Looking Through a Critical Lens
Using only worksheets for a field trip to the museum may seem like an engaging activity, but in reality, it may hinder students’ experience. Looking at those worksheets for grades four to eight in a museum, I do not think they would be a success. The students would be so focused on finding the answers and writing it down. Doing these worksheets could lead to other problems like they would not fully understand what they are writing, not paying attention to the surroundings and would not get the full experience. If a field trip was based around these worksheets, I picture a class of 25 students loudly and quickly moving from place to place to find the answers. The faster they get done, the faster they potentially get ‘free time.’ As well, once students complete the worksheet, they may not retain the information. Overall, I do not like the idea of these worksheets and I think it would be a waste of time to take students on this field trip just to complete a worksheet, because that could be done in a classroom and would not require a field trip.
After visiting the museum and entering the First Nations and Life Sciences Gallery with a critical lens, I began to notice how Western/Eurocentric the language was. The story being told was about Indigenous peoples and their lives, but it was told through a Western lens. Even when I first entered the museum, the sign states “Dedicated to the honour of all the PIONEERS who came from many lands to settle”, which immediately I knew it was being told from a white perspective and inevitably, leaving out the story of Indigenous peoples. The signs within the museum also praised the white people that helped as those signs referred to white people as “honourable”, which again reinforces the idea of the Indigenous peoples’ story being left out. Moreover, the facial expressions of the Indigenous statues look angry, making them look savage, which could potentially make people fear them and I think is unacceptable. If there was a statue of a white person, chances are they would not look angry, and they might even have a smile on their face. I think the way the Indigenous peoples were portrayed here, completely give the wrong message. Finally, one more thing I would like to note about the museum as I was driving away is the big sign out front, on Albert street. The front of the sign had a celebration (not exactly sure what for because I was driving away and could not turn my head that far back to look) but the side that was barely shown and seemed hidden, said: “We are all treaty people.” The way the sign was positioned made it seem like the museum was still acknowledging that we are all treaty people in Saskatchewan but did not want to make a huge fuss about it nor make it lead to problems or questions. I was shocked and got a feeling that it was not okay to openly say that “I am a treaty person” or in fact, that we all are.
I think taking this critical approach when taking a field trip with middle years students would be appropriate and needed. I believe that students would understand more in-depth about the topics and see how the Indigenous peoples stories have been erased over time. It is important to be aware of this because they were the founders of this land and we have stolen it. Their land was not only taken from them, but now their stories are too. This, in turn, will promote students to be critical of what they see and hear and begin to question the stories in their surroundings, which shows understanding and learning. Overall, a field trip to the Royal Saskatchewan Museum must require critical thought about the stories being told and how they have been told.
