Potlatch

We ended off our school year with a fabulous First Nations Potlatch at our new property in Langley.  Everyone dressed up in the various items we made throughout the year (headdresses, bead necklaces, tomahawks, etc).  The kids had also drawn names to determine who they would make a gift for.........

Dane made Bekah a beautiful, bead bracelet and, in return, Bekah made him a vibrant belt/arm band (worn proudly over his shoulder in the picture).  I'm not sure why it looks like Bekah is 'knighting' Dane in the picture :-)

Here Micah is enjoying the owl (one of her faves) picture Sarah had carefully selected and coloured for her.

Matt and Levi are overjoyed with their gifts

(special notes/pictures from Levi and a carved totem pole from Matthew).

We cheated significantly on lunch - our original plan was to make authentic food for lunch (salmon, berries and corn) but the pizza and cupcakes

were too tempting!

Such cuteness and ferociousness all wrapped up in 6 amazing packages!

Preparing for the Potlatch

Shhhh ..... the kids are busy preparing their gifts to give away at our Potlatch this week (a carved & painted totem pole, a decorated belt and arm band)!

Totem Pole

During our last session of our year-long First Nations unit we created our own totem pole in the style of the Natives of the Pacific West Coast.  Each kid chose a symbol that represented something from our unit study for their section (box) of the totem pole.

Levi immediately went for the Ipad to find a specific image of a bird he wanted to do and then got right down to work.  Matt took a little bit longer to decide what to do but then created an original canoe with vivid salmon images on it. 

Our bird-lover, Dane, found an image of an eagle that he loved in one of the books and set about reproducing it on his box.  Bekah knew that she wanted to do salmon and, after looking at some different images online, came up with her own depiction.

The proud artists!  I love how they all used the vivid colours and bold lines so typical of First Nations art (top box - Matt's canoe, 2nd from top - Levi's bird with First Nations design, 3rd from top - Dane's eagle, bottom box - Bekah's salmon).

Weaving

We were reading about the beautiful weaving that the First Nations of the Plateau did and decided to give it a try!

First Nations Unit Study

We are nearing the end of Donna Ward's "Canada's Natives Long Ago" unit study (fabulous resource for learning about the First Nations in Canada) and we are eagerly continuing to prepare for our year end potlatch.  This week we learned about the Natives of the Plains and made headresses (for groups like the Cree, warriors who were brave in battle or hunting were awarded a coup feather to be worn with pride in their headresses).

The Iroquoian People

This week we read about the Eastern Woodland Farmers (Iroquoian First Nations group) and learned some fascinating things.  Did you know that this group, long renowned for terrorizing and killing, worked peacefully amongst themselves, farmed the same land for many years, and was governed by the women? They also played an important part in Canada's early history as, longtime allies with the British, together their strength proved to be too much for the French.  It is interesting to consider that if the alliances had been different (i.e. if the Iroquois had joined the French) Canada may have been predominately French today.

Making tomahawks and wampums (strings of beads used as memory aids)

Year of the Hunter: The Story of Nanook

As part of our First Nations unit we recently watched "Year of the Hunter: The Story of Nanook".  Filmed in the 1920's by Robert Flaherty, it is the very first documentary film ever made.  Set in Port Harrison (on the Eastern shore of Hudson Bay), it chronicles the life of an Inuit hunter and his family using diary excerpts, photographs and clips from "Nanook".  Although a bit slow moving, it is a delightful story both of traditional life in the Far North and the making of a documentary.