Storyteller: Lynda
Languages: English
About the story: Lynda reflects on how ceremonies and pow wows return her to her culture.
Learn more: At the end of Lynda’s story, she shares aspects of her identity where she finds strength, including being two-spirit. In a cultural teaching, she shares more on what being two-spirit means. Lynda’s story is set at a pow wow and seeing Lynda in her regalia shows the strength she finds in her culture. In our second teaching, we hear a grass dance song, traditional for the beginning of a pow wow. Moving to the contemporary, we learn how to conjugate the verb To Dance, with a little help from Korean Pop Star Psy.
Culture and Language Activities
Two-spirit Teaching
Cultural Teaching: Two-Spirited is a term some Indigenous people use to identify themselves, rather than Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, or Queer (LGBTQ) because it respects Indigenous cultural understandings of gender and sexuality. It expresses the balance between the male and female spirit, or “those who walk between genders.” Two-spirited includes gender identity, sexual orientation and social roles. Lynda shares what being two-spirit means to her.
Grass Dance Song
Cultural Teaching: The grass dancers are the first to dance at a pow wow. In their dancing, they prepare the space by flattening the grass with their steps. Cody shares a grass dance song that he learned as part of his own healing journey.
To Dance in Ojibway
Learn vocabulary: Learn the verb ‘to dance’ in Anishnaabemowin with this vocabulary lesson.
Niimidaa! (Gangnam Style)
Creative Activity: Memorizing verb tenses can be so boring! Why not make it fun by putting it to music? We learn how to conjugate the verb To Dance with some Gangnam style moves from the language nest kids.