Our friends at Learning Bird have created a series of free resources based on Secret Path, which tells the story of Chanie Wenjack’s flight from residential school. In honour of the United Nations International Year of Indigenous Languages 2019, the resources that they have created position Chanie Wenjack’s story as an opportunity to explore the topic of Indigenous languages and how they relate to Indigenous rights on a local, regional, national, and global scale.

As students complete the activities in this kit, learners will develop literacy, research, communication, and empathy skills as they learn about a variety of Indigenous languages and revitalization efforts and share what they learn with others in their communities. This kit is best suited for high school Indigenous studies, geography, English language arts, and social studies classes.  Click here to find out more and to access the resources.

Is your school still planning a Walk for Wenjack? Finding a Secret Path: Mapping Activity is a great activity to do with your students before doing your walk to better understand how Chanie would have felt as he was planning his route home. During the activity, students learn that Chanie Wenjack would have had difficulty reading the English map that he took with him on his journey away from the residential school in Kenora, ON, and asked: “how do you think he felt?”. Complete your own mapping activity in class to reflect and discuss how language and language loss can affect how we find our place in the world.

Updated resources for our Legacy Schools are available online at legacyschools.ca/resources.