Whose Land, Whose Water?

How this version works

• Same sessions and same goals as the class.
• One step at a time.
• Short texts with a Listen button.
• Key words in yellow.
• Videos in short parts, with times.
• Answers are hidden: click to check.

Your road map

Grammar page

Look at Jim Logan’s painting (second painting at the top) 15 min

• In the foreground: a boy, a dog, tall yellow grass.
• On the right: an old pink car.
• In the background: small wooden houses, a yellow truck, hills.

Finish the sentences:

In the foreground, I can see a boy and his ________.

In the background, there are small ________.

The village might be in the ________ of Canada.

Nobody is ________ with the boy.

The title and the artist 10 min

Title: No One to Play with but his Dog.

• Jim Logan is a Métis artist. He was born in 1955.
• He calls himself “a social statement artist”: his art speaks about society.

Is the boy happy or lonely? Why?

The First Peoples of Canada 10 min

• The Constitution recognises 3 peoples: First Nations, Inuit, Métis.
• Treaty land: there was a treaty with the Crown.
• Unceded land: the land was never given up. This is the case of most of British Columbia.

Sources: Justice Laws, section 35

A second painting: lines that connect 10 min

• In the top left-hand corner: a sun.
• On the left: a loon (a water bird). On the right: a fish.
• Red lines connect them. For Morrisseau, these lines “mark relationships”.

What do the red lines connect?

Expanding your vocabulary

Observe the painting again 8 min

• Beings: a loon, a fish, a sun.
• Red lines join them.
• An X-ray view: we see colours inside the bodies.
• A circle with a signature in syllabics.

The bird is a ________.

The red lines join the sun, the loon and the ________.

The x-ray style shows the ________ of the animals.

Interpret with care 10 min

Careful language: say may, might, is often read as. We do not invent one fixed meaning for this painting.

• In Woodland art, lines often mark relationships.
• The x-ray style is often read as an inner life.
• Many Anishinaabe teachings speak of land and water as kin or living relatives.
• A place can feel almost sacred.

Finish:

The lines may mark ________ between living beings.

Land and water may be living ________.

This bond with the land can feel almost ________.

Connect: kin or resource? 8 min

• Kin: land and water as family; sacred places; stewardship for the future.
• Resource: land and water used for energy and money (dams, pipelines).
• Later sessions: James Bay, Muskrat Falls, Site C, Coastal GasLink, Trans Mountain.

Choose: if the river is kin, a dam is only / not only a resource project.

Speak (45 to 60 seconds) 6 min

Write 60 to 80 words 12 min

Prompt: Why can nature hold a sacred place in Indigenous cultures, starting from this painting? Why does that matter for dams and pipelines?

Use 3 words: kinship, sacred, resource (or living relative, interconnection, stewardship).

In Morrisseau's painting, the loon and the fish are joined by ________.

This may show ________ between living beings.

For many First Nations, land and water are living ________.

A dam or a pipeline is not only a ________ project.

Building your vocabulary

The White Paper, 1969 15 min

• June 1969: the government of Pierre Elliott Trudeau publishes the White Paper.
• It was going to repeal (cancel) the Indian Act.
• It was going to abolish Indian status.
• The government said: we want equality.

Choose the right answer: the White Paper wanted to keep / end Indian status.

Sources: History of Rights

Watch: Harold Cardinal 10 min

Harold Cardinal became a leader at the age of ________.

His book is called The ________ Society.

The Red Paper, 1970 10 min

• The chiefs of Alberta answer with Citizens Plus, the Red Paper.
• Their idea: we are citizens, plus we have rights from the treaties.
• 1970: the government withdraws the White Paper.

Building your vocabulary

Debate in pairs 10 min

Watch: a deal in northern Quebec 15 min

Part 1: In 1971, Premier Robert Bourassa forgot to ask the ________ and the Inuit.

Part 2: The agreement was signed in ________.

Part 3: The Cree and the Inuit received money and more ________.

Fort George 15 min

• 1979: the LG-2 dam starts.
• The river becomes twice as fast. The island is in danger.
• Nearly 2,000 people relocate to a new town: Chisasibi.
• Mercury rises in the fish.

Why did the people move?

Sources: CBC News, 11 November 2025

Building your vocabulary

Write a testimony (60 words) 10 min

I used to paddle the river with my ________.

Every summer, we would ________.

In 1979, we had to ________.

Muskrat Falls, Labrador 10 min

• A big dam in Labrador.
• The Inuit fear methylmercury in Lake Melville, downstream.
• A study said: up to 380 per cent more methylmercury.
• October 2016: the artist Billy Gauthier goes on a hunger strike.

Sources: CBC News, 2016

Watch: Billy Gauthier 10 min

He drinks only ________.

His daughter loves ________.

Bravery is when you are ________ and you do it anyway.

Site C, British Columbia 15 min

• A dam on the Peace River. It has worked at full capacity since August 2025.
• Treaty 8 First Nations, like West Moberly, objected.
• 2022: West Moberly signs a partial settlement.
• BC Hydro says: clean energy for 500,000 homes.

Is Chief Roland Willson against all development?

Sources: CBC News, 2025

Building your vocabulary

A news flash (in groups) 10 min

Coastal GasLink 10 min

• A gas pipeline of 670 km in British Columbia.
• 20 band councils said yes.
• Most Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs said no: the land is unceded.
• 2019 and 2020: police arrest protesters. 2023: the pipeline is complete.

Sources: CBC News, 2020

Watch: two leaders 15 min

Trudeau: a hundred years ago, nobody was ________.

Trudeau: Canada is a country of the rule of ________.

Horgan: the company signed agreements with every First ________.

Trans Mountain 15 min

• 2018: the government buys the pipeline.
• 2018: a court says Canada did not consult properly.
• 2024: the pipeline starts.
• 2026: Ottawa offers First Nations a 15 per cent stake. Some say yes. One chief says: “consent is not for sale”.

Are all First Nations against the pipeline?

Sources: Government of Canada · APTN News, 2026

Building your vocabulary

Role play 15 min

The promise 5 min

• 2015: Justin Trudeau promises to end all long-term drinking water advisories by March 2021.

Watch: Neskantaga, 2020 10 min

The people of Neskantaga are in a ________, far from home.

Their advisory had lasted ________ years in 2020.

The official figures, 21 October 2026 10 min

• 158 advisories lifted since November 2015.
• 39 advisories still in effect.
• in 37 communities.
• Neskantaga: boil water advisory since February 1995.

Was the promise kept? Choose: kept / partly kept / broken.

Sources: Indigenous Services Canada

Two opinions 10 min

Who is more positive: RoseAnne Archibald or David Chartrand?

• The government: more than 85 per cent of the 76 federal Calls to Action are completed or well underway.
• The Yellowhead Institute: only about 1 Call in 7 is fully complete (2024).

Building your vocabulary

Fact-check 10 min

The promise: ________.

What was done: ________.

What was not done: ________.

My verdict: kept / partly kept / broken.

The film 5 min

• The Grizzlies: a true story.
• 1998: a young teacher arrives in Kugluktuk, an Inuit community in Nunavut.
• He starts a lacrosse team with teenagers.

Watch: the director and the actors 20 min

This interview talks about hard subjects. Watch only the parts below.

The teacher said: the kids changed him more than he ________ them.

“Broken ________ are dangerous here.”

Today, people are reclaiming their culture and their ________.

Link with the painting 5 min

In the painting, the boy is alone. In the film, the teenagers become a ________.

Building your vocabulary

Write a short review (80 words) 15 min

The Grizzlies tells the story of ________.

Playing lacrosse ________.

I liked ________ because ________.

Choose a dossier

Prepare 4 parts

• 1. The promise: who? what? when?
• 2. What was done: one figure and its source.
• 3. What was not done: one figure and its source.
• 4. Our recommendation: the government ought to…

Speak: 3 minutes per group 30 min

Write an open letter (150 words) 20 min

Dear Member of Parliament,

I am writing to you about ________.

The government promised that ________.

However, ________.

I ask you to ________.

Yours sincerely,

How you are assessed