This month long project we learned all about colonization, the consequences of colonization, and how colonization affected everyone involved.
We began our project learning about different worldviews, and how to interpret different scenes. Learning about the above introduced us to our first keystone. For our first keystone we were asked to chose an art piece drawn by C.W. Jeffrey’s, a European artist who drew many images from when Europeans were colonizing the First Nations land, which is now known as Canada. After choosing an art piece, we were asked to re interpret the image into a more indigenous perspective, rather than a more European perspective.
I chose one of his images called: “Cartier’s Company Pray For Relief From Sickness”
Re interpreted image
Original image
The original painting shows the Europeans on the indigenous land, kneeling before the indigenous and begging for medicine to cure their scurvy. My re interpreted image shows how I think the indigenous would have seen the situation. I made small adjustments to the art work making the end image a more indigenous perspective.
Answers to driving questions-
Keystone 1: what changed about European powers worldview?
In the beginning, I thing the Europeans saw what now is Canada as just another piece of land for the king, but in reality was much more. After they began to settle more they realized Canada Was exceeding their expectations. The Europeans saw a new way for happiness, new beautiful land, different resources, and of course gold, glory, and god. But of course this was not the case for the First Nations.
Keystone 2: what were the consequences of European powers’ change in worldview at the time?
At the start, the Europeans and First Nations made treaties with each other to set boundaries, but the Europeans took advantage of their power and betrayed the agreements. The betrayal cause many long wars between them causing many deaths of both parties. Europeans also brought foreign diseases to the indigenous causing even more deaths.
Keystone 3: what are the consequences of colonization today?
Because of the European colonization, North America went from being majority indigenous land, to majorly European land. But the colonization didn’t only affect our geography, but also the language, religion culture, and decrease of indigenous languages being spoken today.
Finish line: what did European settlement mean for all involved?
When Europeans first discovered New France, there were very few cons. New France meant more resources, a chance to start over, more land to expand, and less laws to restrict them. For the indigenous, it was quite the opposite. The indigenous were dying from foreign diseases, their land was taken, they were used as slaves, and the traumatic list goes on. Treaties between Europeans and Indigenous were broken, wars began, and the Europeans resistance simply caused more death and less rights for the indigenous. Because of Europeans persistence now majority of our map (including North America) has been colonized by Europeans. The European colonization continues to affect us today with language, culture, religion, and the decrease of indigenous languages being used today. Overall, European settlement meant progress and possibility for some, while for others it meant generational trauma.
To top off our project we each made an AR video to sum up everything we have learned!
(The video will be posted to my YouTube channel in the future)