For teacher Laura van den Brul’s class of Grade Seven students, the weighty subject of human rights has taken on a whole new level of importance.
These 27 Niverville Middle School students recently completed a project in their cross-curricular ELA and Social Studies class which explored, through the use of journalism, the history of human rights across Canada and the world.
“I wanted my students to have an opportunity to write news articles about many of the topics we covered in class,” says van den Brul. “[These included] child labour, fair trade, refugee and immigration status, persons with disabilities, and a variety of topics on climate change and sustainability. I wanted them to have an opportunity to research and write about a topic that captured their interest during our human rights unit.”
Van den Brul and her fledgling journalists poured through a variety of newspapers, analyzing how news was categorized as well as the components that make up an article, such as headlines, subject matter, and length.
For further assistance, the classroom invited myself, a local journalist, to speak on the subject of journalism, fact-checking, finding reliable sources, and writing with integrity and non-bias.
“The benefits [of this project] are far-reaching,” van den Brul says. “My students are gathering most of their information through social media and I want them to have the skills to look at everything through a critical lens, to question whether the information is true and to have the skills to fact-check the information.”
Each student, working independently, invested themselves in a topic that piqued their interest. They dug into subject matter ranging from local immigration efforts to global concerns around climate change. One student’s focus shed light on an award-winning fairtrade farmer from Ghana.
In the end, van den Brul admits that she was surprised by the passion they displayed through their willingness to research and write thoughtful and meaningful articles.
For this teacher, it was a first attempt at a project like this. But based on student response, it won’t be the last.
“It’s crucial to think about what skills we want to teach and then build an experience, activity, or project around this goal,” says van den Brul. “It’s not easy to do and it can get messy.”
Two of these articles, shared below, were selected for publication in The Citizen based on originality and attention to journalistic detail.
Fostering Truth and Reconciliation through Dance
By Kyra Bird
Melanie Ducharme and Dee Auld have been dancing since the age of three. They are both the owners of Prairie Soul Dance Company (PSDC). Dee and Mel are choreographing a dance number called O Siem, which means “hello to family and friends.”
“We want to create an artistic multigenerational piece where students could share an important message through a variety of dance styles and expressive movements,” says Mel and Dee.
They started to plan this dance in September while planning the competitive season.
“We hope this piece [dance] will challenge our students to think outside the box and dig deeper into the issues we are exploring.”
Dee and Mel are both Metis and very excited about this dance because this is the first time they have ever done a dance like this.
“This dance is important to us because it allows us to creatively share a message about acceptance, inclusivity, racism, prejudice, truth, and reconciliation.”
PSDC has a connection to the artist of the song O Siem, Susan Aglukark.
“We have a connection to Roger Armbruster, who is the director of Canada Awakening Ministries and outreach facilitator at Maranatha Church in Niverville,” say Dee and Mel. “Roger is a personal friend of Susan Aglukark’s parents, David and Dorothy Aglukark, from Arviat, Nunavut. Roger has been able to connect with Susan Aglukark and is hoping to share a video of the final product with her.”
Dee and Mel have even been getting people to come into the studio to talk to the dancers about truth and reconciliation.
“We have been fortunate to be able to open our studio to a number of guests. On Thursday, January 5, Peter and Sheila Yellowquill, former chief of Long Plain First Nations and residential school survivor and his wife; Roger Armbruster, Canada Awakening Ministries and Maranatha Church; and Sarah Brandt visited the studio to meet our students and share.”
What is Mel and Dee’s hope for this dance?
“Beyond performing this dance at competitive events and our year-end recital, we hope to be able to perform at community and school events as well. The message is about acceptance, inclusivity, racism, prejudice, truth, and reconciliation and we hope the audience will reflect on this message and dig deeper to learn more and grow more.”
Susan Aglukark was born in Churchill, Manitoba and is a Canadian musician and activist for the Inuit culture and Indigenous people in Canada.
Four Winnipeg Siblings Share Holocaust Survival Story
By Ana Dean
On January 27, the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we remembered the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp. In Winnipeg, stories told by mothers, daughters, fathers, and sons alike, all either sharing stories passed down or sharing their own.
One of these stories caught my attention: that of four siblings thought to be the world’s longest Holocaust surviving siblings.
These siblings’ names and ages are Ruth Zimmer, 96; Anne Novak, 99; Sally Singer, 101; and Sol Fink, 97. They grew up in Sanok, Poland.
When World War Two started in 1939, the Germans invaded Poland. The Fink family fled to their grandparents’ house, which at the time was under Soviet occupation. They were asked if they would like to become Soviet citizens or go back to German-occupied Poland. The Finks opted to go back to Poland.
But instead of letting them go back to Poland, the Russians arrested them and put them in a cattle car.
The youngest brother, Eli, escaped, running back to his grandparents’ house. That was the last time the four siblings saw him.
The family travelled in the cattle car for a month with no clue where they were going. They were fed weak soup and very little water.
When they got off in a forest in southwestern Siberia, Sol and his dad were forced to cut down the trees in the forest they were living in. The girls were forced to strip the bark from trees and small limbs. They were told they would be thrown into jail if they wouldn’t work.
The Fink family were comforted by letters from Eli.
In 1941, they were forced to move into a smaller cramped cottage. The family and the others in the work camp used the cottage as their synagogue.
One man who was in the work camp with the family was Morris Singer. He and Sally would later get married.
When the war ended, the Fink family walked 100 kilometres over a period of four weeks. They ended up in Wroclaw, Poland, which is 329 kilometres from Warsaw. When the family arrived, they heard of the horrors of the Holocaust that had happened while they were in Siberia.
The Fink family found out that Eli and 80 other members of their extended family had been murdered.
“As bad as Siberia was, we were safe,” said Anne. “Siberia was not touched by the war.”
The family joined the swarm of people and crossed into the United States illegally. The siblings then moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba where the siblings married and raised their families.
When their parents died and the siblings grew old, they moved in together and have not been separated since. They have been spending their days singing and dancing together. They have an unbreakable bond.
