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Diverse Radio for Minnesota's Communities
Lives are changing drastically due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many people are out of work, more and more people are holding work meetings virtually, and everyone is making major adjustments.
Students are also home from school. Which means families are trying to find ways to keep the learning going. And for Native students, there are online resources that provide culturally focused learning through language and art.
Marie: This is Minnesota Native News, I’m Marie Rock.
Headlines: Lives are changing drastically due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many people are out of work, more and more people are holding work meetings virtually, and everyone is making major adjustments.
Students are also home from school. Which means families are trying to find ways to keep the learning going. And for Native students, there are online resources that provide culturally focused learning through language and art.
Here’s reporter Leah Lemm with the story.
STORY #1 - CULTURAL LESSONS WHILE HOME WITH KIDS
SOUND OF THE LEMM HOUSEHOLD
REPORTER: Most students have been home from school since Wednesday March 18th due temporary school closures, leaving families to make arrangements for care and continued education at home.
As a parent, I immediately started searching for cultural resources to supplement our school districts online learning resources.
And… artist Marlena Myles is helping us out with a few of those.
MARLENA MYLES: I’m Spirit Lake Dakota, I live in Saint Paul, MN, I like to create digital art, fabrics, illustrate children’s books and animations, and I also teach in classroom.
REPORTER: My son sits side by side with my spouse as they examine the laptop screen. They have Marlena’s Dakota Land Map open.
DAN/MARVIN DISCUSSION
The map is colorful and full of information all on a single page with Dakota language throughout.
Also included on the Dakota Land Map are symbols for the places represented. From Dakota villages, sacred sites, along with bodies of water, and locations such as the Mall of America, public transportation, and the University of Minnesota. (Might switch this around given their convo. Marvin says Bde Makha Ska super easily, so that’s awesome.)
And each location has an accompanying symbol, which Marlena highlights as a project opportunity for families.
MARLENA MYLES: Each of the places that I illustrated- they all have a little symbol I sort of drew to illustrate what that place may mean. And so if parents are with their children, they can teach about their own family history to their kids , and then the kids can draw the symbol that represents the family history that they heard.
A lot of Dakota art is personal. It’s something they can do with with any sort of art materials. Could be collage work, they could look through a magazine and clip out pieces of things that remind them of the story they just learned, use markers or crayons…
Marlena also has a Dakota Coloring Book on her website. Marlena m y l DOT e s That’s her name Marlena m y l DOT e s
The Dakota Land Map and the Coloring Book are available as free downloads.
And… other educators are turning to social media and live streaming to help students continue learning.
//SOUNDS OF JEI’s STREAM
Jei Herald-Zamora works at Bdote Learning Center on the Middle School team as an Ojibwe Language and Culture Teacher.
Jei: I am wolf clan, I am Spirit Lake Nation enrolled, but I was raised and identify as LCO Ojibwe in Wisconsin.
REPORTER: Jei is utilizing Instagram and Facebook streaming platforms to read and instruct participants.
Jei: Right now my social media teaching project is doing storybooks for about one hour and the second hour is doing Ojibwemowin instruction for an hour and to give basic vocabulary, sampling what I usually give as content within my lessons.
//SOUND of stream
JEI: In a way I just wanted to give something that people could look forward to. It’ll give me an excuse to get out of bed and do my makeup and give me an excuse to put on something besides pajama pants.
REPORTER: And Jei has been getting positive feed back about the project.
JEI: I have family members that are really enthusiastic, teachers are appreciate and parents are appreciative.
REPORTER: Jei Herald-Zamora hosts the public live streams at 1 and 2pm on Wednesdays and Fridays, and videos are archived for future viewing.
Links for both of these resources are on the Minnesota Native News facebook page
For Minnesota Native News, I’m Leah Lemm.