elow are four questions that are intended to help you write your submission to the BCanadian Aboriginal Writing Challenge. Each question has its own topic, ways to engage with the topic, writing activities and online resources. The topics covered are storytelling, historical photographs, historical significance and residential schools. You are not required to write your submission on these questions. The questions are suggestions to help guide your writing. Moreover, each question is designed to provide you with several options as to the style, content and form of your written piece. Starting on page 4, you will find links to online resources that will assist in the research for your piece. QUESTION 1: STORYTELLING Below is a list of suggested Canada’s Aboriginal peoples have a strong starting points: oral tradition of storytelling. These stories are passed down through generations as a way • Incorporate new elements into to share each community’s origins, history, the story to show how it relates spirituality, morals and life skills. to you or your community. For example, you can present both This is your opportunity to add to this oral an original myth and a personal tradition. account showing how the two are connected. Task 1: Find a story that you • Present a personal experience of your connect with. own (or of someone you know) as a The story can be an ancient legend or myth you modern day legend. Imagine that this are already familiar with or you can find a new story will be told to future generations. story. Choose a story that speaks to you in some What is this story’s message? What is way. Consider the story’s central message. What your story trying to communicate? What is the story trying to communicate? To find a new would you like future generations to take story consider asking an elder or selecting a story from your story? from a collection. The online resources on page 4 • Translate your story into another form: a can also help you get started. poem; a TV script; newspaper report; or a play. Task 2: Present your story as a • Take a key piece of dialogue from the story written piece. and construct a new story around it. The gaze refers to the • You can present your story in any format • Select 3 key words from your selected story view or perspective you see fit (check out style options in the – an object such as hawk, a character like a someone has in relation Alternative Writing Styles section. See child and a place such as a river – and write to a photograph. www.our-story.ca/wc/for-teachers). a new short story built around them. QUESTION 2: HISTORICAL PHOTOGRAPHS Historical photographs are a rich source of inspiration for Part 1: Analysis writing. Analyzing a historical photograph/image and asking Your analysis should consider: yourself a series of questions about its content can provide a) The gaze of the photographer. much greater insight into its subject matter. Determine the perspective of the photographer. • Where was the camera lens location in relation to the subject depicted? Task: What was included or excluded in the frame. Why? Find a historical photograph. The photograph can be from • In your opinion, was the photograph commissioned or was the subject a family collection, a photograph you see in your everyday asked to pose? life or an image of an important person or event in Canadian • Given the perspective, site and details connected within the frame, can Aboriginal history. As you will see, to write about a historical you imagine the gender, class or racial identity of the photographer? photograph, you do not necessarily need to know the identity of the people in the image. b) The gaze of the photographed subject(s). • How would you characterize the gaze of the people in the photograph, When analyzing a historical photograph you need to consider i.e., does the subject(s) appear hostile, uncomfortable, confrontational, the gaze of its participants. friendly, curious, ambiguous, etc? • Is the pose formal? 1 • In your opinion, do you think the photographer or there friendship, ambivalence, the subject chose the pose? intimacy, etc? • What kind of impression is offered to you, the • What is the power relationship modern spectator, by the given pose? between them? Are they equals? c) The gaze of the spectator/reader. Use your newfound insight of the • Who would be looking at this photograph? What image as inspiration for a piece of creative writing. would they think of it? Is their gaze different from your own? If so, how? • Suggested starting points: d) The institutional gaze. • You may wish to write a character • Can you speculate about the eventual destination sketch of the photograph’s subjects of the image? Where do you think this image might and present them in a fictional have first appeared, i.e., in a magazine, an official biography. For example, who were government report, a family album or in a newspaper? these individuals? Where did they come from? Are they married? e) The gazes within the frame between • Describe the events that led up to this the subjects photographed. photograph being taken. • Can you determine the nature of the relationship • What do you think happened to these between the subjects within the photograph? Is individuals after the photograph was taken? QUESTION 3: HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE For this activity, write a piece that assesses the historical Below are brief descriptions of events that significance of key events in Aboriginal Canadian history. Assessing you may choose to consider. You are free to historical significance can be a difficult task. There is no single select from these events or choose others not correct answer. Often times something is important to one person mentioned on the list. Other possible examples but not another. This question requires you to familiarize yourself can be found in your textbook, library or online. with several historical events and to exercise your judgment as to whether or not these events are historically significant. Suggested Events: Activity Questions: • Champlain forms alliances with First Nations a) In your opinion, what is the most historically significant Communities: 1608 - Samuel de Champlain and event in Canadian Aboriginal history? his crew arrived at what we know today as Québec or City. Champlain established and developed a vast b) If you find selecting a single event too difficult, consider ex- trade network by forming alliances with a number of panding your list to selecting the top three most historically First Nations communities, including the Wyandot significant events in Canadian Aboriginal history. and Algonquin. This represents one of the earliest relationships between First Nation communities and To help assess the historical significance of an event, you can European settlers in what would become Canada.1 choose to consider the following criteria: Profundity: • Prime Minister’s Statement of Apology: June 11, How deeply did this event affect people? Quantity: 2008 - Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized on How many people’s lives were affected? behalf of the Canadian government for past governments’ Durability: policies of assimilation of the Aboriginal peoples of How long lasting were the changes? Canada. In doing so, Prime Minister Harper apologized for the Canadian government’s role in the development and Research: Research events that you are interested in and administration of the residential school program.2 Video which you believe hold significance for Aboriginal Canadian and a transcript of the Prime Minister’s apology can be history. Find out as much as you can about these events in found here: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2008/06/11/ order to make the best argument possible. pm-statement.html Debate: Debating the merits of events with your classmates and peers is a good way of assessing historical significance. Sometimes listening to other perspectives, even those • The Red River Rebellion: November 2, 1869 - With 120 that oppose your own, can help bring focus to your own men, Métis leader Louis Riel occupied Fort Garry in the argument. You may even wish to put this question to a class Red River Colony to block the transfer of the Northwest debate in which the entire class discusses the relative merits from the Hudson’s Bay Company to Canada. The rebellion of different historical events and then votes on which events resulted in the formation of the new province of Manitoba. are historically significant. Riel was exiled. 2 • First People Arrive: 10,000 – 50, 000 • Murray Treaty: September BC - First Nations hunters migrated from 5, 1760 - A treaty was Asia to North America across Beringia, concluded between the a land bridge that connected Alaska and Huron and the British. The Siberia during the Pleistocene Epoch. They Huron agreed to put down subsequently settled every part of what is their arms. In return they now called Canada. would receive safe passage, free exercise of religion, local government and justice. The treaty was recognized in 1990 by the Supreme Court of Canada. QUESTION 4: RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS While the roots of residential schools Research: There are several sources go back to the 1600s, the Canadian you can access to help educate yourself government, in partnership with the about residential schools. Many of the nation’s churches, established a formal online sources listed below explore residential school program in the 1870s. what life was like at a residential Over 130 schools were established. The school through images, maps and video last school closed in 1996. In total, 150,000 testimonies from those who experienced First Nations, Inuit and Métis children were the schools first hand. Interacting with removed from their communities and forced these resources will further enhance your to attend residential schools.