Beyond the resources of this reflection guide, we made a commitment to our educator community to share out further learning opportunities and book recommendations throughout the school year to extend the work of Truth and Reconciliation in their classrooms.

Our educator focus for November revolves around the following question:

The ongoing journey of truth and reconciliation involves confronting and addressing deeply challenging issues and histories. Yet, only focusing on the more difficult and painful aspects of history and current realities can sometimes mean that the stories celebrating Indigenous contributions are not centered.  It is important to balance studying the impacts of harmful events and systems with powerful narratives illuminating the beauty of diverse traditional knowledge systems, the profound influences of Indigenous peoples, and accounts of resistance to harm against their people. Diverse Indigenous cultural traditions and ways of life enrich all learners with their powerful insights and wisdom.

Stories that celebrate the meaningful contributions of distinct Indigenous peoples to many aspects of social life, including arts, culture, ecology, education, governance, medicine, science, sports, and transportation, are critical to share.  These stories enable learners to develop a more holistic, integrated and nuanced understanding of Indigenous histories, knowledge systems, nations and peoples. Studying these stories alongside the histories and ongoing legacies of harm serves as powerful activators of systemic change by recognizing how integral Indigenous contributions are to our collective well-being. Additionally, these stories enable Indigenous learners to see the gifts of their culture, nations, and peoples reflected in their educational experience, which is critically important in enacting culturally responsive pedagogies.

While reading on your own or with learners, learn more about Indigenous peoples’ important contributions by asking questions such as:

• What ideas and histories does this story challenge?
• How can this story help us better understand the histories and legacies of colonialism?
• What important gifts from Indigenous peoples might this story help us better understand?
• How might these gifts be appropriately and respectfully honoured?
• How can Indigenous creativity and innovation help guide a way forward?

Featured book selections for primary readers

Go Show the World: A Collection of Indigenous Heroes

Written by Wab Kinew and Illustrated by Joe Morse

Written by newly elected Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, this book celebrates the stories of Indigenous people throughout time through a rap song which became the basis of this book.  Showcasing a diverse group of Indigenous people in the US and Canada, the book inspires readers to recognize well-known and lesser-known figures’ powerful historical and ongoing contributions.

Finding My Dance

Written by Rita Thundercloud and Illustrated by Kalila J. Fuller

Ria Thundercloud, a professional Indigenous dancer, shares her true-life story of her path to dance and the journey to feeling pride for her heritage. Drawing on her love of the traditional jingle dance, this beautifully illustrated book celebrates this exquisite artistic form and its role in personal development and well-being.

Featured book selections for junior/intermediate readers

Ancestor Approved: Intertribal stories for kids

Edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith

This collection of intersecting narratives and poems is set at a powwow where Indigenous families from across Turtle Island gather to dance and share their art, stories and traditions while celebrating their connections and ways of life.  This book centers on the hope, pride and joy of culture, community, and resilience.

What the Eagle Sees: Indigenous stories of Rebellion and Renewal

Written by Eldon Yellowhorn and Kathy Lowinger

This multiple award-winning book chronicles stories of Indigenous resistance when colonizers came to Turtle Island. Sharing accounts and perspectives often missing from traditional narratives, these stories show the depth of creativity, innovation and spirited refusal which enabled Indigenous peoples to survive despite overwhelming challenges. An educator’s guide is also available online to accompany the book.

Additional Stories to Explore

Primary level readers

• What’s My Superpower?
  Written by Aviaq Johnston and illustrated by Tim Mack
• Sweetgrass
  Written by Theresa Meuse and illustrated by Jessica Jerome

Junior/Intermediate level

• Call Me Indian: From the Trauma of Residential School to Becoming the NHL’s First Treaty Indigenous Player
  Written by Frech Sasakamoose
• SuperSheroes of History: Indigenous Women Who Made a Difference
  Written by Katrina M. Philips
• Sky Wolf’s Call: the gift of Indigenous knowledge
  Written by Eldon Yellowhorn & Kathy Lowinger
• Siha Tooskin Knows the Best Medicine
  Written by Charlene Bearhead & Wilson Bearhead and illustrated by Chloe Bluebird Mustooch

The content for this educator post was conceived in close partnership with educational consultants from The Critical Thinking Consortium (TC² ) and reflects ongoing, sustained, and accountable relationships with Mohawk knowledge keepers.

Beyond the resources of this reflection guide, we made a commitment to our educator community to share out further learning opportunities and book recommendations throughout the school year to extend the work of Truth and Reconciliation in their classrooms.

Our educator focus for October revolves around the following question:

Stories are powerful ways of connecting to other people’s experiences, opening our imaginations and providing greater insight into important truths. When thinking about the ongoing journey of truth and reconciliation, reading and listening to stories can help us and our learners overcome barriers to change. Our opinions and perspectives can also be enriched by different vantage points on critical social issues, and we are enlarged by encounters with worldviews that could be slightly or even significantly different from our own. Storytelling is also a powerful way for us to connect through empathy with the narratives and experiences of others.

Reading and listening to challenging stories from Indigenous peoples, communities, and nations is profoundly important for better understanding important truths of history. These diverse stories can challenge deeply-held narratives about the origins of institutions and structures that can enact and reproduce harm. And while these stories may be uncomfortable to listen to, read, and sit with, they are integral to helping us more honestly grapple with the legacies of oppression, thereby providing important opportunities for change.

As you and your learners engage in these stories, we encourage you to look for opportunities to process emotions and make connections to your contexts. Some guiding questions might be:

• Why might this be an important story for us to read?
• What important impacts might this story help us to understand?
• How did the characters feel in the story?
• How might you have felt in a similar situation?
• What actions do we need to take to ensure these events don’t happen again?

Reflecting on the most impactful actions that would lead to more compassion, love, and respect can help these stories be transformed into new narratives of healing and change.

Featured book selections for Primary readers

Muinji’I Asks Why: The Story of the Mi’kmaq and the Shubenacadie Residential School

Written by Muinji’j MacEachern & Shanika MacEachern and Illustrated by Zeta Paul

This book deals with the difficult topic of residential schools with sensitivity for young readers.  Focusing on the Mi’kmaq culture, it explores a young child learning about this painful history from her grandparents. It encourages emotional awareness while listening to this story and provides a narrative emphasizing resilience.

Shi-shi-etko

Written by Nicola I. Campbell and Illustrated by Kim LaFave

This award-winning book, filled with beautiful illustrations, is a moving story of a young child preparing to leave all she knows to attend a residential school. Gathering stories, memories and teachings before she leaves her loved ones provides a poignant narrative exploring the tension of community wealth and loss.

Featured book selections for Junior/Intermediate readers

My Name is Seepeetza

Written by Shirley Sterling

Based on the experiences of Nlaka’pamux Shirley Sterling at the Kamloops Resident School, this book details the painful realities of racist government policies. Forced to change her name to “Martha,” cut her hair or not speak her traditional language with anyone, this story documents how Seepeetza tries to find her way through her experience in residential school.

Aggie and Mudgy: The Journey of Two Kaska Dena Children

Written by Wendy Proverbs

This novel shares the journey of two sisters forced from their families to attend a residential school in British Columbia, over 1,600 km from their home along the Yukon-B.C. border. Focusing on being forcibly displaced from home by colonial policies, this story also focuses on the perseverance and courage of those impacted to restore relations with loved ones.

Additional Stories to Explore

Primary readers

• The Orange Shirt Story
  Written by Phyllis Webstad and illustrated by Brock Nicol
• Phyllis’s Orange Shirt
  Written by Phyllis Webstad and illustrated by Brock Nicol

Junior/Intermediate readers

• Fatty Legs
  Written by Margaret-Olemaun Pokiak-Fenton & Christy Jordan-Fenton, and Illustrated by Liz Amini-Holmes
• A Stranger at Home
  Written by Margaret-Olemaun Pokiak-Fenton & Christy Jordan-Fenton
• The Journey Forward, A Novella on Reconciliation
  Written by Monique Gray Smith & Richard Van Camp, and Illustrated by Julie Flett & Tessa Macintosh

The content for this educator post was conceived in close partnership with educational consultants from The Critical Thinking Consortium (TC² ) and reflects ongoing, sustained, and accountable relationships with Mohawk knowledge keepers.

At the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation we are frequently asked to support students, parents, educators and educational staff in their efforts to promote Truth and Reconciliation through books and literature. Last year on September 30th we partnered with Native Child and Family Services of Toronto to design a resource guide with book recommendations that would support Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities with rich stories on a variety of topics. This year, we wanted to provide a different kind of tool that would focus not only on September 30th but an entire year of bringing Indigenous voices and texts into the classroom, homes and of course, the library learning commons.

What if we were to spend time on September 30^th , the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, to reflect on and plan the journey we might take during the next school year?

The work of Truth and Reconciliation can be challenging because it requires thoughtful and meaningful action, but also because it can challenge educators on the inside—our emotions, our assumptions, and our beliefs about what we know and don’t know. This year, in collaboration with The Critical Thinking Consortium (TC²) we have worked to create a reflection guide for educators intended to help with that work and to provide prompts, ideas and resources (for both educators and families) to extend the work of one day throughout an entire year.

Supporting your learning all year long:

Beyond the resources found in this guide, The Indigo Love of Reading Foundation will post monthly prompts containing further learning opportunities with associated book recommendations to support and extend the work of Truth and Reconciliation in your classroom. These monthly prompts will be posted between October 2023 to June 2024 via the Foundation website, social media channels (on Facebook and Twitter), and through our various newsletters throughout the school year to our subscribers. We welcome all feedback on this initial reflection guide and the extension prompts to come: please feel free keep in touch with us at loveofreading@indigo.ca as you embark on your learning journey through these suggested resources.

Please note: The Pathways to Meaningful Action reflection guide has been developed in collaboration with TC² educational consultants who have reviewed the content thoroughly with Mohawk knowledge keepers with whom they have an an ongoing, sustained and accountable relationship. The content within this guide was also reviewed by Indigo’s Indigenous Knowledge Consultant Fred Martin. This reflection guide is an outgrowth of Taking Root: A resource guide to exploring Indigenous voices in child and youth literature from across Turtle Island, an Indigenous-themed literacy project developed in close consultation with Native Child and Family Services of Toronto.

This initiative reached over 1,500 students across Canada, inspiring not only a love of reading, but a love for our planet. To learn more about the Read for the Planet initiative, and why it’s important to support the next generation of changemakers, take a look at our visit to Cedarwood Public School. From milk bag weaving to lights out lunches, these students are taking their learnings from the classroom, and making change in their community! ​

About Cedarwood Public School ​

As a Certified Eco-School, and Read for the Planet participant, Cedarwood students (of all ages) are setting an example of what it means to be a young changemaker. Grade 8 sisters, Season and Vivian, are two of the changemakers leading Cedarwood’s Act Green team – a group of dedicated students responsible for carrying out the school’s environmental initiatives. Whether it’s encouraging students to upcycle their plastic milk bags, or checking each classroom to ensure proper recycling etiquette, these students show how small daily actions can contribute to big change. ​

Why did we create Read for the Planet? ​

As we continuously evolve how we support students and educators, we conduct regular monitoring and evaluation of the programs we run. One recent survey reported that 83% of our educator community indicated a need for more environmental literacy resources and support. These findings are further supported by a national study conducted by Lakehead University in partnership with Learning for a Sustainable Future, which cited that only 32% of educators across Canada feel they have the knowledge and skills to teach about climate change. The study indicated not only a need to educate students, but to inspire students to take action, with 46% of students reporting that they understand that human-caused climate change is happening, but do not believe that human efforts will be effective in mitigation. ​

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As part of their sustainability journey, Indigo sets goals each year to create impact within their products and operations. This year, Indigo’s sustainability team formed a new partnership with our foundation to expand their sustainability journey to reach our community. By leveraging Indigo’s platform as a leader in sustainability and Indigo Love of Reading’s expertise in literacy and children’s programming we created “Read for the Planet” and launched this initiative across Canada. ​

Continuing to support young changemakers​

Thanks to our incredible partners at Lomi, each Read for the Planet partner school will be receiving a free Lomi Composter to help put their learnings into action. With these new composters, students will be able to see their lunch and snack waste turned into plant food for their school or community garden. We are so grateful to our friends at Lomi for making it easier for students across Canada to care for the planet! 

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The Indigo Love of Reading Foundation is committed to advancing reconciliation within all the programs and partnerships we facilitate. While the books we provide help achieve this goal, many of the schools, parents and even students we work with reach out regularly for support in selecting Indigenous texts that will support them in their own goals of promoting reconciliation, education, and cultural reclamation. It is for this reason that we sought out partnerships with Native Child and Family Services of Toronto as well as the artist Jordan Stranger to create a resource guide for students and educators that highlights 50 book titles for children and youth.

These books are just a starting point – and do not represent a comprehensive curriculum nor do they reflect all backgrounds, perspectives, or worldviews. Nevertheless, they were carefully and thoughtfully selected with the goal of supporting young people, parents and educators in building knowledge and understanding. We encourage anyone with recommendations of new titles that they would like to see added to email us at loveofreading@indigo.ca so we can continue to update and revise this list in the year(s) to come.   

The Indigo Love of Reading Foundation’s partnership with Native Child and Family Services of Toronto

Native Child and Family Services of Toronto (NCFST) first partnered with the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation in Spring 2020 as a recipient of the foundation’s Community Response Fund, created as a $1M initiative to help keep kids reading in high-needs communities amidst the nationwide closure of schools and public libraries caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Through subsequent summer reading program initiatives with the foundation in 2021-22 , NCFST selected and acquired books written by Indigenous authors and illustrators to help meet the needs and requests of their community members who desired culturally relevant books that support various teachings, self-esteem, and have characters that are representative of their families and are relatable to their everyday lives. Through this three-year partnership, over 3,000 children and families throughout the NCFST network in the Greater Toronto Area have been provided with over 4,000 books to read and enjoy in the home.

After years of damage to our ways of life and having our stories and practices stopped from being passed down generations through story-telling, the funding that allows us to continuously find new ways to pass down our stories is fundamental to the well being of our children, youth and their families and the continuous progress of the Culture as a whole.”

A quote from a NCFST parent on the impact of these books on their community

In 2021, our foundation supported 20 schools across Canada by gifting these books along with others to underserved elementary schools with the goal of promoting a love of reading and a love for the environment. After rifling through the new books, one student in Winnipeg, Manitoba immediately led their class in a community clean up, while a group of students in Hamilton, Ontario began to question why so many students are driven to school when they live so close. This led to the development of the “Walking Bus” an initiative that had available staff meet in the neighborhood to walk students to school every morning. 

While inspiring action is just one benefit of environmental literacy, we also saw students engage with these books for the benefits to their mental health. One student from Toronto had a strong connection with the book “Slow Down: 50 Mindful Moments in Nature” and took it out of the library four weeks in a row! When asked about why this book was so special, she described the way it made her feel calm. 

To celebrate these students, our foundation will be gifting each of these schools an additional $250 for books this Earth Month! Tackling climate change won’t happen overnight but we believe that by educating young Canadians, we have the power to spark individual action and collective change.

Let’s Talk Science – a leading partner in Canadian education – is a national charitable organization committed to inspiring and empowering children and youth of all ages in Canada to develop the skills they need to participate and thrive in an ever-changing world.  

INTRODUCTION TO THE RESOURCE

To help introduce you to the lesson plans we have included a link to a Powerpoint presentation narrated by the Executive Director of the Critical Thinking Consortium, Usha James, who will help to provide you with a walk through of the lessons themselves.

The introductory narrated powerpoint resource can be downloaded HERE. 

INCLUSIVE LESSON PLANS

1. Digital files: these files are editable and can be downloaded to your computer desktop/laptop

·         Full grade K-8 version:  can be downloaded HERE

·         Gr. K-3 compiled lesson plans: can be downloaded HERE

·         Gr. 4-8 compiled lesson plans: can be downloaded HERE

2. Printable files: these files are optimized to be printed out for classroom use

·         Full grade K-8 printable version:  can be downloaded HERE

·         Gr. K-3 compiled lesson plan printable version: can be downloaded HERE

·         Gr. 4-8 compiled lesson plan printable version: can be downloaded HERE

11 Must-Read Books for Pride

curated by Skipping Stone Foundation & Indigo Love of Reading Foundation

As a part of our commitment to Earth Day and promoting environmental literacy we granted twenty schools to receive an Earth Day classroom kit filled with environmental literacy books. These schools from across Canada have been working hard to restore our planet and engaging in many eco-friendly initiatives in their own school and communities.

Below, we have assembled Earth Day resources to aid in these important conversations to restore our planet at home or in the classroom:

Earth Day resources for educators

• INDIGO LOVE OF READING ENVIRONMENTAL ECO WARRIORS BOOKLIST 
• Project learning tree: Earth Day Activities to Inspire your students and make a difference
• Susan Jones Teaching: Earth Day Activities for Kids- how to teach your kids about recycling for Earth Day
• Environmental Education- Edutopia
• Climate Kids: Government of Canada website
• Ecokids.ca- Lesson plans, books, videos and other materials to help educators and parents discover how outdoor play informs  learning and supports environmental education
• Celebrating Earth Day in Canada Teacher Resources- here is a list of Canadian resources to teach in your classroom
• National Geographic Kids: Save the Earth: games, videos and articles for student use on Earth day and environmental protection
• Education.com Learning Library Earth Day Resources
• NASA: Climate Kids website– Learn all about Climate Change and the environment right from NASA!
• Children’s Environmental Literacy Foundation: Teacher tools for Grades K-12

International Women’s Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women’s equality.

#HappyInternationalWomensDay #InternationalWomensDay #ChooseToChallenge

Indigo Love of Reading Female Voices Book List