Lessons from the North

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Yesterday, was my first Professional Development day with my new school district, and it was awesome.  In the North, the school districts take care to make the Dene culture a large component of education, and this was a wonderful learning opportunity for me.

We all gathered at one of the schools, and were broken in to pre-arranged teams.  I was very excited to learn that one of Gramma's dear friends, Barb, was on my team.  Barb is a well-loved secretary in the school district, and she's a hoot to spend a day with!

All teams were given a theme for their cultural scavenger hunt.  The theme of my group was "Drum."  So, all tasks related, in some way, to the theme.

Our first stop was the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre. 

There, we explored an Edukit prepared on the theme of drum called "From Tree to Song - Dene Drum Kit." 

In it, there was a video that showed all the steps the Dene use to make a ceremonial drum, and the spiritual meaning of the drum.  The museum even found us a little television and VCR to view the video.

I'm going to have to return to the museum, because there was so much to see and learn.  Do recognize the communities marked on this map?  And the languages of the regions.  It's fascinating!

We also learned about how the museum is preserving the oral tradition, as possible, and it working on the Dene Drum Project where they digitalize drumming done by elders in the 1980's.  It will be available for the public later this year.

There was also a puppet theatre with puppets and costumes. 

You can take the teacher out of Kindergarten, but you can't take the Kindergarten out of the teacher!  (This is a funny mirror, just saying...)

Next, we went to a school gym for an interactive geography lesson on the Northwest territories.  In the kit, there were two large blue pieces of felt to represent Great Slave Lake and Great Bear Lake, a long blue piece of felt (or rope) for the Mackenzie River, and two large brown pieces of felt for the two northern islands, Banks Island and Victoria Island, and we had to assemble it from memory.  

Then, we had to name all 33 communities (bonus if we also knew the dual names) and write them on sticky notes and place them on the map.

 We (I use that term loosely) also placed the tree line (the visible edge of habitat that transitions from trees to no trees, due to the temperature) and the arctic circle, the invisible line that sees exactly 24 hours of daylight on the summer solstice (June 21) and 24 hours of night on the winter solstice (December 21).  Yellowknife is on the 66th parallel, so we'll be pretty close with those lengths of time for daylight!

There goes Barb (in the red striped shirt)!  I was not terribly helpful, but I could have assembled a map of the provinces after having driven through them.  I think that being here for just about a month was a good reason to supervise.  I learned a lot!  Teachers, you could totally do this with your class and your own region. 

Next, we headed to the Yellowknife River.   

It was a beautiful and serene day, and we were all so lucky to be outside! 

Now, all the other groups had different themes, and we doing different tasks.  Some were collecting and learning about medicinal plants.  Others, were learning traditional games.  Some were setting snares (how lucky am I not to have been in that group... Twofour the bunny may have never forgiven me!), preparing the "camp," or the food for our feast.  But, more on that later.

An elder from a neighbouring community and his wife came to meet us to teach us how to make traditional drums, used for spiritual drumming. 

They had prepared the wooden hoops (made with a wood plane by hand) and the caribou hide.  The elder lady explained that it takes her about a day to prepare one caribou hide, including removing the fur, scraping both sides several times and washing it in cold water.  It was amazing. They began by showing us how to stretch the caribou hide around the hoop, and then to trim it.  They waste none of the caribou they hunt.

 If there was a small tear, she stitched it up very quickly.  She was so fast, I almost didn't get a picture! 

Here I am cutting the caribou hide to fit the drum.

 Then, we glue the caribou hide down (I think they used sap or something like that traditionally), before we let them dry. 

As I took the picture above, I noticed quite a sight beyond the elders, and I moved over to document it.  Danielle cleaning fish!

Danielle was in the food preparation group.  If you know her regular diet of chicken and fries, you will know how funny this struck me.  She was so in the zone, she didn't know I had come right over to take pictures until afterwards.

Another group was playing traditional games in from of the beautiful amphitheatre. 

Barb was helping with the careful gluing of the drums. 

And, Danielle was still cutting fish.  As a side note, another group went out in canoes and learned how to catch fish with the bare hands!

Danielle was pretty excited to show off her fish cleaning skill! 

They smoked the meat and the fish for hours over the fire.  That's Danielle adjusting her fish.

You can file this picture under "pride." 

Hot stew and fresh bread, too! 

The feast was getting ready... 

Meanwhile, our elder friends were preparing to hand our drums in the sun to dry. 

This elder was patient and quiet, and was happy when he could tell us his stories.  The oral tradition is very important, and he believes that by passing his stories on to the teachers, there is some hope that the younger generation will hear them. 

The drums looked beautiful spinning and drying in the breeze. 

The elder played the drum and sang a song to the angels. 

He told us the story of his prayer and song having cured him of cancer.   

The drums and song have very special meaning to the Dene culture. 

The bands of string used in the drum are also from caribou hide, and here, the elder is cutting thin strips for the front of the drum.  She cuts it in a wide angle to make long strips. 

As we were all relaxing for the feast, Danielle was still working over the hot fire serving food. 

Later, we moved to the amphitheatre for the Feeding of the Fire.   

The Feeding of the Fire is a special ceremony to celebrate God, the Great Creator, and to give thanks.  It is also an opportunity to connect with ancestors who have gone before us. 

Everyone puts in some food for the ancestors, to the rhythm and song of the drum. The Bishop (in black, beside the drummers) was also in attendance, and is a very engaging speaker.  

These drummers, Barb told me, also played for Prince William and Kate on their visit toYellowknife.

 

It is amazing how strong these drums are when you hear how powerfully they are played.  

We were all invited to join in to the Fire song dance, following the Prayer song.