First Nations, Métis and Inuit Voices: Themes, Perspectives and Ways of Knowing

Remember from Grade 8

In Grade 8 you used the Storywork principles of respect, responsibility and reciprocity and compared creators from different times: E. Pauline Johnson, Chief Dan George, Tanya Tagaq and Cherie Dimaline. Grade 9 asks you to analyze themes explored in First Nations, Métis and Inuit cultures, to understand the varied identities, perspectives, relationships, legacies, truths, and ways of knowing, being and doing.

Distinct peoples, varied identities

Canada's Constitution (1982) recognizes three groups of Indigenous peoples, known today as First Nations, Métis and Inuit. Each includes many communities with different languages, histories, governments and traditions. A text by an Anishinaabe writer from northwestern Ontario and a text by an Inuk filmmaker from Nunavut come from very different places, languages and ways of life.

That is why respectful readers name the specific Nation or community whenever they can, and avoid statements that begin "Indigenous people all...". Identities are also varied within communities: Indigenous people live on reserves, in cities, in the North and the South; some speak their languages fluently, some are learning them; all are part of the present.

Themes you will often meet

A theme is a big idea a text explores, written as a statement (not one word). Here are themes that appear across many texts by First Nations, Métis and Inuit creators, explored differently by each:

1. Relationships with land and water. Land is often presented not just as scenery or property, but as a relative and teacher, with responsibilities that go both ways.
2. Kinship and relationships. Family, community, ancestors and future generations, and relationships with animals and the natural world. Many Indigenous speakers and writers use the phrase all my relations to express this connectedness.
3. Language and identity. Languages carry ways of seeing the world. Many texts celebrate languages and the work of revitalizing them.
4. Truth and legacy. The truths of colonization, including the residential school system and its effects on survivors, families and communities across generations.
5. Resilience, continuity and joy. Survival and strength, but also humour, love, creativity and imagined futures. Indigenous writers often use humour; Ojibway playwright and humourist Drew Hayden Taylor (Curve Lake First Nation) has written plays and essays known for it.
6. Reconciliation and treaty relationships. What it means to live up to treaties and repair relationships.

Truths and legacies: context you need

Many texts can't be fully understood without this context:

• For more than a century, the Government of Canada and churches ran residential schools. Children were taken from their families, forbidden to speak their languages, and many were abused; thousands died. The last federally run school closed in 1996.
• The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada heard from survivors and released its final report in 2015, with 94 Calls to Action, several of them about education.
• September 30 is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, also known as Orange Shirt Day, inspired by residential school survivor Phyllis Webstad's story of her new orange shirt being taken away on her first day of school.

Texts about these truths can be painful. They are also acts of truth-telling and resilience, and many focus on healing, family and the strength of culture.

If this topic brings up hard feelings, talk to a trusted adult. Support is available 24 hours a day from Kids Help Phone (1-800-668-6868, or text CONNECT to 686868), and for survivors and their families from the National Indian Residential School Crisis Line (1-866-925-4419).

Ways of knowing, being and doing

First Nations, Métis and Inuit knowledge systems are varied, but many share these features, which often shape how texts are told:

• Holistic and relational: knowledge connects mind, body, emotions and spirit, and people, land and all living things. Stories may move in circles or cycles rather than straight lines.
• Oral traditions: history, law and teachings are passed on through stories, songs and ceremony, often by Elders and Knowledge Keepers. Some stories have protocols about who may tell them, and when.
• Learning by doing and from the land: skills learned through practice and observation.
• Teachings that guide behaviour. For example, many Anishinaabe communities share the Seven Grandfather Teachings: wisdom, love, respect, bravery, honesty, humility and truth. Inuit knowledge, Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit, includes principles such as Piliriqatigiinniq (working together for a common cause) and Avatittinnik Kamatsiarniq (respect and care for the land, animals and environment).
• Two-Eyed Seeing (Etuaptmumk): Mi'kmaw Elder Albert Marshall describes learning to see with the strengths of Indigenous knowledges through one eye and the strengths of Western knowledges through the other, and using both eyes together.

Texts to explore

These are a few widely read texts (preview mature content first; see parent notes):

• The Marrow Thieves (2017) by Cherie Dimaline (Georgian Bay Métis community): in a future where most people have lost the ability to dream, Indigenous people are hunted for their bone marrow, which holds dreams. A Métis teen, Frenchie, travels north with a found family led by Miig, including an Elder, Minerva.
• Indian Horse (2012) by Richard Wagamese (Ojibway, from Wabaseemoong Independent Nations): Saul Indian Horse, an Ojibway man, looks back on his childhood, his years in residential school, his gift for hockey, and his path toward healing. It includes difficult content for older teens.
• Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2001), a feature film directed by Inuk filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk and made in Inuktitut, retells an Inuit oral story from the Igloolik region.

(You may also find Indigenous creators from your own region; your public library and local First Nations, Métis and Inuit organizations are great places to start.)

Reading and writing respectfully

• Name the creator and their Nation or community when you can.
• Use the present tense for living peoples and cultures ("Inuit communities celebrate..."), and remember creators are making new work today.
• Avoid stereotypes (all Indigenous people are the same; Indigenous cultures belong only to the past; Indigenous stories are only about pain).
• Use current terms: First Nations, Métis, Inuit, or the specific Nation's name. Older terms appear in historical documents and some titles; don't use them as your own words.
• Respect protocols: don't retell or post a sacred or community-owned story as if it were yours.
• Centre Indigenous voices: quote and cite First Nations, Métis and Inuit creators and scholars when writing about their cultures.