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Indigenous Community, Storytelling, and Mathematical Flourishing
May 14 and May 21, 2024 Virtual
This powerful mural by artist Clayton Gauthier Cree/Dakelh tells the story of the salmon’s journey from mountain rivers to ocean and back again. It’s a story of risk and strength, of protection and ceremony. It’s a story of inter-relationships, respect, and responsibility. As they travel the rivers and streams, salmon provide food and nutrients for bears and eagles. Bears, in turn, leave salmon carcasses for others to feed, while their scat fertilizes the forest floor and river beds becoming nutrients for monumental cedars above and fungi below. Healthy trees with fractal roots stabilize the river banks guiding salmon with a clear path to their destination.
Written in Gauthier’s mural are stories of how, from time immemorial, Indigenous communities have lived well with salmon, harvesting with honour only what is needed while sustaining land, water, and sky for salmon’s return. Cycles of renewal, relationships, and flourishing are storied in the mural with patterns of land, language, and living well.
The story of Salmon’s journey introduces this year’s Symposium theme: Indigenous Communities, Storytelling, and Mathematical Flourishing. How might Indigenous communities and storytelling provide other ways of relating mathematically and teaching mathematics? How can mathematical flourishing guide us to live well with each other, living-beings, and Earth?
Session 1 May 14: Indigenous Storytelling and Mathematical Flourishing with Richard Van Camp 3:30-5:00pm PT
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