Potlatch as Pedagogy: Learning Through Ceremony

Banned for 67 years by the Canadian government, the potlatch is the foundational ceremony of the Haida people. Inspired by these traditions, educator Sara Florence Davidson and renowned artist Robert Davidson present a model for learning that is holistic, relational, practical, and continuous.

Sara Florence Davidson is a Haida educator and scholar with a PhD in Literacy Education. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Teacher Education Department at the University of the Fraser Valley, where she works with teacher candidates to bring Indigenous content, perspectives, and pedagogies into their classrooms.

Sara’s research has focused upon the use of autobiographical and narrative writing to engage in the writing process and to explore identities, as well as the mandating of Indigenous content in the curriculum. She has also explored ways to merge the strengths of Indigenous and non-Indigenous pedagogical practices. She is the project lead on the Indigenous Storybooks project, where she explores how traditional Indigenous stories can be used to strengthen literacy practices. She has also taught adolescents in the K-12 system, and has worked with Indigenous students making the transition from rural to urban centres for their education.

Robert Davidson is one of Canada’s most respected and important contemporary artists. Of Haida descent, he is a master carver of totem poles and masks and works in a variety of media as a printmaker, painter, and jeweler. A leading figure in the renaissance of Haida art and culture, Davidson is renowned as an impeccable craftsman whose creative and personal interpretation of traditional Haida form is unparalleled.

For more than forty years, he has produced an internationally acclaimed body of work found in a number of collections, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the Southwest Museum (Los Angeles), and the Artists for Kids Gallery (North Vancouver). He holds honorary degrees from the University of Victoria, Simon Fraser University, Southern Methodist University, and the Emily Carr Institute. Davidson is a recipient of the National Aboriginal Achievement Award, the Order of British Columbia, the Governor General’s Award, and the Order of Canada.