Project of Heart was invited to the University of Ottawa this past week, and made a presentation to a class of teacher candidates enrolled in Dr. Patricia Palulis’ “Holistic and Non-Traditional Approaches to Education” course. Thirty-five keen educators were on hand to hear from Sylvia Smith, coordinator of the project, who explained why it is important for our learners to know about our shared history, and to understand the reasons as to why this history has been marginalized, glossed over, or not taught at all.

Students decorated over a hundred tiles, each tile representing the life of a child who never returned home from the Birtle Indian Residential School in Manitoba. They were moved by the presentation; in fact, by the end of the morning, many were so enthusiastic about “walking the talk of reconciliation” that they signed up to witness a session of the Federal Court, where from February 13th to the 15th, an historic hearing is taking place.

Human Rights Tribunal Chair Shirish Chotalia’s decision to dismiss a Tribunal discrimination case regarding the chronic underfunding of First Nations children on reserves is being appealed to the Federal Court by the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society and the Assembly of First Nations.

Dr. Pat Palulis and many of her students will be in court and bearing witness as the case is heard. Bravo to the Holistic Education class for your caring, and “Having a Heart”!

November 30 and December 1, 2011 saw Project of Heart take part in two special sessions at the University of Regina.

POH Co-ordinator Sylvia Smith was honoured to receive an invitation from Dr. Marc Spooner of the Faculty of Education at the University of Regina to speak with the graduate students in his ED 808 “Teaching for Social Justice” classroom. Most of his students are themselves teachers in the Saskatchewan public school system.

Sylvia spoke to the educators about the core mission of Project of Heart: incorporating indigenously-influenced pedagogical methods in all subject areas, bringing “heart and spirit” into the classroom.

The next afternoon, Smith addressed a mixed audience of students, professors, teachers, and community leaders as current Project of Heart participants –SUNTEP students at the Gabriel Dumont Institute and their instructor, Christina Johns –  joined in the discussion while their gorgeously decorated wooden tiles were displayed for the group to see.

The authentic and thoughtful response emanating from both sessions was a clear signal concerning the urgent need for curricular initiatives that meaningfully engage young learners in Indigenous and settler-shared history. We are thrilled that POH’s two-part call to learn from the experts (survivors of the IRSs) and to teach for justice by “doing justice” in the classroom found such a warm reception in Saskatchewan.

Project of Heart is grateful to the Faculty of Education at the University of Regina for hosting the two events, and to all the attendees of the both sessions. We also gratefully acknowledge the financial support given by the Associate Dean, Dr. Jennifer Tupper, and the warm welcome from the faculty’s Dean, Dr. James McNinch.
 

In October of 2011, students at Elizabeth Wyn Wood Alternative School in Ottawa put their books to the side, and instead studied a living history that until then few of them had known anything about.

Students watched videos, examined historical documents, and learned about the intergenerational trauma that is the legacy of the Indian Residential Schools. They  then poured their hearts into decorating the tiles, each one symbolic of a death due to the Indian Residential School experience.  The set of tiles the Wyn Wood students decorated were in memory of Innu children who did not survive the IRS at Sept-Isle. Students then heard first hand from the IRS survivor Christopher Snowboy Herodier, who continues to live with his own memories of Residential School, finding solace through musical expression and by returning to his cultural traditions.

As the photos above vividly document, Wyn Wood students put their feelings and words into action by attending October 4th’s “Families of Sisters in Spirit” Vigil on Parliament Hill  to commemorate and remember the missing and murdered Aboriginal women in Canada. After the march from Parliament Hill to Victoria Island, students became part of the extended family of those missing and murdered women, coming together in support of those who had lost daughters, mothers, sisters and aunties.

By the end of the day’s program, Wyn Wood students knew they had been a part of a very special event, and were committed acting upon their new learning. Students sent letters of concern to parliamentarians and petitions and emails to  cabinet ministers, adding their voices to the call for justice for Canada’s missing and murdered aboriginal women.

photo by Adrian Beaulieu

We’re sending out big welcome to Becky Taylor’s grade 12 history class in Hartland, New Brunswick …the very first school in Atlantic Canada to join the Project of Heart family! From the town that boasts the World’s Longest Covered Bridge, these students will be learning about the Indian Residential Schools in Canada in one of the few provinces that didn’t have an IRS on its territory.

Becky’s class will be commemorating the lives of the children from Port Harrison Federal Hostel in Inukjuak (an Inuit settlement located on Hudson Bay at the mouth of the Innuksuak River in the Nunavik region of northern Quebec).

We welcome the grade 12 Canadian History class from the Hartland Community School in New Brunswick!

Project of Heart co-presenters Stacy Villeneauve and Laurie Joe joined POH coordinator Sylvia Smith as they introduced POH to University of Ottawa students at the “Developing a Global Perspective for Educators Fall Institute” on October 1st.

Participants in the worship progressed through the Indian Residential School learning module, recognized the impact of the IRS on generations of Aboriginal people, and learned how teachers, along with their students, can be allies of Aboriginal people today in their resistance struggles for sovereignty. Participants engaged in creating miniature works of art by decorating small wooden tiles, each tile symbolic of the death of one child due to the Indian Residential School experience. As students completed their first gesture of reconciliation to the IRS survivors, they also experienced “doing” social justice actions (petition-signing) in the workshop as their second gesture of reconciliation.

During the workshop, students were made aware of the Ontario Ministry of Education’s Aboriginal Policy Framework and were shown how “including the Aboriginal perspective” can be accomplished through including Project of Heart from Kindergarten to Grade 12 in an inclusive, cross-curricular/interdisciplinary way.

Co-presenter Stacey Villeneauve provided direct evidence of profound “heart/spirit” student learning from her teaching experiences of Project of Heart and the impact it made on addressing the students’ learned racism. Laurie Joe, Project of Heart volunteer (and mother of a POH student who was invited to Rideau Hall for the re-launch of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2009) was there to provide the parental perspective of the importance of teaching a truthful account of our shared history with Indigenous peoples in Canada.

Thank you to the University of Ottawa for inviting Project of Heart  to this important event!

The department of Curriculum and Instruction and the School of Education and Professional Studies at the State University of Potsdam, NY, invited Project of Heart to their satellite campus at Dominican University College (Ottawa) to deliver a hands-on, interactive session. Under the guidance of Professor Shelley Jones, elementary school teacher Lynn Rainboth, shared her experiences with the Masters of Science in Teaching (Childhood) Program students. As the students worked their way through the various parts of Project of Heart, Indian Residential School Survivor Irene Lindsay, talked to the students in a most frank, yet understanding way about her family’s experiences and her own personal experiences, at the Indian Residential School in Duck Lake, Saskatchewan. They were fortunate to hear Irene tell a story about her experience with learning about the power of tobacco.

The Potsdam students were able to experience a smudging ceremony, and watched as their beautiful tiles were cleansed.  Students were also invited to sign the Kairos petition urging Canada to implement the United Nations Declaration to Defend the Rights of Indigenous Peoples , as well as the Amnesty International petition to Stop Violence Against Indigenous Women.

Project of Heart has arrived in the Wild Rose Province!

Paul First Nation School, near Duffield, Alberta, is excited to have their grade 6/7 class engaging in Project of Heart as it relates to the history of their own relatives.

Not only will this be the first time Project of Heart is undertaken in Alberta, this will be the first time that it will be taught on a First Nation; this marks an exciting new chapter for the project. We are honoured to be working with the teachers and students at Paul F.N. as they commemorate the students who lost their lives while attending the Red Deer Industrial School.

This is a beginning of much more to come for Project of Heart and students in Alberta Schools.

Google satellite image of Peawanuck, Northern Ontario - population 250

As the social justice component of their Project of Heart learning module, students from G.L. Roberts in Oshawa, Ontario raised $400.00 for the family of Charlie Hunter, a 13 year old Cree student who drowned while at Indian Residential School in Moosonee. http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1042121–charlie-hunter-s-finally-home-with-his-family

Shelley Diamond, the native studies teacher whose students make the crafts and raised the money through direct sales both at their school as well as at a two day Metis Celebration in downtown Oshawa, had this to say about their fund-raising experience:

“People even donated money without buying sometimes. This blew the students away! It was a great way for them to learn the power of words and the importance of communication. They really enjoyed when they could tell the story to strangers and have them understand too!”

Huge congratulations to the students and their teacher, at G.L.Roberts! When bureaucracy wouldn’t do the right thing, you helped make Charlie’s family’s dream come a reality. May you now rest in peace, Charlie Hunter.

–

In June of 2010 a Peace and Social Awareness committee member of the Canadian Mennonite University  was inspired by Project of Heart’s presence at the First National Event of the TRC in Winnipeg, and contacted us so that the PSAC committe and the wider student body might learn more about their own community’s role in the history of the Indian Residential Schools. A partnership was born, and this past academic year the CMU’s involvement with Project of Heart was facilitated by Coreen Froese, a student at the Shaftesbury campus of the University.

Poplar Hill  IRS was run by the Northern Gospel Light Mission, a mission of the Lancaster Mennonite Conference, so for Froese it felt like it was a “good fit” for her and her fellow students to learn more about it, and to put their learning into action.

Froese contacted Elder Wally Swain, a cultural worker who has worked with many IRS survivors in Manitoba, and who agreed to smudge the tiles upon their completion. Neill and Edith vonGunten, former co-leaders of Native Ministry for the Mennonite Church of Canada and active promoters of cross-cultural relationship building, were there to witness the ceremonial smudge which took place at the Manitoba Indigenous Cultural Education Centre.

Participants chose to learn about the epidemic of violence against Aboriginal women in Canada, and took action by signing the Amnesty International petition “No More Stolen Sisters”. Ekosi to the students at the Canadian Mennonite University!