Experiential Learning for the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation

When I picture “colonial education”, I picture students in rows, dutifully copying the board and memorizing facts. This lies in stark contrast to the ways in which Indigenous knowledge is shared. Understanding evolves through storytelling and land-based learning. Through song, dance, and art. Indigenous learning is shared through creation, not memorization, and through relationships rather than hierarchy. 

As Bob and Cynthia Joseph note in Indigenous Relations: Insights, Tips & Suggestions to Make Reconciliation a Reality, in the Indigenous Worldview, “time is fluid, non-linear, and measured in relation to cyclical events” (26). This worldview connects deeply to the cyclical nature of experiential learning at Crescent School. While the initial experience is meant to spark student interest, it is through ongoing reflection, conceptualization, and active experimentation that understanding deepens and evolves. 

We are deeply grateful to the Waaban Nang Collective for guiding this year’s Grade 8 students through the Blanket Exercise. In this kinesthetic workshop, Turtle Island is represented by blankets placed on the floor, inviting students to inhabit the “land” as they take part in a guided exploration of the redistribution of land through colonization. This is followed by a reflective learning circle where students unpack their understanding and pose questions to our Indigenous partners. From this starting point, students extend their learning through reflection, conceptualization, and active experimentation in English and Canadian and World Studies, engaging with a range of texts and methods of communication. Their work culminates in a student gallery that shares their evolving perspectives and invites new inquiry, creating an ongoing conversation rather than a final endpoint. 

As we refine this unit each year, I am drawn to the power of experiential learning and the way it invites us to be learners alongside our students. Engaging in this work requires us to be open and vulnerable, shifting our role from knowledge keeper to fellow learner. The Blanket Exercise and the work that follows invite us to lean into our discomfort and embrace learning as a shared journey. Hands-on experiences, shared storytelling, connection with the land, and celebration through art invite us to partner in the work of healing the harms inflicted by the Residential School system. In this way, experiential education becomes more than a method; it becomes an act toward reconciliation.

Resources:

Joseph, Bob & Cynthia (2019). Indigenous Relations: Insights, Tips & Suggestions to Make Reconciliation a Reality. Indigenous Relations Press. 

Recommended Reading: