Monday, May 11, 2015
Botany 101: Examining Plant Parts
Does every flower have a pistil and a stamen? What do these actually look like? We explored these questions and more by dissecting and observing different flowers and sketching what we found:
Of Cedar and Salmon
We have been studying Native American cultures across the U.S., but with a particular emphasis on the peoples of the Northwest Coast. This week we spent a fascinating afternoon in a workshop with Ronn "Long Claw" Wilson from "Of Cedar and Salmon," a traveling multimedia program designed to educate students about the native art and cultures of the Pacific Northwest Coast.
Long Claw is affiliated with the Kwakwaka'wakw, "The Kwakwala-Speaking People," of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. A more common name for this group is the Kwakiutl, but we learned the Kwakiutl people are just one of many Kwakwaka'wakw nations. Long Claw talked about many of the finer distinctions about native cultures that non-natives are often unaware of, pointing out that we always have to be careful of making generalizations about people, and how important and powerful words can be to either "build up" or "tear down" the feelings of others. He talked about how every culture of native people is unique, and while we often use terms like "Indian" (the original term for Native Americans coined by Columbus when he believed he had reached the West Indies and so called the people he found there Indians) and "native" to describe indigenous cultures, each particular group pf people have their own preferences -- many of the first peoples of Canada, for example, refer to themselves as "clans," not tribes, and elders from the Yakima Nation told Long Claw they do not like the term "native" and refer to themselves only as "the people."
Long Claw taught us about "haboo" the art of listening as a survival skill, and we practiced this type of listening in a game called "Deer Hunt." One student - the deer - sat blindfolded in the center of the room surrounded by long swaths of wadded up paper. The rest of the students played the wolves, and, when cued by Long Claw, moved as quietly as they could over the paper. The deer pointed toward any sound, and any student pointed at was out. At first, we thought the deer would be captured by the wolves for sure, but as the game progressed, it became apparent that the blindfolded deer could hear every movement and caught every wolf before they could get to the center.
We also learned about and felt the pelts of many different types of animals that populated the areas the Kwakwaka'wakw lived, and gained some understanding of how the lives of the animals in the area and the people who lived there intertwined. Nothing was ever wasted when an animal was killed, from meat to pelt to sinew used to make thread.
We ended the day hearing a fascinating legend passed down through generations of Long Claw's family. He pointed out to us many of the characteristics of Native American legends, for example, how they often explain some aspect of an animal or nature - how the bear got its claws, how the moon climbed into the sky, etc. In the legend he told us, the number four figured heavily, since this number -- the number of seasons, the cardinal directions -- carries significance for his people.
Now, after being immersed in Kwakwaka'wakw culture for a day, we are going to try our hands at writing our own Native American-style legends!
Long Claw is affiliated with the Kwakwaka'wakw, "The Kwakwala-Speaking People," of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. A more common name for this group is the Kwakiutl, but we learned the Kwakiutl people are just one of many Kwakwaka'wakw nations. Long Claw talked about many of the finer distinctions about native cultures that non-natives are often unaware of, pointing out that we always have to be careful of making generalizations about people, and how important and powerful words can be to either "build up" or "tear down" the feelings of others. He talked about how every culture of native people is unique, and while we often use terms like "Indian" (the original term for Native Americans coined by Columbus when he believed he had reached the West Indies and so called the people he found there Indians) and "native" to describe indigenous cultures, each particular group pf people have their own preferences -- many of the first peoples of Canada, for example, refer to themselves as "clans," not tribes, and elders from the Yakima Nation told Long Claw they do not like the term "native" and refer to themselves only as "the people."
Long Claw taught us about "haboo" the art of listening as a survival skill, and we practiced this type of listening in a game called "Deer Hunt." One student - the deer - sat blindfolded in the center of the room surrounded by long swaths of wadded up paper. The rest of the students played the wolves, and, when cued by Long Claw, moved as quietly as they could over the paper. The deer pointed toward any sound, and any student pointed at was out. At first, we thought the deer would be captured by the wolves for sure, but as the game progressed, it became apparent that the blindfolded deer could hear every movement and caught every wolf before they could get to the center.
We also learned about and felt the pelts of many different types of animals that populated the areas the Kwakwaka'wakw lived, and gained some understanding of how the lives of the animals in the area and the people who lived there intertwined. Nothing was ever wasted when an animal was killed, from meat to pelt to sinew used to make thread.
We ended the day hearing a fascinating legend passed down through generations of Long Claw's family. He pointed out to us many of the characteristics of Native American legends, for example, how they often explain some aspect of an animal or nature - how the bear got its claws, how the moon climbed into the sky, etc. In the legend he told us, the number four figured heavily, since this number -- the number of seasons, the cardinal directions -- carries significance for his people.
Now, after being immersed in Kwakwaka'wakw culture for a day, we are going to try our hands at writing our own Native American-style legends!
I think this photo best captures some of the wonder of the day. Long Claw truly transported us to a different time and shared a unique way of thinking and relating to the world. Transformational.
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