"Tracing Roots" Study Guide Now Available!

Published: 
Oct 29, 2015

The IPinCH-supported film, "Tracing Roots," by filmmaker Ellen Frankenstein, follows Haida Elder and weaver Delores Churchill on a journey to understand and replicate the spruce root hat found in a retreating glacier with the remains of a man, known as the Kwäday Dän Ts’ìnchi ("The Long Ago Person Found"). Her search to understand the roots of the woven hat crosses cultures and borders, and involves artists, scholars and scientists.

The newly completed Tracing Roots Study Guide is designed to help middle, secondary, college, and university teachers and students delve deeper into some of the issues raised in “Tracing Roots” and to develop an understanding of Indigenous history, heritage and contemporary artistic tradition. 

“Tracing Roots” is suitable for middle school, secondary, college, and university students taking courses relating to:

  • Anthropology, Archaeology, Culture Studies, Indigenous Studies, Northwest Coast Art, Heritage and History, Art, Culture, and Law, Intellectual Property and Repatriation, Canadian Studies, Ageing and Gerontology, Environmental Studies, Museum Studies, Ethics.

You can also find the guide in our Teaching Resources section