The NESA Activities Handbook for Native and Multicultural Classrooms, Vol. 3

David R. Hutchinson is a professor in the Teacher Education Program at
the Arctic College in Fort Smith, N.W.T.

Don Sawyer and Wayne Lundeberg’s latest volume of anti-bias education
and community-based educational development instructional ideas (namely
simulations) has provided some new variations on traditional “NESA”
themes. As a campus, and community-based teacher educator in the western
Arctic, and particularly as an instructor responsible for teaching the
history of Canada’s First Nations peoples, I have found that many of
the activities serve to strengthen my own curricular objectives. In
particular, such activities as “The Mystery Culture,” “Causes of
Racism,” “Views of Man and Nature,” and “The Newcomers,” help
illuminate the complex roots of institutionalized racism in Canada, by
encouraging participants to both experience and reflect on culture
shock, dual (Native and non-Native) mythologies, and the impact of
foreign trade and expansion on one’s homeland. Like other NESA
activities in the two earlier volumes, their success lies in their
participatory nature. I would recommend this third volume to all
educators (many of the activities are suitable for upper-elementary,
middle years, high-school, and postsecondary students) committed to
anti-bias education—in other words, committed to teaching in ways that
evolve a more just, humane, and equitable society.