Updated Totem Pole
Cultural/social identity
middle/high school
Essential Question:
How do life experiences collect to create cultural/social identity?
Critique of totem lessons:
This lesson seems to be a gross form of cultural appropriation, rarely would an assignment asking students to build a totem with their spirit animals ever be appropriate. Additionally, using toilet paper rolls to create something that is culturally sacred for Indigenous people is a questionable practice.
The Hook (how to grab students’ attention)
Totem poles served as a traditional way of telling the stories of Indigenous families and clans. This record keeping was a crucial part of the historical identity of these Indigenous families. These totems served as markers of unique identities. While the collection of symbolic animals is not culturally relevant for most people living in the United States, the connection to story and identity is a theme that is very relevant for young people. In this lesson instead of just showing the totems of the First Nation families, I would then share contemporary work like the work of Jenny Orchard to challenge young people to think about how the act of building up, or collecting experiences and stories through visual art can become a meaningful way to explore identity. The lesson would ask young people to construct their own storied identity through the creation of stacked, 3-dimensional pieces. Students would first have a lesson on constructing individual clay cylinders (or this could be a found object lesson OR a combination of both), they would then have the freedom to create their own stack of defining experiences/stories that directly contribute to their conceptualization of their cultural/personal identity.
Contemporary Artist Exemplars:
Jenny Orchard AND the Tall Tale Exhibit
Words inspired by artist: embody, figure, magical, stacked, identity, public,
(images to the right are Jenny Orchard’s work and below are from the Tall Tale Exhibit)
Discussion questions:
What experiences have you been through that define who you are?
What experience have you been through that taught you something about who you didn't want to be?
How does this variety of experiences come together to create your identity?