Kinship: Observing Practice Activity
Total Time: Approx. 60 minutes
Participants draw their family trees and share their kinship ties. After watching a 20-minute video on Blackfoot kinship systems, participants discuss the significance of kinship in their lives and in Indigenous cultures.
The strategies in this activity can be adapted for Observing Practice activities in other topic areas.
Activity 1: Your Family Tree
Materials: Drawing paper and coloured pens
Ask participants to draw a family tree or web to show all of their relations or connections with others. In pairs, participants share their drawings or webs.
Form groups of four. Ask participants to focus on one of the following questions to share their understanding of kinship:
- What is the story behind your name?
- Describe the relationship between children and grandparents in your family or community.
- Do you feel a kinship with people other than your immediate family? With other living beings?
- Share a memory of place. How is this place tied to your kinship identity?
Activity 2: View the Video A Relationship Model of Kinship
Overview of video: Through complex and diverse kinship systems, First Nation, Métis and Inuit cultural practices are transmitted from one generation to another. Founded in sharing and reciprocity, kinship systems ensure family preservation, community connectedness and transmission of culture. In this video the late Narcisse Blood comments on parts of Leonard Bastien’s presentation on Blackfoot societies at the Social Studies Summer Institute in 2007. (21:20 minutes)
While Narcisse Blood passed in 2015, we are privileged and honoured to still have his words to share.
Activity 3: Discussion
After viewing the video, ask participants to look again at the diagram of their family tree and think about the questions from an Indigenous perspective.
Form pairs. Ask participants to choose one of the following questions to discuss their perceptions.
- What are the similarities between your relationship model or family tree and the relationships that were discussed in the video?
- What are your thoughts on Blackfoot naming ceremonies?
- If everyone in the Blackfoot community plays a role in child rearing, what influence will this practice have on a child?
- In the Blackfoot worldview, there is no separation between the person, language, land, ancestry, and the physical and spiritual self. How do you think this worldview impacts identity?
- How has the video enlightened your understanding of relationship and kinship?
In the large group, discuss how this knowledge of traditional kinship models may enhance your relationships with First Nation, Métis and Inuit students, their families and community members.
