Our School Wide Journey into Decolonization
Photo Slideshow
Our Journey in Pictures
Staff Development
- May 2015-teaching staff unanimously agreed to dedicate entire following school year to heighten awareness of the impacts of Residential School and colonization of First Nations across Turtle Island
- Expedition to find tree (June 2015)
- Open Sweat lodge ceremony x2 (Sept 2015)-most staff attended
- NI Day to collaborate and plan (Sept 2015)
- Viewing of “We Were Children” video and sharing circles to debrief (Oct 2015)
- NI Day with Patrick Young and local Elders with CUPE members (Nov 2015).
- This was incredibly important for staff in giving them the tools (sensitivity, empathy, confidence and accuracy) to discuss Reconciliation.
Student Development
- Developed our First Nation Student Dakelh’ Circle (from each of the six nations)
- Amalgamated the Student Voice (student leadership group) with Dakelh’ Circle to work together with student body on first Orange Shirt Day recognition
- One full-day workshop with Dr. Allan Downey (university professor from Montreal) to bring awareness of Residential schools with student body (Dec 2015)
- Students participated in sharing circles (multi-grade and multi-cultural) to debrief
and then played lacrosse (God’s Game) with Allen and staff - We all gathered together for a refresh day weeks later to revisit what we had learned throughout the year (watched footage from “We Were Children” and “The Eighth Fire” and reviewed historical truths). That afternoon students reflected their understanding in a school wide write. Each student developed a personal message to engrave on their feather from their writing.
Reconciliation Articles
The Staff
Lakes District Secondary School has been engaged in a journey this past year into a part of Canadian history that was dark and unjust. We, as a group of teachers, administrators and support staff, decided it was time to open up our hearts and minds to the painful...
The Students
The history of residential schools and the intergenerational trauma they created was faced full flush by all of the teachers, support staff and administrators at LDSS at the beginning of the school year. The focus was then turned towards guiding our youth along the...
The Eagle
Occasionally in life we are given an opportunity to meet tragedy and pain with courage and conviction. This year has been all of that and more for LDSS students, staff and administrators as we reflected on the horrors of residential schools and colonization. Amidst...
The Project
- An art teacher and a metal teacher collaborated to create the body of an eagle.
- Students, staff, and community members then created metal feathers, each with a personalized message. Every single feather made was welded onto the eagle.
- We culminated our year with a celebration where we invited the community, Hereditary Chiefs and “grass roots” guests to unveil the eagle and share traditional food and music.
Continued School & Community Development
We continue our efforts:
- We organized an annual Orange Shirt Day walk through our community with all of our staff and students. This is another opportunity to gather and identify with the Aboriginal culture and the significance of this day.
- We hosted a Lahel workshop for our students at the school in 2017 and will have a competition in the spring of 2018. We will invite community members to join in.
- We work with grade 8 students, new to our school, to introduce them to our project and shared Aboriginal culture and the impact of residential schools. They make a feather necklace with a personal message inscribed that signifies their learning and understanding.
- We include an Aboriginal component to our school assemblies.
- We plan to lean into the land with guidance from our First Nations Elders as we pursue continued growth.
