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VOCABULARY REFERENCE & PRACTICE — GRADE 12 — IDENTITY AND BELONGING IN A CHANGING WORLD

The Voices We Gather

Key Vocabulary — 12 terms — Grade 12 High School

Name: _________________________    Date: _____________    Class: _____________

📚 Vocabulary Reference

Study each term with its definition and real-world context sentence.

1
urban Indigenous
Describing Indigenous people, communities, and lives shaped within cities; the term rejects the assumption that Indigenous identity belongs only to rural or historical settings.
2
ceremony
A structured practice that gathers people, memory, responsibility, and meaning; ceremony can be communal without making every participant identical.
3
erasure
The removal, silencing, or denial of a person, history, relationship, or presence from a record or public story.
4
diaspora
A dispersed population connected by ancestry, history, or culture across places; the term can describe movement without reducing people to displacement alone.
5
ancestry
Family and cultural lines connecting a person to people who came before; ancestry may be known, interrupted, recovered, or contested.
6
perspective
A position from which a person understands events; multiple perspectives can reveal a shared pattern without producing one single account.
7
displacement
The forced or pressured loss of a home, relationship, community, or cultural place; displacement can shape both memory and present identity.
8
visibility
The condition of being seen or recognised in a public story; visibility can challenge erasure but does not automatically create safety or belonging.
9
kinship
A network of family, relational, cultural, or chosen ties; kinship can carry obligations as well as care.
10
continuity
The preservation or continuation of a relationship, practice, or meaning across change; continuity may include adaptation rather than exact repetition.
11
responsibility
An obligation to act with care toward people, histories, places, or futures affected by one’s choices.
12
gather
To bring people, objects, ideas, or memories together; gathering can create a shared space while leaving room for difference.

◾ Vocabulary Crossword

Use the clues below to fill in the crossword. Each answer is a vocabulary word from this lesson.

12
34
5
67
89
10
11
12
→ Across
6.Describing Indigenous people, communities, and lives shaped within cities; the term rejects the assumption that Indigenous identity belongs only to rural or historical settings.
8.A position from which a person understands events; multiple perspectives can reveal a shared pattern without producing one single account.
10.To bring people, objects, ideas, or memories together; gathering can create a shared space while leaving room for difference.
11.A network of family, relational, cultural, or chosen ties; kinship can carry obligations as well as care.
12.Family and cultural lines connecting a person to people who came before; ancestry may be known, interrupted, recovered, or contested.
↓ Down
1.The forced or pressured loss of a home, relationship, community, or cultural place; displacement can shape both memory and present identity.
2.A dispersed population connected by ancestry, history, or culture across places; the term can describe movement without reducing people to displacement alone.
3.The preservation or continuation of a relationship, practice, or meaning across change; continuity may include adaptation rather than exact repetition.
4.The condition of being seen or recognised in a public story; visibility can challenge erasure but does not automatically create safety or belonging.
5.A structured practice that gathers people, memory, responsibility, and meaning; ceremony can be communal without making every participant identical.
7.An obligation to act with care toward people, histories, places, or futures affected by one’s choices.
9.The removal, silencing, or denial of a person, history, relationship, or presence from a record or public story.

🔍 Context Clues Challenge

Read each sentence and use context clues to identify the vocabulary word being described. Write the word on the line.

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✏️ Analytical Response

Write a well-structured paragraph of at least 6–8 sentences that analyzes the vocabulary words in relation to the themes of this lesson. Use at least 5 vocabulary words and demonstrate your understanding of both denotation (literal meaning) and connotation (emotional weight). Underline each vocabulary word you use.

Words I plan to use (circle at least 5):