Page 6 - The Ogemawahj Tribal Council

Introduction

The Ogemawahj Tribal Council (OTC) has updated the community
resource books of each of its six First Nations communities.

Our goal was to then create companion lesson plans that would
build educators’ capacity by increasing their knowledge about our
communities, peoples, and issues. In doing this, we hoped to
• increase the engagement of community, educators, and students
• strengthen First Nation community/school board partnerships

• impact student learning
To meet these ends, writing teams were created composed of
community members from each of the six First Nations, and teachers
from their partner school boards. These teams collaborated to build
lessons that reflected each community.

Each group brought a unique expertise. The role of First Nations
members was to help the group keep true to community history,
language, culture, geography and priorities. The teachers’ role was to
collaborate with First Nations community members to develop lesson
plans for primary, junior, and intermediate students that connected to
provincial curriculum expectations.
To ensure that meetings were grounded in Indigenous ways of
knowing, each writing team toured the First Nations community and
reviewed the updated community resource books. The following
guidelines were decided upon:

DO
• refer directly to the new community resource book
• begin and end each lesson with a talking circle
• include Anishinaabemowin
• include Indigenous perspectives in more than one area of
the curriculum
• use books, articles, and videos by First Nations people
• use authentic voice
• use culturally relevant learning materials

• emphasize hands-on activities
• use storytelling

4 The Ogemawahj Tribal Council