{"id":191,"date":"2016-07-15T15:49:36","date_gmt":"2016-07-15T19:49:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/knowinghome\/?post_type=chapter&p=191"},"modified":"2019-06-04T14:56:45","modified_gmt":"2019-06-04T18:56:45","slug":"chapter-15","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/knowinghome\/chapter\/chapter-15\/","title":{"raw":"Chapter 15 - Gitga'at Plant Project: Bridging the Gap between Generations","rendered":"Chapter 15 – Gitga’at Plant Project: Bridging the Gap between Generations"},"content":{"raw":"

<\/a>Ed\u014dsdi Judith C. Thompson<\/em><\/h2>\r\n \r\n

The impetus for the Gitga'at Plant Project was for students to make connections with their Elders, through school science curriculum, in order to learn about their culture, land, and language, which are all inextricably linked. Indigenous Knowledge (IK) is recognized as an important type of locally based knowledge held by Indigenous and other long-resident peoples (Berkes, 2012; Snively & Corsiglia, 2001; Turner, Ignace & Ignace, 2000). First Nations peoples have had, and continue to have, an intimate relationship with their homelands, based on knowledge that is highly localized, cumulative through many generations and socially oriented (Kawagley et al., 1998). Yet, Elders and educators in First Nations communities have expressed deep concerns that youth are no longer learning the cultural and local environmental knowledge that sustained them and their ancestors for generations (R. Quock, Tahltan Elder, personal communication, 1997; R. Dennis, Tahltan Elder, personal communication, 1992; H. Clifton, Gitga'at Elder, personal communication to N.J. Turner, 2002). Sadly, the opportunities for communicating IK and for incorporating this type of knowledge into public school science curricula are scarce.<\/p>\r\n

Cameron Hill and Eva-Ann Hill, First Nations educators and members of the Gitga'at Nation of Northern Coastal British Columbia, recognize that their children and youth have not had the same opportunities as past generations to acquire knowledge about their home territory and traditional resources. They see the need for themselves and other teachers to take the lead in remedying this situation:<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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You would think that growing up in such an isolated First Nations community, such as Hartley Bay, where the Gitga'at people reside, that our youth would be more in-tune with their natural surroundings. This is, however, not the case, in certain areas such as botany. The knowledge of plants within Hartley Bay lies with our Elderly people. It is up to us, as teachers, to bridge the gap between generations. (C. Hill & E.-A. Hill to J. C. Thompson, personal communication, 25 September, 2003)<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

As First Nations educators, we need to find ways to bring IK into the school science curriculum in order to make science more accessible and relevant to First Nations children. Children spend more hours in a classroom removed from the land than with their extended families learning on the land. Helping to fill this need was the main motivation for developing the Gitga'at Plant Project at the Hartley Bay School (Thompson, 2004).<\/p>\r\n \r\n

Background to the Study<\/h2>\r\n

This research began when Dr. Nancy Turner, (Professor, University of Victoria) an internationally distinguished ethnobotanist, presented a proposal to the school in Hartley Bay in which individual students would research and learn about a specific indigenous plant that is culturally important to the Gitga'at people. In conversations with Gitga'at Elders Chief Johnny Clifton and Helen Clifton, as well as Ernie Hill Jr., principal of the school and a hereditary chief of the Eagle clan, Turner was told that the children and youth were not learning as much cultural or local environmental knowledge as previous generations had learned. This erosion of IK was a concern for the Elders. Around the same time, I was approached by Dr. Charles Menzies, (Professor, University of British Columbia), who is Gitxaa\u0142a Ts'msyen, to develop a science curriculum for his research project, \u201cForests for the Future,\" a two-year research project with the goal of conducting community-based research into local ecological knowledge in the Ts'msyen community of Gitxaa\u0142a. The curriculum would be based on the local ecological knowledge of the Gitxaa\u0142a people, another coastal Ts'msyen group located northwest of Hartley Bay. Menzies saw the development of culturally relevant education resources as a way to give something tangible and useful back to the people of Gitxaa\u0142a. As part of this project, I developed a curriculum unit entitled, \u201cTraditional Plant Knowledge of the Tsimshian\u201d (Thompson, 2003). (\u201cTsimshian\u201d was changed to \u201cTs'msyen\u201d in 1998 by fluent Sm'algya<\/span>x teachers to reflect the correct spelling of the term).<\/p>\r\n

This project was designed to provide the Gitga'at youth of Hartley Bay with the opportunity to learn about the plants that have been, and continue to be important to their people. More significantly, it was designed to re-establish the connections between Aboriginal youth and their Elders in order to facilitate the transmission of Indigenous Knowledge. My research, in collaboration with the students, teachers, parents and guardians, Elders and community members of the Gitga'at community of Hartley Bay, was to help implement the Gitga'at Plant Project and to study its effectiveness for the students and community of Hartley Bay as a means of supporting the intergenerational transmission of cultural and environmental knowledge.<\/p>\r\n

My central research question was: How does the involvement in a school research project designed to promote the intergenerational transmission of IK impact Aboriginal youth and their community?<\/p>\r\n

Given the importance of retaining local environmental knowledge within a community, the following specific points were addressed: what the students learned and\/or experienced as a result of the plant project; whether the Gitga'at Plant Project was an effective way for students to learn about plants and other IK from their Elders; and other methods that could be used to enhance the transmission of knowledge between generations.<\/p>\r\n

<\/span>This study took place in the Gitga'at community of Hartley Bay, British Columbia, which has a population of approximately 200. Hartley Bay is located 140 kilometres (90 miles) southeast of Prince Rupert, BC, at the confluence of Grenville Channel and Douglas Channel. The Hartley Bay School is located in the heart of the community. At the time of the study, the Hartley Bay School had 68 students, with four classes ranging from Nursery School to Grade 12. All of the students were of Ts'msyen descent. The staff was made up of a principal, five teachers, a learning assistance teacher\/librarian, a Sm'algya<\/span>x language teacher, an administrative assistant, and a custodian. With the exception of two teachers, the rest of the staff were members of the Gitga'at Nation.<\/p>\r\n

The Gitga'at people are members of the Ts'msyen Nation. The Ts'msyen inhabit the lower portion of the Skeena River, the islands found at the mouth of the Skeena, and along Douglas Channel (Tsimshian Chiefs, 1992). Gitga'at territory includes a large portion of the mainland south of the Skeena River, as well as several offshore islands. Ts'msyen territory is characterized by a mild, marine climate with heavy precipitation, which in turn supports dense, wet conifer forests. Biologists recognize the Coastal Western Hemlock Zone as the major biogeoclimatic zone within Ts'msyen territory. The Ts'msyen speak the Sm'algya<\/span>x language.<\/p>\r\n

Methodology is important in that it sets the context for the questions being asked; it establishes the tools and methods to be used and shapes the analyses. In regards to Indigenous methodologies, M\u0101ori scholar Linda Tuhiwai Smith (2012) stated that they are \u201coften a mix of existing methodological approaches and indigenous practices (p. 144). It was important to me as a First Nations educator and researcher to ensure that this project was framed within an Indigenous context. I chose to use community action research within an Indigenous context as the overarching methodology, with a case study approach as the more specific design.<\/p>\r\n

Smith (2012) maintains that a community action approach makes a positive difference in the lives of people in the community, and also provides a way for First Nations researchers to actually do research in their own communities. While many research methodologies have assumed that the researcher is an outsider able to observe somewhat objectively, Smith (2012) states that, \u201cIndigenous research approaches problematize the insider model in different ways because there are multiple ways of both being an insider and outsider in indigenous contexts\u201d (p. 138).<\/p>\r\n \r\n

The Gitga'at Plant Project<\/h2>\r\n

The Gitga'at Plant Project was developed and implemented by two Hartley Bay teachers, Cameron Hill and Eva-Ann Hill, and myself, thereby creating the case by our actions. Essentially, the Gitga'at Plant Project, the case was a community action research project that was participatory and collaborative in nature, which involved the community in an attempt to make a positive difference in the education of the children in Hartley Bay.<\/p>\r\n

The project was conducted from September 2003 to June 2004. Working in pairs, Grades 9-12 Gitga'at students each researched a particular plant known to have cultural importance to their people. They consulted with Elders and community members and carried out literature and web-based botanical research, as well as made observations of their plants during field study sessions (Figure 15.1<\/a>).<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_678\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"225\"]\"Student<\/a> <\/a>Figure 15.1 \u25b2\u00a0 Student measuring Skunk Cabbage with a ruler in the field notebook. Photo by Ed\u014dsdi Judith C. Thompson (2003).[\/caption]\r\n

The student researchers gave oral presentations of their findings at community gatherings, and picture posters of the students with their plants and a summary of what they learned were presented to the community. A book entitled 'Nwana'a lax yuup: Plants of the Gitga'at<\/em> (2006), edited by Nancy Turner and Ed\u014dsdi (Judith Thompson), <\/em>which included almost 100 plants, was presented to the community as a way to honour the knowledge of the plant informants and to thank the community for their assistance and input. The 12 plants that the students researched were given prominence in the book, which included their detailed findings, who they learned from, and pictures of themselves and their plants.<\/p>\r\n

The Gitga'at Plant Project was made up of three stages: (1) Development, (2) Implementation, and (3) Evaluation.<\/p>\r\n

Development. <\/strong>It is important to state that there were two stages of development for this project. The first stage involved myself developing a relationship with the community of Hartley Bay. The second stage involved the actual development of the Gitga'at Plant Project. From February 2002 to April 2003, I developed a unit plan entitled \u201cTraditional Plant Knowledge of the Tsimshian\u201d (Thompson, 2003) which was made up of six lessons:<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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