Local teachers aren’t the only ones working to get their teaching strategies in line with the new B.C. curriculum’s focus on aboriginal perspectives.
Burnaby Village Museum is looking to update its school programs, too.
The museum currently offers programs to school kids on themes like the history of local businesses, homes and home life, and transportation and the tram.
But none of the programs teach kids about the history of local First Nations.
That’s something the museum wants to change.
The first thing it intends to tackle through an ongoing First Nations research project is the idea that there is no First Nations history here.
“There’s a long history of local First Nations in this place before it was Burnaby,” museum coordinator Sanya Pleshakov told the NOW. “This place was a place of harvesting and resource gathering, and people lived here, and those ties are not broken...”
To make sure local First Nations aren’t watching from the sidelines as the museum decides what kids will learn about their histories, partnerships have been formalized with the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Kwantlen First Nations, and discussions are underway with Musqueam.
“To tell a community’s history is not my right,” Pleshakov said. “It’s the right of indigenous peoples to tell their own stories, so we want to be really careful about how we share those stories.”
One of the goals of the research project is to create a resource guide or background paper for educators to use when they teach about First Nations history in Burnaby.
To tailor the museum’s work to school kids, meanwhile, Pleshakov and assistant programmer Lorenda Calvert have been meeting with a Burnaby school district focus group comprised of aboriginal enhancement teacher Meagan Innes and head teachers Teresa Migliuri (Lakeview) and Julianna Cipparrone (Morley).
Along with new First Nations programming, the group is looking at ways to better align all the museum’s school programs with the new curriculum and its focus on critical thinking, communication skills and personal and social competence.
“I think that we think we’re doing a good job with being interactive,” Pleshakov said, “but I think we need to be more getting the kids to really question and analyze for themselves. I think too what we’re missing is diversity. We’re not talking about the cultural diversity that did exist in Burnaby in terms of the South Asian community, the Chinese community, the Japanese community and First Nations. Because that cultural diversity, and First Nations in particular, is such a strong part of the new curriculum, that’s where we’re really focusing our efforts.”
