Canada History Week 2021: Indigenous History Learning Tool

CULTURAL CONTINUITY

HEADWATERS OF THEIR OWN STREAM Michelle LaVallee, Anishinaabe (Ojibway) – Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation, chronicles how seven artists formed the Professional Native Indian Artists Inc. to fight for professional respect and political self-determination, battling racism, discrimination, and exclusion.

Courtesy National Gallery of Canada, Mackenzie Art Gallery, Indigenous Art Centre, and Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada.

THE DANCERS OF DAMELAHAMID are a First Nations dance collective from the Northwest coast of British Columbia, traditional territories of the Gitksan (Gitxsan) nation. They perform dances and songs, many thousands of years old, to ensure that their adwaak or history is remembered, to maintain First Nations identity, and to express their spiritual connection with ancestral knowledge.

Courtesy Raul Pacheco-Vega/Flickr CC.

QANAJUQ was an Inuinnait (Copper Inuit) hunter, seamstress,and singer who helped record the songs of the Inuinnait. Some were apprehensive when asked to sing into the trumpet of the phonograph, but Qanajuq willingly recorded numerous songs.

LIFE ON THE LAND For decades, The Beaver depicted Indigenous societies as primitive peoples in need of “civilization.” In actuality, says Karine Duhamel, Ph.D., who is Anishinaabe-Métis, the magazine’s images reveal vibrant cultures, resilient communities, and crucial new perspectives on the North. Courtesy Canadian Museum of History.

Members of an unidentified Inuit community participate in a tug-of-war competition in a 1934 photo by H. Bassett.

In this condensed life history, WES FINEDAY , Nehiyaw Knowledge Keeper, discusses his resistance to colonial violence and his lifelong work and extensive knowledge of medicines, oral history, and ceremony.

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