On November 30th I had the opportunity to attend a panel called, "Paths of Learning" about a project done with high school and middle school students at King Middle School and Portland High School. The project was led by three individuals, all of Native American descent.
The first was Geogre Longfish, an older man who is a member of the Seneca Indian Tribe. He attained his Master of Fine Arts from the Art Institute of Chicago, and is a renown abstract artist and former lecturer at UCal-Davis.
Next was Mihku Paul, who has her Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing.
Finally, Christina Williams, a USM graduate and ballet dancer in The Nutcracker play. She was a fine arts and education major at the University of Southern Maine.
The three people involved in this project stated that it was their goal to teach students about contemporary Native American art and culture. To do this the three had the children create their own art using traditional Natvie American methods and materials, which placed a strong emphasis on using natural resources as the material in the art.
The end result was a large, mural like piece that was shown in the student center at the Portland USM campus. The style of the piece, in the sense of it's size, may have been inspired by George Longfish's art, much of which have been larger, mural paintings.
Talking about the experience with the children, the speakers remarked how tension and anxiety filled the air with the students, due to the new methods of learning and teaching they were being exposed to. Instead of having a set class plan and standard teachings for the students, the students were largely responsible for pinpointing what they wanted to learn about on their own, and how they wanted to learn about it. This sort of academic freedom had never been experienced by these students, and despite the troubles at first, the speakers said they believed the product of the experience was much better because of it.
The speakers talked about how the process being created by many hands led to a more organic final project and lesson plan, making it difficult to recreate in the future. That's how it is supposed to be though, each project and lesson being unique to the students being taught.
Each speaker talked about how this project influenced them and their thoughts about their own heritage. Christina Williams spoke about how she had never actually considered herself a real Native American. She knew she had the blood in her, but not what it meant to actually be a Native American, or what other people considered her to be, a Native American artist. Williams said she was two generations separated from the reservation, implying she felt a disconnect between where she was and her heritage. This caused her to be uncomfortable with identifying herself as a Native American. She said though, that while she still has trouble classifying her own identity, the project had helped her in many ways, and she has come to realize that she is indeed, a true Native American.
Mihku Paul talked about her childhood education, and how she felt a disconnect with a western style of education. She described it as being, "shut up in a room with four walls," and told us about how her mother would pull her out of class so she could go with her grandfather to the woods, where she would learn about natural features of the landscape and the environment, something she felt much more comfortable doing. She says that she favors an education style that gets students to directly experience the lessons being taught, and how that is largely a Native American concept.
George Longfish was the oldest speaker, and my favorite. He had a reserved, dry humor, that had been described as "Indian humor" throughout the presentation. He is famous for being an abstract artist, with work focusing on issues in Native American culture and society.
As a child, Longfish was placed in a boarding school for Indian children near Buffalo, New York, where he says he lost his native language and much of his sense of his native culture. He said it took him a long time to rediscover himself after those experiences. He talked about his experiences after that as well in the educational system, like his experience in Chicago, where he, "partied hard" his first year in school.
His art work dealing with Native American issues, deals with not only the discrimination and acts perpetrated against his society, but issues within his own society as well. He talked about how much of his art is influenced by how society as a whole doesn't wish to discuss what happened to the Native Americans, and what we did to the Native Americans.
Being able to learn about the way in which the lessons they presented to the children at King Middle School and Portland High School connected with me. In my own experience, I had always learned better with hands on methods and experiencing things myself. Since college, I have taught myself to learn in more traditional methods as well, but still learn just as well through alternative experiences.
It was also amazing to hear about the experiences the speakers have had in rediscovering themselves over the years, and how this project pushed them further along in this. Listening to George Longfish talking about losing his own sense of culture, and then finding his way back to it, is largely what inspired me to focus on Franco-American history for my final project.
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| Once again I don't know why it won't rotate. Sorry. From top to bottom at the blue table it goes, George Longfish, Mihku Paul, and Christina Williams. |
