Do orcas have the rights of personhood? Try this debate activity in your classroom!

Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas is a contemporary artist whose wide-ranging artistic practice explores themes of identity, environmentalism and the human condition. Influenced by both Haida iconography and contemporary Asian visual culture, he has created an artistic practice that crosses diverse cultures, generations, and disciplines in search of accessibility and engagement as a counterpoint to stratification and isolation.   His mural titled Orcinus Orca SKAAnaa is included in the Royal BC Museum feature exhibition Orcas: Our Shared Future, which presents the stories and science that surround the magnificent orca, spirit of BC’s wild coast and apex predator of all oceans.   Orcas: Our Shared Future weaves the currents of ecological interests, popular culture and Indigenous beliefs to gain a new appreciation of these sophisticated animals, long feared in Western cultures as “killer whales.”

Find Pathways and other content here that have a First Peoples, Indigenous Peoples theme.

Find Pathways and other content here that have an Animal Studies (Zoology) theme.

Find Pathways and other content here that have a Natural Resource Use and Industry theme.

Educator Hannah Morales created this lesson about different Indigenous uses of plants native to the south coast of British Columbia. Seed Package Template.   You can find lesson plan here.

Educator Hannah Morales created this lesson that incorporates First Peoples principles of learning, science curriculum and birds. You can find lesson plan here.

Use video interviews from the Indo Canadian Sawmill Pioneer Family Oral History Collection Project as educational tools. You can find lesson plan here.