Students and staff from across our division participated in several activities throughout Truth and Reconciliation Week last week. Many students and staff wore orange for Orange Shirt Day as a way to honour and remember what was taken away from Indigenous children over generations, promoting the message that “Every Child Matters”. Here are some of the highlights of the activities that took place at our schools:
- On Monday, September 23, Barrhead Composite High School (BCHS) students placed 751 flags in the front lawn area of their school in memorial and representation of the residential school children who never returned home and those children’s unmarked graves that have been discovered since 2021.
- Barrhead Elementary School and BCHS students participated in a teepee-raising ceremony in the space between the schools on Friday, September 27. Elder and leader of the BCHS Culture Group Robin Berard led the ceremony, beginning with a song by traditional drummers, smudging and prayers. BCHS Culture Group students, members of the RCMP, Trisha Enman (Barrhead FCSS) and a few others helped set up the teepee with Berard describing the process and what each pole represents. She also shared her personal experience with the impacts of residential schools with the crowd of staff and students.
- BES students decorated orange t-shirts and placed them along the fence posts in front of the school.
- Dunstable School students made hearts in their school fences with orange thread.
- Eleanor Hall School (EHS) and Swan Hills School junior high students have gone to Métis Crossing as part of our division’s partnership with Rupertsland Institute where they worked with a Métis artist and participated in land-based learning opportunities.
- EHS had a Treaty 6 and Métis flag-raising ceremony on September 24.
- At Pembina North Community School, students decorated paper t-shirts that are now part of a mural in their library and will be for the remainder of the year.
- At École Westlock Elementary, students created a ‘tree mural’ — Gr. 5/6 students wrote down truths/facts about Truth and Reconciliation as part of the tree trunk and K-Gr. 4 students wrote down what reconciliation means, what they learned about it and adjectives to describe it on paper leaves to add to the tree.
- Barrhead and Westlock Outreach School students attended a session with an elder on October 1 where they went on an Indigenous plant walk, learned how to build a teepee and cook bannock over a fire.
It was a week of learning and commemoration for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation/Orange Shirt Day. Throughout the year, our students will continue to participate in many class and school-based activities around the history and legacy of residential schools and the rich history of Indigenous and Métis cultures. We believe education is an important part of reconciliation and our division is dedicated to continuing learning and participating in activities on this path. Many thanks to all the guest speakers, readers, storytellers, elders and all those who share their knowledge with our students and staff!