Monday, September 18, 2017

In Today's News.

In today's class we learnt about the First Peoples Territories. We learnt about the 6 Cultural regions that the First People lived in, and the languages that they spoke. We also further explored these topics but with information pertaining specifically to Manitoba. In class we mapped the 6 cultural areas on a map of Canada, as well as mapping the cultural areas and language groups of Manitoba (pictured below).

Cultural Areas
The 6 different cultural areas of Canada are:
  • Arctic
  • Subarctic- Western and Eastern
  • Northwest Coast
  • Plateau
  • Great Plains/Prairies
  • Woodlands
The geography of each region greatly influenced the way way people in that area lived. It effected things such as clothing, food sources and housing. The people who lived within similar regions shared the ways they would take care of each of these elements, and these methods varied from region to region. 




Language
Before European explorers came to Canada, there were approximately 50 major languages with 12 distinct language families and a countless amount of dialects. These languages play a very key role in culture, in that:
  • complex thoughts cannot exist without language
  • verbal communications help to create and maintain bonds between living things
  • without language it would be very difficult to portray opinions/ideas
"Language is the expression of our culture and our land. We cannot have one without the others. We cannot describe our culture and our land if we do not have language." 

Even though language plays such a key role in our culture, sadly 94% of Canadian indigenous languages are at risk of becoming extinct. 

"If you want to learn your Language, you have to use it!"



Manitoba Specific
The different cultural areas that cover Manitoba are:
  • Subarctic- East and West
  • Great Plains/Prairies 
  • Woodlands
The different language groups that are within Manitoba are:
  • Dene
  • Cree
  • Dakota
  • Oji-Cree
  • Ojibwe/Ojibway


References

First quote:
Importance of Indigenous Languages.(2006). Uploaded by,Queensland Indigenous Languages Advisory Committee. Available online at: http://ourlanguages.org.au/importance-of-indigenous-languages-quotes/

Second Quote:
Plains Cree Elders Quotes.(unknown). Uploaded by, Freda Ahenakew, Muskeg Lake First Nations. Available online at:http://www.sicc.sk.ca/plains-cree-elders-quotes.html




4 comments:

  1. Great blog Sydney! This really helped me understand what is going on because I'm gonne be honest I dont really pay attention. I liked how you included a mad for the cultural areas as well as a map for the different language groups across Canada is made it easy to understand where those areas are located. While reading your blog I never realised that there were about 50 different major languages with 12 distinct language families. I loved how you included those quotes they went really well with what you were explaining, it is also sad to see that 94% of Canadian indigenous languages at risk to become extinct. Looking at the map with the languages I like how there is the three cultural areas that cross over Manitoba and liked how you included them. With all tat said I want to say I really liked you blog! Keep up the good work!

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  2. yo syd. cool blogpost. LOL NOT. THOSE MAPS? Trash. THAT FORMATING? Trash. HAVE FUN IN THIS SUUUPPPPEEERRR DOPE AND FUN AND INTERESTING CLASS LOL HAHAHAHAHAsuckHAHAHHAmyHAHAHHAHAHAcervixHAHHAHAHAHHA

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  3. Hey Syd, great blog post. I thought that it was very informative and that if i was't paying attention to what was happening in the class or I wasn't there this would be a great source of information for me to look off of. The quotes that you included in your blogpost from online sources were very informative and i thought that they covered your topic very well. I agree with you in the sense that it is very sad that the languages are almost completely extinct.

    I think it would of been helpful to include more information on the different language families such as the fact that there are 50 major languages, 12 distinct language families and countless dialects language to them is an important part of their culture and I feel like it could of been touched on more specifically in your post. It was a good idea to include the pictures of your maps in your blog post so those who weren't there have your maps to reference before a weekly quiz or a test in the future.

    Personally I think it would have been great if you could of mentioned how close their geography was related to their life and way of living. The different types of people in similar geographical regions and how they shared their cultural elements such as food sources, housing and clothing styles.

    Other then those couple suggestions I don't have much feedback because it was very informative and you included most of the information from our notes specifically. It was very well formatted and ur pictures related back to your post topic. Very well done and looking forward to reading your next blog post. The link I will be leaving you is for a website that explains and lists the many different varieties and languages in Canada I thought they did a good job of explaining and thought it was interesting to see how many first nations languages are actually out there.

    Indigenous Languages in Canada. (2008) Keren Rice. Available online at: http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/aboriginal-people-languages/

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  4. Sydney I found your blog post to be really informal and interesting. the maps you made are really cool and colourful and most importantly it was informal, I didn’t realize that there was 50 different languages it’s kinda sad that 94% of them are at risk of becoming extinct. I wish you gave more information on the 6 cultural areas because I found that very interesting when I payed attention to it in class that’s about all I can really write about your blog and I thought it was great also the quotes went well with your post very well done blog post grate for studying

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