Songs of the Spirit Attending to Aboriginal Students’ Emotional and Spiritual Needs Through a Native American Flute Curriculum

Description

This narrative inquiry explores how the “Songs of the Spirit” Native American Flute curriculum impacted spiritual and emotional aspects of the learning and lives of Aboriginal students, their families, their parents, and their school community. My research took place at an urban Aboriginal high school in Saskatchewan from January to March, 2006. When participants heard the music, “it [sounded] so eloquent and so spiritual. It [was] almost like the flute [was] weeping,” (Onawa Gaho, Recorded conversation, March 17, 2006, p. 5) bringing about “a calmness to the anger that some [Aboriginal students] have” (Sakima Qaletaqa, Recorded conversation, March 15, 2006, pp. 25-26). The research findings indicate the “Songs of the Spirit” curriculum, in honoring the holistic nature of traditional First Nations teachings, invites Aboriginal students functioning in “vigilance mode” to attend to their emotional and spiritual needs. They speak to a need for rethinking curricula in culturally-responsive ways, for attending to the importance of the arts in education, and for reforming teacher education.