Canada has been around for over 150 years now. Made up of 13 provinces and territories, Canada’s history is rich with amazing and awe inspiring stories of humans who managed to shape Canada into what it is today. One amazing example of these humans is Louis Riel, a Métis rights activist and one of the founders of Manitoba, and the main focus in PLP 9’s new project, “Lets Get Riel!”
This projects driving question was “How can we present past actions and decisions through images to help us make decisions of what is fair or unjust?” Our main milestone for this project was to make a series of photos that “tell a story or historical event or action involving conflict throughout history.” Our goal with these photos was to show our understanding of ethical dimensions and connecting it to current political debates.
But while we were doing this we were also reading a book about Louis Riel by Chester Brown. In the form of a comic strip, this book was a biography of Louis Riel and what he did to fight for Métis land and rights. This book helped us work on our understanding of ethical dimensions of the past. The assignment attached to this book was a response showing our perspective on Louis Riel. Since his story was so controversial and still is to this day, it was good practice for us to practice using evidence to develop a perspective on a controversial topic that is based off of and backed up by evidence.
We were put into partners and we chose a topic that we would make our images for. My partner, Grace, and I decided on the Battle of 7 Oaks. For those who don’t know what the Battle of 7 Oaks was, we made a little description about it that was going to be our caption for our photos. This caption was a result of research that we conducted to better know the topic, and understand the ethical dimensions and conflict involved.
We decided to use a symbolic approach with our photos, so many of the images you will see in out photos have a deeper meaning than what just meets the eye. There was a format we had to follow with these photos though, and it goes as such. The first photo was an edited photograph. This could be a photo of the event, with annotations and drawings we added on to either explain a story or show a side not shown in the photo, or to just enhance the photo. The second image was a quote that related to the conflict. The final image was where we could use our creativity to create our ow image. We could create whatever we liked, within reason.
Our first photo was of Cuthbert Grant, Métis leader and NWC clerk. He was the leader of the NWC group in this conflict. The NWC and the Métis flag over his heart shows his loyalty to these two groups. The background image around Cuthbert Grant is a depiction of the Battle of 7 Oaks. The map inside Grant’s face is Fort Garry, where the Battle of 7 Oaks took place. The HBC flag with a bullet hole in it shows the conflict and rivalry between the HBC and the NWC. The blurry rifle at the bottom of the screen is a representation of the fog between who fired first and who was responsible for the Battle.
Our second photo is a quote by Robert Semple, the leader of the HBC. It is a conversation between Semple and one of his men. The solder says “My God, God, if we fire we will all be killed.” Semple’s response is “Fire cowards: it is not time to think of that.” Of course, They did all end up dying in the conflict.
Our third and final image is a collage that Grace made. In the middle is a depiction of the Battle of 7 Oaks. Surrounding it is various groups and people who were involved or affected by the conflict, There are flags of the NWC, HBC, and Métis nation to represent the people who were directly part of the battle of 7 oaks. There are also images of Fort Garry, the location of the conflict, and a trading post in the top right corner.
We did end up posting all of these images on instagram one a school account @ethicaldimensions2020. You can check out our images and other classmates images as well.
I think this project taught me a lot. For example, a few days ago I was watching Harry Potter and I was just comparing gg Dumbeldore to Louis Riel. Dumbeldore was seen as a hero in the series, but many of the things he did and things in his past were very controversial, and I could really connect that to Louis Riel’s story as well. Both of their intentions were good, but the way they went about it ultimately played a factor in their downfall. This project taught me how to analyze past events and judge for myself whether it was a justified outcome or whether somebody was wronged in the conflict. I really enjoyed this project and it gave me a lot to think about. I had never heard of Louis Riel before this, and it was fun to have a project that so closely intertwines with my interests.