Indigenous and non-Indigenous teacher candidates have created a Manoomin curriculum for Grades 1 to 12 students, connecting it with the Ontario elementary and secondary curricula.  

“I know this teaching will make a big difference among the people who live here in Manoomin Country,” said Jeff Beaver, Manoomin knowledge keeper of Alderville First Nation. “The future management of Manoomin is in the hands of our youth, so this will help educate them and all those interested in the health of the waterways.” 

Anishinaabe Manoomin (Zizania palustris, Northern Wild Rice) is an Indigenous plant found only in the Great Lakes and Boreal Forest regions of Turtle Island (North America). Manoomin ("mi-no-min") is an ecologically important species to the lakes and marshlands in this region. Manoomin beds provide habitat for countless species, as a nursery for fish, a staging ground for waterfowl, and a food source for many aquatic species, such as mammals, birds and insects. 

Teacher candidates in the Indigenous Education Elective class took on this task as an inquiry project with their instructor, Dr. Katie Tremblay. Over three years, they worked with Manoomin Knowledge Keepers (Jeff Beaver [Alderville First Nation], Daemin Whetung (Curve Lake First Nation), Lorenzo Whetung (Curve Lake First Nation), and Jack Hoggarth [Curve Lake First Nation], as well as Heidi Burns, a Trent graduate student and Manoomin harvester, to ensure that lesson content was reflective of local Manoomin harvesting knowledges and cultural practices. 

“Collaboration with the Indigenous Advisory Circle was of utmost importance to this project,” says Dr. Tremblay. “Teacher candidates worked in class to create lessons that meet the Ontario curriculum, but their learning really stemmed from their time with the knowledge holders. This experience expanded beyond the content to include developing a personal connection and an understanding of the importance of being in relationship with the land.” 

Indigenous Bachelor of Education coordinator Dr. Nicole Bell said, “the inclusion of Indigenous ways of seeing, being, knowing, and doing is essential to the relational and affective pedagogy needed for reconciliation and environmental sustainability. The Manoomin Curriculum Project is an example of how to do this important work, with the hope that many other curriculum topics can be modelled from it.” 

Harvesting in action

The teacher candidates had the opportunity to learn on the land with Manoomin Knowledge Keepers through the harvesting of Manoomin. Once developed, the lessons and unit plans were piloted in select K-12 classrooms from January to June 2023 through the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board, Trillium Lakelands District School Board, and Curve Lake First Nation School. Lessons encourage educators and students to engage with Indigenous language and ways of knowing through Manoomin, with interactive, creative, and experiential opportunities that engage learners holistically.  

Commenting on the value of this curriculum, Trent graduate student and Manoomin harvester Heidi Burns said, “The Manoomin Curriculum project is an important contribution to Ontario grade school learning that will greatly support educators and grade school students in making meaningful connections to the land, to our shared histories, and to our collective futures in this beautiful place where we are all growing up alongside the Manoomin." 

Covering areas such as language arts, math, social studies, geography, history, and social studies, the curriculum responds to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action #62 to “make age-appropriate curriculum.”  

With more than 100 lessons and activities, and the addition of more than 100 links to supporting materials, the Manoomin Lesson & Unit Plan resource gives educators and students access to a robust foundation of learning that encourages meaningful dialogue and learning experiences about Indigenous content that connects with the Ontario curriculum expectations. 

The Manoomin Curriculum Resources can be downloaded from the School of Education’s Resource page.