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Reflective Journal

PMAL103: Turtle Island, Canada, and the World

Name: Janshrut Bhalodia and Section K

Professor Name: Richard E. Jaques (Nanawin)

Date: 17th September 2023

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Question 1: After reading this week's resources, discuss how Skraeling

(Qitsualik, 2010) exemplifies the following Indigenous ways of knowing:

relationship with the land, interconnectedness with animals, and

intergenerational transmission of culture.

Ans. The term indigenous ways of knowing means that it refers to the vast amount of

knowledge that has been acquired by different indigenous communities, how we can

absorb and apply all this learning in our lives. The relationship with the earth is very

special for them, they take the best care of the earth. Protect natural resources and

take care of nature too. Here, culture is integrated with mysticism and value-based

teachings. Most of the values here are sacred teachings that make us believe and take

a stand on what we can and cannot choose. So basically we can learn all this from the

indigenous community, but learning it is depth and experience, they say it's better to

spend time with people. to go, live there and spend time with the people there. What

was their culture like, how much freedom do they consider sacred, how do people

believe in non-violence. Thus, the intergenerational transmission of culture from one

living being to another is entirely based on the transmission of individual behaviour to

another, and this can only be done by being there.

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Question 2: Refer to the reading's characters and events to support your

analysis.

Ans. The characters I met are the sky woman, kichimani, water animals: beaver,

fisherman, martin, ravine and small muskrat, dogs, Inuit, Kannujaq, his father,

grandfather, son, captured Norwegian people fight England, Kingdom of Norway and

Denmark. Later, the celestial gave birth to twins, but the spirit of her partner died. A

spirit was sent to accompany him. There were some water creatures inside, so they

asked the celestial woman to take their place on the turtle's back. They told her

because the water creatures were aware of the sky woman's past. Everything was

covered with water, so the heavenly woman decided to rest on the turtle's back. So he

asked the water creatures to bring soil from the bottom of the ocean. Many animals like

beaver, fusher, martin and loon tried but failed. Later, a small muskrat managed to

bring soil from the bottom of the sea and put it on the turtle. The soil on the turtle's

back began to erode and an island formed. What is now known as Turtle Island or

North America. Then the water subsided and the home of the heavenly woman grew.

The animals there helped control the drowned creatures. Later she gave birth to twins

again, they were a girl and a boy, like her previous children, the newborn twins were

also a physical being and the other a spirit. Some other characters I met were the

dogs, Kannujaq, his father, grandfather, son, the Norse conquering England, the

Kingdom of Norway and Denmark fighting against each other. First Nations used dogs

as pack animals to carry hunting gear and move camps. Also told stories of how they

made the Tuns who conquered the land long before those Kannujaq people came. and

also learned patience with his hunting partner's family. Kannujaq's father did not like to

tell stories, but his grandfather was a storyteller. He told her stories of the land their

family had traversed. and on its opposite side was the strong Byzantine Empire, which

Kannujaq could not know. Kannujaq might have been confused if he came across a

place called Europe. from an island called England.

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Question 3: Finally, comment on differences you notice between the

Indigenous ways of knowing you exemplified and Western ways of

knowing.

Ans. They take the best care of it, it is like a god figure for them. It's like knowing

what's good for you and what's not. It is also based on the relationships you maintain

within the Aboriginal community. The communication you do, and mainly how you do it,

how you interact with the people there, is also very important and is considered in

indigenous ways of knowing. Now we are talking about Western ways of knowing and

it is strongly based on mathematical concepts and a detailed study of the various

languages around, their characteristics and the characteristics of each language.

Western information also considers rationality, various mathematical expressions and

formulas. The Western way often treats information as a matter, but does not consider

any relationship or interaction. These two have no western significance, but were of

great importance for the indigenous peoples. Indigenous peoples and their ways of

knowing see the earth as a mother and honor it as a divine figure, but in the western

way the earth is seen as an object to be explored in many ways and is not respected in

the same way as in indigenous ways.

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References

King, T., & Cardinal, T. (2010). Our story: Aboriginal voices on Canada's

past. Anchor Canada. Pp. 35-66 (Accessed Sept. 16th, 2023 @11:10

am)

Levac, L., McMurtry, L., Stienstra, D., Baikie, G., Hanson, C., & Mucina,

D. (2018). What are Indigenous and Western Ways of Knowing?

In Learning across Indigenous and Western knowledge systems and

intersectionality: Reconciling social science research approaches.

(Accessed Sept. 16th, 2023 @1:40 pm)

Vancouver Community College. (n.d.). Indigenous pedagogy: Indigenous

knowledge and

traditions. https://libguides.vcc.ca/c.php?g=710283&p=5060634

(Accessed Sept. 15th , 2023 @ 4:30 pm)

Autumn Whiteway. (2021, April 11). Sky woman and Turtle

Island [Video].

YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYw61yujOSU

(Accessed Sept. 15th , 2023 @06:00 pm)