TakingITGlobal

Whose Land? www.whose.land Once this three-minute meditation is over, have students open their eyes. Typically, students should be feeling relaxed and grounded in the present moment right now. Next, stay outside and engage the class in a discussion about the land. Some discussion prompts can include: a. How does it feel to be out sitting on the land? b. What do you love about the land? c. How does the land provide us with everything we need to live? d. What is a place that has special meaning to you? How would you feel if that place was taken from you? e. What is a place that has special meaning to the community? What would happen if that place was taken from us? How would the community be affected as a whole? How would individuals be affected? The last two questions serve to bridge students to the topic of land displacement, resource extraction on Indigenous lands and broken treaty promises. Inform students that the land they are all sitting on right now, is an Indigenous nation's traditional territory. PART 2 (ACQUIRE ACTIVITY) WHOSE LAND? Big Idea: Students will engage in guided research about Indigenous Peoples and land acknowledgements using the Whose Land website as a resource Next, either have students explore the Whose Land website individually or if that isn't possi- ble, display the website for the whole class to see at: https://www.whose.land/en/ Begin by having students view the map of traditional Indigenous territories on the main page. See if anyone can pinpoint where their school is on the map (roughly aiming for the prov- ince, city, town or community). Have students click on the territory and see which Indigenous nation's traditional territory you are on. Have students click on the nation that pops up to learn more about the Indigenous People who have lived on and acted as stewards of the land since time immemorial (note: the term time immemorial refers to a time so far back that there is no date to identify it with). Have students watch multiple land acknowledgement videos on the main page. Based on the videos they've watched ask students: What is a land acknowledgement and why is it important? What does it mean to you? What is typically included in a land acknowledgement? PART 3 (APPLY ACTIVITY): CREATE A PERSONAL LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Big Idea: Students will co-create the Indigenous Land Acknowledgement rubric based on the information they learned from the Whose Land website Inform students that they will be writing their own personal land acknowledgements. Ask students what they think should be included in a land acknowledgement based on the videos they watched. Co-create the criteria together as a class. Review the attached rubric and cus- tomize it together as a class to fit the criteria everyone decided upon. Allow students time to create this meaningful and personal Indigenous land acknowledgment. PART 4 (ASSESSMENT): SELF OR PEER EDIT Big Idea: Students will engage in the editing process in order to strengthen their writing Have students use the "Land Acknowledgment Rubric" to first self-edit their own writing. Then, have pair up and engage in a peer edit process. Finally, teachers can use the rubric as a final assessment tool.

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