Hello and welcome back to my blog. Today’s post is the last one of my grade 11 year which is crazy to think about. In this post I’ll be reflecting on a project I made for a course that this blog hasn’t heard much about, which is BC First Peoples.
For our 2024 spring exhibition, our class had a few choices of what route to go down. Originally there was a partner project in humanities about Upstanders that we were going to show at the exhibition. Keeping in mind that we also had a final BCFP project, our teachers wanted us to focus and hone in on one project, whether that meant combining projects or just focusing on one. I was already in a partner project with Makenna, but we hadn’t done much work on it aside from brainstorming. On the other hand, I was already in the middle of my BCFP project process so I decided to ditch Makenna (sorry!!!) and simply focus on making my BCFP the best it could be.
But what was this BCFP project anyways? Our final project in BCFP was truly up to the individual, as long as it focused on contributing to Reconciliation in some way. An area of the course that interested me was language, so I decided to focus on that.
A conversation at the last BCFP exhibition sparked a curiosity about elementary school level Indigenous language implementation. As far as I know, there isn’t much being done to teach children the Indigenous languages of the area, and I believe that is definitely an accessible next step in Reconciliation. I decided to create just one method of how we can begin doing this in classrooms.
My idea was to make Hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ language flashcards with basic numbers, words, phrases, and vocabulary on them. I focused on practical, applicable words, and included the spelling, the English translation, the phonetic pronunciation, and a hand drawn illustration. My inspiration was the alphabet flashcards in elementary schools.
Although there are many distinct dialects and language families in BC, I decided to focus on Hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓, the downriver dialect of Hul’qumi’um. This is the dialect of the Tseil-Waututh and Musquem nations and there are less than 100 fluent speakers left, so I thought it was important to focus on this language. Because it is such a niche dialect, I struggled with finding even basic words and their pronunciation. Using a variety of websites and videos, I made 24 hand-painted flashcards.
I was able to get these done in about 4 days, which I was super happy with because that meant I could go to Outdoor School for 3 days right before the exhibition without too much stress.
All of these cards were created with the intention of public display, in the form of two exhibitions. I was able to get all my cards laminated then arranged them on a board, alongside the digital book version of them I made in BookCreator. I gave out QR codes to the book, which included all the cards, audio clips of the pronunciation, and extra resources for those wanting to learn more.
During the exhibitions, I had some great conversations with guests and students of all ages. My personal highlight was talking with two elementary school teachers who took my cards and said they wanted to get my book into their classrooms, along with giving the link to their colleagues. Having that tangible action of Reconciliation was super important for me and a great first step in language implementation.
Overall, it was two great exhibitions, and I loved learning about everyone’s projects. Learning about the Hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ language was extremely interesting and had me interested in the lack of accessibility of Indigenous language learning resources outside of university courses. Here is the link to my book and collection of cards!
Thank you for reading my last blog post of grade 11. Head to my TPOL post for a reflection on this year!
Sincerely,
Me
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