Our students learn more about Canada’s Indigenous People
May 20, 2022 Innisfil, Ontario By: Anjeli F.
The Indigenous Mapping activity was brought to the Simcoe County District School Board after purchasing it from Goodminds.
Goodminds is a First Nations family-owned business all about Indigenous Education that also supplies various Indigenous educational resources for schools scattered across Canada.
The Map was made to educate, and inspire empathy on the Indigenous population in Canada.
Nantyr Shores Secondary School and The Indigenous Mapping Activity
Located at 1146 Anna Maria Ave, Innisfil Ontario, Nantyr Shores Secondary School was honoured to be granted an excitingly new and extremely educational activity!
Ms. Baker, our Social Sciences and Humanities teacher, Teacher Librarian and Swim Coach was astonished by this map after viewing it from another school on Twitter. She thought that it would be a worthwhile activity for the Grade 11 English and Grade 10 History classes to expand our learning at the Shores about the Indigenous Communities that cover Canada.
This map shows the various locations of Indigenous communities, residential schools, reserves, and much more. It really displays and or focuses on the inequities that have occurred as a result of where the Indigenous population were placed- like insufficient access to health care, the splitting of families to send children to residential schools, the requirement of moving people so that the language had all but dissolved, the assimilation of people, and more of the various issues that occurred during those times. The lessons being taught vary from understanding the past, present and future. It is also made to be an interactive and or travelling map for a more compelling activity to really educate students on those important timelines/factors.
Mr. Rosar has taught our students who have participated in this activity major historical events that occurred in the Indigenous Communities all over Canada, from assimilation, hard-work, culture and more. Students were able to physically stand on the Map to discover many incidents to increase their knowledge and learn new things.
The History and English classes have been going in depth with the historical events, present day, geography, and reconciliation.
Mr. Rosar and Mrs. Thompson even had the pleasure of teaching this activity to our Enviroventure students.
As a whole, each and every student had learned something new and or factual about Canada’s Indigenous population without leaving anything behind no matter the class. It was a very memorable experience to have shared with not only our students, but our teachers as well.
It was and continues to be an impactful activity across schools in Canada. It is so important that we do lessons on these topics of recognizing our Indigenous population.
Thank you to Mrs. Baker and the Simcoe County District School Board again for this amazing opportunity, for teaching our students in a creative and efficient way.