photographic images from a range of sites, from the Legislative Assembly of the Government of Nunavut to the dwelling of the ancient Thule people on beautiful Malik Island .

The website is in both English and Inuktitut, so there are opportunities to learn more than you may know about this ancient language.

Source: The Authentic History Centre
Focus: Secondary Students and Teachers

Summary: The mission of this collection is to educate about the power of imagery in the stereotyping of race. By understanding how it happened, we can recognize it happening now. Once aware, we can make a conscious effort to avoid the messy thinking stereotyping promotes that leads to fear, prejudice, hate, and discrimination. Increasing sensitivity to these stereotypes can promote racial tolerance. Ultimately, civilization depends on learning to value the racial and cultural diversity of our histories, our nations, and the world in which we live.

Source: Corporation Wapikoni mobile, National Film Board of Canada

Summary: 10 short films by young people from Aboriginal communities in Quebec.

Since 2004, Wapikoni Mobile has been giving young Aboriginals the opportunity to speak out using video and music. The following 10 films were made with the guidance of these travelling studios and are a mosaic of rich, contemporary and original works.

• The Amendment
• The Lost Children
• A Mother’s Dream
• The City
• Generation Mobilisation
• The Little Prince
• The Great Departure
• Renaissance
• She and I
• Fighter

Source: Saskatchewan Indian Cultural Centre

Summary: An interactive digital collection of the languages of First Nations people in Saskatchewan.