This project will be most effective if educators directly engage their students with this content. We hope and anticipate that this project heads in the direction of creation and sharing. The list below includes prompts that can be used to creatively engage students by asking them to create pictures, poetry, and the like that can be compiled into a zine. We want to start this in the South Hadley school district in Massachusetts. This would be gifted to Indigenous students in and around the Port Hilford Bay area. The idea is to establish a relationship of reciprocity between South Hadley students and those all the way in Nova Scotia, that is rooted in recognition. New connections facilitate new avenues of learning.
Example Prompts for Students
- What do you wish you could tell a whale in captivity?
- Draw a whale taking care of itself! How would it look brushing its teeth or eating with its family?
- How would you look as a whale?
- Draw a whale family!
Useful Sites
- Whale Sanctuary Project Youtube channel: videos include the award-winning short film “Whales Without Walls,” webinars providing updates about the Sanctuary’s mission and progress, and tours of the sanctuary site
- Arlene “Dozay” Christmas (1954-2019): Wolastoqiyik artist whose distinctive style is inspired by traditional art forms, landscapes, and oral traditions from her homelands. Her depiction of nature and beauty can inspire student art.
