As part of the Our Shared Waters program, students from Tom DuBois’ Spark learning community and Marcus Cederström’s FIG met Mino-Giizhig (Wayne Valliere), teacher at Lac du Flambeau Public School and master artist, and Lawrence Mann, artist and Cultural Programming Coordinator for the Forest County Potawatomi Community on the shores of Lake Mendota to paddle birchbark canoes. In partnership with OutdoorUW | Hoofers and Allen Centennial Gardens, students across campus were invited to learn from and with Valiere and Mann about birchbark canoes.
On October 2, Mann brought with him four birchbark canoes from the Forest County Potawatomi to meet the birchbark canoe built by Valliere that is on display in Dejope. He spoke with students about the connections between culture and the environment. Together, students from Cederström’s FIG paddled the birchbark canoes on Lake Mendota while making connections between indigenous canoe-making cultures in the Upper Midwest and boat-making cultures in eastern and northern Europe. Along with Mann were Ned Daniels, Sarah Gouge, and a host of high school students, Ethan Charette, Takota Daniels, Andrew Daniels, Lovie Vanzile, Precious Vanzile, who spoke with the FIG students about their art, culture, and experiences with the canoe.
On October 3, Valliere joined us and met with students from Spark as well as the GreenHouse learning community. Valliere described the building of a birchbark canoe and the importance of the canoe in Ojibwe culture. He took questions from students and talked in depth about the importance of a healthy environment with cultural traditions like birchbark canoe building. The learning community students, just like the FIG students, were also lucky enough to paddle the canoe on a glass-clear Lake Mendota. The next day, Valliere, alongside DuBois, also spoke at the Harvest Festival hosted by Allen Centennial Garden, where he demonstrated various aspects of harvesting wild rice and discussed the importance of wild rice.
These high-impact practices—educational experiences that provide students with evidence-based pedagogies and culturally relevant practices—are key to helping students make connections between course content and the world around them.
Watch the UW Dejope birchbark canoe being paddled on Lake Mendota here