1.1 A: Defining our borders Duration: 45 minutes Instructions: Level of complexity: 2 1. Divide the participants into groups of around five and give each group a large piece of blank paper. Knowledge/Subjects: Art, Civics, Geography, Governance, Social Studies 2. As a group, have the participants draw a map of their community. The participants can choose to include whichever aspects of their community they find most important, but encourage them to think of what areas of their community are necessary for them to live their lives and to include these areas in their map (e.g. hospital, park, shops, bus station). Have the participants clearly mark their houses with their initials and mark where the school is on the map. Have the participants name their community (e.g. Community A). Congratulations, you are all citizens of “….”. 3. After the participants have had some time to work on their community maps, have them discuss in their groups where they might go within their community on a typical weekday and how they would spend their weekend. How would they get to the different places within their community? 4. Next, the facilitator should go around and draw a line on every group’s map clearly dividing the community. The line can be drawn anywhere and does not need to be straight or follow any pattern, but it should divide the members of the group into two separate communities. Tell the participants that the part of the community that gets to keep its original name is the one with the school in it (Community A) and the other part must come up with a new name (Community B). Members from each side of the now divided community can no longer cross the line to the side where, for example, their peer’s house is on, as the line represents a new border. Remember! Borders are lines drawn by humans to separate regions by a boundary based on the idea of shared characteristics among the people living within a border (e.g. common language, history, culture). Borders have an important effect on people’s lives as they can demarcate a community while imposing requirements (e.g. passport) for other people to access it. Skills: Comparative Analysis, Creativity, Critical Thinking, Self-Awareness, Spatial Reasoning Values/Attitudes: Sense of identity Objectives: • For learners to explore borders within their own community and how losing access to certain areas of their community would disrupt their lives. • For learners to understand how statelessness can be produced and impact our sense of belonging and experience of borders. Materials: Large blank paper & pen/pencil (preferably markers/crayons/coloured pencils) Connection to “The Girl Who Lost Her Country”: “Bajau Laut are a nomadic community in Malaysia where borders are drawn through their (nomadic) community. They live on boats and work at the sea fishing or pounding cassava or rice. Bajau Laut children don’t go to school because Malaysia does not recognise them as nationals. In Malaysia, Neha met Riki who told her how she and her siblings have never set foot in another country, but Malaysia still won’t accept them. “The government thinks Bajau Laut are Filipinos,” she says. “So even before I was born, my fate was decided. I would be stateless. I would inherit statelessness from my parents, who inherited it from my grandparents.” (Neha’s book p. 30-33) 5. In their groups, have the participants discuss question 3, but in light of the new border. What has changed in the participants’ routines? Where do they no longer have access to? How will they visit their friends? Will all the participants be able to attend school? What would the participants need in order to attend school now that the border has been put in place? 14