Lesson Plan

Since Indigenous peoples and their way of life have been exoticized, marginalized, and
colonized in the Western realm of knowledge systems, it is pertinent for teachers to
understand how to work with Indigenous stories. Including Indigenous stories to teach a colonizer’s language in a responsible and respectful manner is challenging. Jo-ann Archibald’s (2008) book Indigenous Storywork and Parent and Kerr’s (2020) document “Indigenous
Storywork Give Away for Educators” have been invaluable guides in my journey as a non-Indigenous, racialized educator in creating this curriculum. I draw on the teachings of
‘Storywork’ guided by respect, reverence, responsibility, reciprocity, holism, interrelatedness,
and synergy (Archibald, 2008). 

As teachers read the stories, they are encouraged to connect the narratives and cultural
teachings to their roots in the land. Archibald (2008) emphasizes the importance of patience
and trust to listen to stories. The act of listening to stories goes beyond merely hearing the
words, the stories should be told in a way that listeners should be able to visualize the
characters and the actions. As the Elders say, it is important to listen with “three ears: two on
the sides of our head and the one that is in our heart ” (Archibald, 2008, p. 8). Essentially, we engage with Indigenous stories in a synergy - the teacher as the storyteller, the students as
our active listener,  and the story itself that offers important teachings. 

In many Indigenous communities in Canada, the storytellers are trained from childhood,
which can be daunting for educators who do not consider themselves skilled storytellers.
A gifted storyteller has the ability to help their listeners visualize the story and its characters,
making the narrator seem like part of the story. Lorna Mathias, a Nisga First Nations educator, observed during her graduate studies that her students noted several key traits of good storytellers: changes in intonation, expressive voice, physical actions, and most pertinently if
the storyteller themselves display enthusiasm about the story ( Archibald, 2008, p. 132). 

Ellen White, an elder and a gifted storyteller from the Stó꞉lō Nation of British Colombia recommends that teachers should first understand the story using visualization methods. For instance, drawing parts of story or storyboarding. She also recommends to read a page at
a time, to read between the lines, recognize the levels of meanings embedded in the story,
and immerse in the story to truly understand and value the story itself. This process would
help in becoming a good storyteller (Archibald, 2008).  

The act of telling or teaching through an Indigenous story requires a cultural framing and an understanding of the Indigenous community. Teachers are encouraged to research the communities mentioned in the units and prioritize reading texts written by the community
itself rather than by outsiders. Archibald(2019) recommends that teachers use storybooks
written by Indigenous people and learn to read and tell the stories that way. Once familiar with the stories, teachers can move to telling them without the book, but it is crucial to share the context and acknowledge the source of the story. There are cultural protocols or guidelines for working with Indigenous stories. As Archibald (2019) explains, there is a difference between traditional cultural stories and personal lived experience stories, with the latter being outside
the purview of using them as teaching stories in a public forum.

For non-Indigenous teachers like us, it is crucial to culturally sensitize ourselves to the process
of incorporating Indigenous stories in our curriculum. Providing context by showing pictures
of the authors/storytellers, and the nations they come from will help learners connect with the people and places from where the stories originated. It is also important to remind students
that many versions of oral narratives coexist, each told differently by various storytellers for
diverse audiences. Unlike Euro-Western stories which are often written for children,
Indigenous stories contain important teachings embedded within them, meant not just for children but also adults. Indigenous stories also do not follow the typical Euro-Western
structure of having a tidy beginning, middle, and end. Instead, they often end in a moment of reflection, encouraging listeners to engage personally with the story and ponder on how the
story might have ended. The meanings are often open-ended. The stories chosen for this curriculum unit reflect values for living in harmony with the territory and the land.

References:

• Archibald, J. (2008). Indigenous storywor : educating the heart, mind, body, and spirit .UBC Press.
• Archibald, J. (2019, August, 14). For educators. Indigenous Storywork. https://indigenousstorywork.com/1-for-educators/
• Parent, A. & Kerr, J.(2020) Indigenous Storywork Give Away for Educators. Indigenous Storywork.com. https://indigenousstorywork.com/resources/