Secret Path
We are collecting donations as well for Chanie Wenjack Foundation. Click on the link to donate if you can. The Secret Path (Click Here) Macleans Magazine Article about Chanie Wenjack in 1967
Posts
Acknowledgement of the Land We acknowledge the land we live on as we start the school year. We honour the Blackfoot, Tsuu Tina and Stoney Nakoda along with all the Metis people living in this area. Here is a great way to honour Blackfoot land and people is to learn some of the language. We teach how to say "Hello" in Blackfoot and this is what we use.
Oki, tansi Winter Solstice Dec 21st. Jupiter and Saturn will close to each other create one bright star on this day. Look to the SE at dusk. It is the time of year for the Winter Solstice. When winter arrives, it is a time to tell stories, round dance and gather for a long winter. Here is a link to stories from the Blackfoot trickster Napi. Napi Legends Here is a Cree sky stories to listen and learn from Cree Elder Wilfred Buck.
Students and teachers are walking in the school yard, in the community, Leacock Park or Nose Hill. We learn about the land and how it teaches us. The land is the best classroom and will allow for teaching for survival, sense of belonging to this land, and to be Stewards of the land. MEANING OF THE SEASONS North Winter deeper growth beginning to find confidence humility new vision East Spring Planting birthing and budding sense of self new ways of seeing healing South Summer Commitment Fruitfulness strength balance compassion gratitude West Fall gathering letting go truth about self connecting in new ways searching
An important part of healing broken relationships is building awareness about what damaged it. The month of September is back to school time for most children. Historically this marked the time of year where First Nations children were forcibly taken from their families and enrolled in boarding schools called Indian Residential Schools. The children were forcibly removed from their homes, often taken long distances away from their family and community for months or years at a time. The schools were designed to assimilate the children into western culture. They were not allowed to practice their culture, or speak their language at school. The children were often treated poorly. They were often subjected to mistreatments such as lack of proper nutrition and health care or worse. The goal - assimilation. Take the ‘Indian out of the child’ or as John A Macdonald said “get rid of the Indian problem.” The last federally operated residential school closed in 1996. One Elder said that th