In Social Studies, we learned about First Nation history in Canada. We learned about the impacts of what happened in the past and how it affects First Nations people today. Working in groups, we created PowerPoint presentations reflecting on specific topics such as reconciliation, the Indian Act, and indigenous woman’s rights. My group’s topic was Indigenous Cultural Appropriation. In addition, we had to research about two recent stories in the news relating to our topic, as well as come up with a discussion question for the class.

Cultural Appropriation of Canadian First Nations Presentation

Criteria:

I tailor my work to appeal to my intended audience and use language and visual design elements appropriate for them. (2)

I understood that effective PowerPoint presentations use minimal text and simple images that capture attention. To achieve this, I made sure to limit my slides to contain less than 20 words (excluding the image sources). I also chose images that would represent what I would be speaking about. For example, I used an image of a Canadian flag with a traditional indigenous art style patterns. This is a simple image that enhances the meaning and aesthetic of the presentation and doesn’t distract the audience.

I look at controversial issues or topics from opposed perspectives to gain a more complete understanding (12).

Cultural appropriation is a very controversial topic. When I researched, I found various news articles with different opinions on cultural appropriation. I read articles that were written by Indigenous people and other people learned that everybody defines cultural appropriation differently. I came to the conclusion that everyone has a different idea of what is offensive and what is acceptable.

I ethically use content that is not created by me by using creative commons licensed audio, video, or images and by properly citing these resources within my work (14).

For this project, I used simplistic images to create visual interest and impact. I made sure to give credit to the original creators of the images by providing the link to the image source below the images I used.