I really enjoyed having Noelle Pepin come in and share her work with us. I think it is cool that this work was her master’s thesis and it incorporated both technology and Indigenous knowledges together. I work for Active Minds and one of the areas we focus on is computer science and coding so I had made a binary bracelet before and also taught kids aged 6-12 how to make them. I did not know about binary bracelets from an Indigenous perspective because I had not sought that knowledge before. It makes me think that we should incorporate more Indigenous knowledges into our Active Minds programming because it is relevant.
I liked getting to make my own bracelet and the process of choosing a word to make with the beads. I like that the activity can be cross-curricular as well depending on what prompt you are given. It could be a word that connects to what you are learning in any subject. When we were prompted to choose something that gives us joy, I chose the word music. Music gives me so much joy no matter what mood I’m in so that was an easy choice. I also think this activity can be done across all grade levels because binary numbers can be explained as simply or as in depth as you want. As Noelle showed too, she does a different workshop with high school students than with elementary students. It was cool to see the 1’s and 0’s represented with our two colours and be able to know that it actually means something. It was not just a random pattern.
The Beaded Tweets workshop is important to me as a teacher because it is an example of how we can bring Indigenous peoples in to classes and share their knowledge in a respectful way. Beaded Tweets are also meaningful because it shows that Indigenous knowledge or ways of being is embedded into so many things including technology. That means that Indigenous knowledge is also incorporated more fully into the curriculum. It is an easy introduction to coding as well that does not need many materials. You do not even need a computer so that barrier is lifted. As a teacher, I want to try and incorporate Indigenous knowledges into my practice, especially in the subjects like technology that some people consider to be not Indigenous.
