Indigenous Canada comes from an Indigenous perspective, and, out of respect, we attempted to use the languages of the people as much as possible, especially when describing the names of places and explaining meaningful concepts. We have tried to do the best of our ability to find and use the proper pronunciations. But remember, these aren't our first languages, so we apologize beforehand for any mistakes in our enunciations. If the legends fall silent, who will teach the children of our ways? Welcome to Indigenous Canada, a 12-lesson MOOC that explores Indigenous histories and contemporary issues in Canada. My name is Tracy Bear, and I'm from Montreal Lake First Nation. And I'm Alannah Mandamin-Shawanda, from Wikwemikong First Nation. And I am Isaac Twinn, from Sawridge First Nation in the Lesser Slave Lake area. Together, we will be your presenters for this course. Utilizing an Indigenous perspective, this course explores issues important for understanding past and current relationships between Indigenous and settler societies. As a survey course, it's not possible to explain in detail the past and current relationships between Indigenous and settler societies over a large and varied geography. Over the next 12 lessons, we will examine the fur trade and other exchange relationships, environmental impacts, legal systems and rights, political conflicts and alliances, Indigenous political activism, and contemporary Indigenous life, art, and expressions. Together, we will explore key issues facing Indigenous peoples today from a historical, critical perspective, and teach students how to think critically about national and local Indigenous-settler relations. Our first lesson explores different Indigenous worldviews. These distinct perspectives will help you develop an understanding of the interactions between Indigenous peoples and settler newcomers. It's important to recognize that language and the words we use when talking about Indigenous peoples are not neutral. The classification and naming of Indigenous peoples has been a key tactic used in colonization. Three groups of Aboriginal peoples are recognized by the Canadian Constitution: Indian, Métis, and Inuit. Today, the term "First Nations" is preferred to the word "Indian" in Canada. "Aboriginal," "Indigenous," and "Native" are often used interchangeably. However, certain terms may be applied within specific contexts. In the context of constitutional rights, the term "Aboriginal" is appropriate. Non-Indigenous people are referred to as "settlers," and Canada, for example, could be referred to as a "settler society". Sometimes, the names of Indigenous groups commonly used are not the same as the names that people use to refer to themselves. We respect and honour these names by using the words people use to refer to themselves as much as possible. For example, Cree people refer to themselves as "Nehiyawak"; we refer to Cree as "Nehiyawak." So where is Canada? Canada is located in the Northern Hemisphere, and is a large part of the North American continent. Inhabited for over 40,000 years by Indigenous peoples, Canada extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans, and northward to the Arctic Ocean. Canada covers almost 10 million square kilometres, and is the second-largest country, by area, in the world. Credible estimates of the population of Canada and the United States prior to sustained European contact suggest that the total population was in range of 1.2 million to 2.6 million Indigenous people. Throughout this course, we hope to provide a general understanding of Indigenous people. As you will see, the tremendous diversity of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit in Canada restricts our ability to share a complete picture. However, we hope you will see this course as just one of the first steps of your journey to understanding Indigenous peoples. Stories are powerful pedagogical tools that help learners understand their history and the environment in which they live. The teachings from stories allow listeners to come to their own decisions and conclusions. They help demonstrate that there are many different ways of looking at problems, and solutions to those problems. Storytelling has been, and continues to be, a central part of our identity as people and as nations. We can generally distinguish between two types of Indigenous storytelling. The first type are "personal stories" that include observations, accounts of places, and experiences. This type of story evolves over time, and is based on the needs and relevancy to the population. The second type are "creation or teaching stories," sometimes called myths or legends. Many of these stories, which are spiritual in nature, remain unchanged over time. My name is Melissa-Jo Belcourt Moses, and I go by MJ. So, I am from the Belcourt clan, from Lac Ste. Anne. My family is from Lac Ste. Anne. We are a mixed-blood of Cree, Mohawk, and French, which I love because it's part the Mohawk people are from down East; but, during the fur trade, the Northwest Company hired many Mohawk men to come out West as guides and interpreters, and when their contract was finished, they became known as free men. And some went home, but many of them stayed, and married in with the people here. So our family has a Mohawk bloodline as well. Well, this is actually something very significant to the Mohawk people because of the story of Turtle Island. And so, with this, and I did bead this turtle's back, because of that, because of my ancestry, because of the Mohawk side of our family. And the story goes, and I'm just abbreviating it because it's quite a long story, and I actually don't know all the details because it's quite a big story, but Sky Woman falls from the sky. And there's a whole story above that where she lives in the sky world, and why she falls through the sky, falls through the hole in the sky, and the animals help her. The geese help her land on Turtle's back, and then the earth is covered in water, and so she asks some of the animals, the water animals, to help her. And so she asks Beaver if he can go down and get, she just needs a handful, of dirt because, with that and her magical power, she's able to do something with it. So, he figures, Beaver's pretty strong, a strong swimmer, and he says, "I can do this," and he slaps his tail on the top of the water, and he dives down, and he dives, and he dives, and he dives, and he dives, and he dives, but he just can't make it. So he struggles, and he swims back up, and he's kind of hanging on Turtle's back, leaning on it, catching his breath, and couldn't make it to the bottom for that handful of earth. And so she asks Otter, and Otter's a very sleek swimmer and says, "I can do this. I'm a good swimmer. I'm in the water all the time," and he's swimming around, and so he dives down, and he swims, and he swims, and he swims, and he swims and, again, he runs out of air, and has to swim back up. He can't make it. So, again, he gets to the top, and has to rest again on Turtle's back. And so then she asks little Muskrat, and he's unsure. He's not a strong swimmer, and she encourages him and gives him some, I guess that encouragement of what he needs, so that he musters it all up, and he decides he's going to try this. And so he swims and does his best. And he swims, and swims, and swims, and swims, and swims, and swims, and he's just about out of air, and he's able just to reach and grab just a few grains, and he swims back up. And he's just about depleted, he can hardly make it, they actually have to help him up for the rest of the way, and he catches his breath, and he gives her those two little grains of earth. And she's able to take those grains, and in her hand, because she has those magical powers, she blows on those and the earth begins to grow off of Turtle's back. So, what we call North America today is Turtle Island, and so that's where that creation story comes from. And that's why I beaded the turtle on this piece of hide.
