Learning Story – Ancestors and Elders
The Week of November 14th, 2025
What Happened?
Bushkids shares their gratitude when feeding the fire – To appreciate the land, animals, our family and ancestors, stay healthy and respect everything that surrounds us. After we fed the fire and shared our gratitude, we began our day in a good way, shifting our focus to demonstrate how to respectfully prepare duck (Chëth in Dënesųłıné) for our lunch with Verna and Chą. Chą shared a Dënesųłıné legend about Hacho (Big Giant) “When The World Was New”.
Why is it Important?
Ancestors and elders, told legends and stories to pass on valuable, sacred teachings that will support generations to come, for their safety and deep meaning for the land. We all are being lead by the Land and Animals, that is how they become excellent care takers, learners and leaders. Teachings have been passed on because our Ancestors and Elders knew that children will benefit emotionally, mentally, physically and spiritually on the land.
From the Dene Kede curriculum on pg. 80, we supported the following objectives:
- Identify bird parts (wings, gizzards, beak, etc.) and their common uses.
- Know how to fix and prepare various birds for food
What’s Next?
We would like to learn about more birds and their characteristics, especially what are
common birds to harvest and eat We would like to harvest a ptarmigan and discuss the relationship between a grouse and ptarmigan. We can compare and contrast bird parts such as beak, wings, feet and feathers.
Learning the body parts of the duck “look, it’s the tonuge!”
“ouuuu, it has web feet”