Category Archives: Project of Heart in Saskatchewan

Project of Heart 2020 offered through Luther College

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Luther College at the University of Regina will be hosting its fifth
iteration of Project of Heart starting Wednesday, January 22, 2020.
Created by University of Regina graduate Sylvia Smith, this nine-week program is inclusive to all community members and open to all ages. Project of Heart facilitates a safe space for reciprocal learning about the residential school system in Canada. The children and families who were and still are affected by this piece of our colonial history are commemorated using an artistic approach. This program aligns with the goals of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

This year, the program will feature publications from the Regina Indian Industrial School Commemoration Association including Douglas Stewart’s recent publication, The Regina Indian Industrial School (1891-1910): Historical Overview and Chronological Narrative, and a film by Janine Windolph and Trudy Stewart entitled RIIS from Amnesia. For more information about Project of Heart, go to www.projectofheart.ca

This is an excellent project for professors who are looking for
community-engaged opportunities for their students.

Class Details:
Classes run between January 22 – March 25, 2020 and will be held every Wednesday evening with the exception of February, 19, 2020. Attendance at all classes is requested.
Time: 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.

Location: Luther College at the University of Regina, Room 207

Class Dates:
– January 22, 29
– February 5, 12, 26
– March 4, 11, 18, 25

Attendance Requirements:
Registration for this workshop is limited, and attendance will be taken at the beginning of every class. If you realize that you are no longer able to participate in this class after registering, please email Maysa Haque at maysa.haque@uregina.ca so that another student on the wait-list can take your place. If you miss the first class, or more than two classes without notice, your spot may be given to the next person on the wait-list.

Washrooms and Accessibility:
Luther College has two gender neutral washrooms on the first floor,
located across from the Financial & Residence Services Office. Two
fully-accessible, gender neutral washrooms are also located on the first floor in the hallway across from the Luther Library. The elevator to the second floor is located on the east side of Luther in the residence lounge on the first floor. For a map of Luther College, click here. ( https://www.luthercollege.edu/public/images/LC_maps.pdf)

Parking:
The University offers complimentary parking in all ‘M’ and ‘Z’ lots, as
well as meters, on weekdays between 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 a.m., weekends, and statutory holidays. Accessible stalls/meters and “30 minute parking only” areas are in effect at all times. For more information, click here.
( https://www.uregina.ca/fm/parking/alternatives/index.html)

Registration:
Space is limited and registration is required. Click here to register
( https://uregina.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_ac1WuvbfCiH5pdj) , or
copy and paste the link below into your browser:
https://uregina.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_ac1WuvbfCiH5pdj

Questions/Help with Registration:
Please contact Maysa Haque at maysa.haque@uregina.ca.

Michelle Clark (U’04)
Manager of Alumni Relations, Development & Communications
Co-editor, The Luther Story
Luther College at the University of Regina
3737 Wascana Parkway, Regina, SK S4S 0A2
Phone: +1.306.585.5144
Fax: +1.306.585.2949
michelle.clark@luthercollege.edu
www.luthercollege.edu/university

BAC students and arts ed/elementary ed students participate in Project of Heart

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Learning about the history of Indian residential schools in Saskatchewan (ELIT 202 and DLNG 425)

In the winter term, ELIT 202 students from Shuana Niessen’s class and DLNG 425 Bac students from Dr. Heather Phipps’ class engaged in Projects of Heart led by Niessen. Students created commemorative tiles to honour former students from several Indian residential schools in Saskatchewan. Phipps arranged to have emerging Elder-in-Residence Joseph Naytowhow smudge the tiles. Smudging the tiles is important because of the effort that was put into creating them, and to honour the survivors who are still struggling, says Naytowhow. “You want to send the energy out, you don’t want to make it stagnant, and you want to keep it connected. Smudging is beautiful that way. It helps release if there are any emotions.”
Naytowhow also played his flute and drum and enacted a story in which he portrayed his grandmother’s experience of him being taken from his grandparents at the age of 6 and placed in a residential school. Dr. Anna-Leah King accompanied Naytowhow in teachings and songs.

Student comments:

“Doing the Project of Heart opened my eyes to the deeper history behind the stories I’ve have always heard. There were many more stories and experiences than I could have anticipated. It made
my heart break about all of the experiences that innocent children had to endure. I am grateful to those who have been brave enough to speak out about what happened at residential schools.”
Nikki Cairns.

“The Project of Heart experience was a very good learning experience for myself. I found it rewarding because in researching the different residential schools it gave me a chance to gain a better
understanding. While researching I was appalled that they were still running in the later 90s. …I found colouring the chips very therapeutic but also felt peace in the classroom. It is something I
believe I will do more research on in the future and found this project to be an amazing learning experience.” Mitchell Smith.

Doing a Project of Heart, an inquiry based, hands-on, collaborative, intergenerational, artistic journey of seeking truth about the history of Indian Residential Schools, is now even more accessible with the newly translated French version of the resource Shattering the Silence: The Hidden History of Indian Residential Schools in Saskatchewan/Rompre le Silence: Lever le Voile sur les Pensionnats Autochtones en Saskatchewan. English and French versions can be downloaded at www.bit.ly/SK_IRS

Update on Shattering the Silence ebook

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In November, the Faculty of Education Tweeted this statistic: Only a few months after being published, the Shattering the Silence: The Hidden History of Indian Residential Schools ebook had 12,453 worldwide visitors to the ebook site. Since then the site has had 22,494 visitors! The word is spreading, thanks to opportunities at the U of R for Shuana Niessen to present about the book as well as the feature in Discourse Magazine.  The next presentation will be at the Regina Public Schools Teachers’ Convention, which will be held on February 16. The session already has 82 people signed up! If you haven’t already, be sure to visit the site  with a view to using the resource in whatever sector you work. Though the ebook was written with teachers in mind, and thus curricular links are available, it is useful for learning about Indian residential schools in Saskatchewan and can be of use for understanding many of the issues affecting society today.

Shattering the Silence: The Hidden History of Indian Residential Schools in Saskatchewan

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The Shattering the Silence: The Hidden History of Indian Residential Schools in Saskatchewan ebook is a Project of Heart Saskatchewan resource for teachers.

This book extracts, reorganizes, and compiles the school-specific Saskatchewan elements of the NCTR reports and primary school documents as well as incorporating other resources and former student accounts that have been recorded and published online. It is an informative and accessible resource for teaching and learning about Indian residential schools in Saskatchewan.

DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE COPY OF Shattering the Silence: The Hidden History of Indian Residential Schools in Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technology runs with Project of Heart

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Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technology ran with Project of Heart — and their running partner was…. a class of elementary students at Lady Evelyn Alternative School in Ottawa! How did that happen?

SIIT is located on the Asimakaniseekan Askiy Reserve in Saskatoon and Kathleen Worm is their Manager in Workforce Development. Kathleen hosted Project of Heart for over 90 IRS Support Workers gathered in Saskatoon for a conference. What was unique about this Project of Heart workshop is the way in which the participants were supported in carrying out the social justice action.

Help came from a class of Grade 3 and 4 students in Ottawa who are part of their Shannen’s Dream Club. These students made 91 beautiful post-cards, all decorated to depict their vision of what reconciliation for First Nations children on reserves in Canada would look like. The backs of the post-cards are labelled with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s address. The Support Workers did the rest of the work – writing what they want the Prime Minister to do to address the inequities: namely, to implement the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal’s orders to fund First Nations children on and off reserve equitably to their non-Indigenous counterparts.

The POH workshop participants in Saskatoon were able to skype in to Ms. Fontaine’s class to thank the children for their solidarity with Indigenous children. They made a heart-felt connection with the 8, 9, and 10 year olds that partnered with them in their social justice action!

Here’s what Kathleen had to report about their Project of Heart experience with the kids:

Danielle Fontaine’s Grade 3 and 4 class in Ottawa ON learn about more than the abc’s of education; they learn the abc’s of Canada’s history and the abc’s of compassionate humanism.

Danielle has been incorporating First Nations issues in the classroom for over 6 years now and the result is nothing short of loving. Teaching compassion first, Danielle’s students then learn to empathize with the current peril of First Nations children across Canada.

Shannen’s Dream, a powerful show of advocacy by a young First Nation girl wanting a school for her community was one of the stories that the students learned of. In a show of support and activism, the 8, 9 and 10 year olds designed post cards with messages and images reflecting their mind and heart on the issue of First Nation children’s educational rights. These postcards are all addressed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The Saskatchewan Resolution Health Support Workforce, the emotional and cultural supports offered to survivors going through their independent claims and hearings, gather twice a year for professional development. This past gathering in January had approximately 90 of the post cards designed by Ms Fontaine’s class. Using these postcards, messages were sent to the Prime Minister on many issues surrounding First Nations people.

To further strengthen the impact and the shared understanding, the RHSW Gathering skyped into the Grade 3 & 4 classroom in Ottawa. The excitement and joy was palpable. The opportunity to let those children see the impact of their own efforts and for the aging group of survivors to see hope for the future as young ones are taught the truth and are willing to fight for what’s right.

Thank you Kathleen and all the IRS Survivors who met their supporters for doing Project of Heart and sharing themselves with their young fans in Ottawa. The Government will continue to be challenged as long as Canada has youth who are passionate about fair play. Their message is clear.

Project of Heart teaching residential school history

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Jenna Tickell, University of Regina Project of Heart facilitator stands with program participant, Selma Marion, on Saturday, Jan. 14 at the University of Regina. PHOTO/ASHLEY ROBINSON –

Published by LeaderPost on: January 16, 2017 | Last Updated: January 16, 2017 8:06 AM CST

Growing up across the river from the Cowessess Indian Residential School, Selma Marion was always jealous of the students there. The kids would always wear nice outfits, Marion thought. They would attend church together in a big group.

“I always thought they had it good. Little did I know,” she said.

Marion later worked at Service Canada and was involved in registering residential school survivors for financial compensation. The veil was lifted. Marion began to learn what really happened across the river — abuse, loss of language, neglect, removal from their families.

She found herself wanting to know more. It led her to sign up for Project of Heart.

Project of Heart is national program, now its second year being offered at the University of Regina, about the history of the residential school system in Canada.

“People learn together about the Indian residential school system. And they teach each other about that and then we commemorate the children and the people that went to those schools,” said Jenna Tickell, facilitator of Project of Hope.

The group meets biweekly for seven weeks on Saturdays in a Luther College classroom on the U of R campus. The program isn’t lecture-based; instead, participants complete their own research and then come back and teach their classmates what they’ve learned.

“I do have a presentation at the end of that where I teach them about the specifics that I’m sure they’ve already touched on,” Tickell said.

Project of Heart was founded by Sylvia Smith while she was completing her university master’s degree. The idea behind it is to use an artistic approach to commemorate the people and families who were, or still are, affected by the residential school system in Canada.

Tickell attended a guest lecture featuring Smith and heard about the program. Tickell herself wrote her undergraduate honours paper on the need for indigenous education to be introduced at an elementary school level.

“I just saw the value in (Project of Hope) and there’s so many people that I know, my own age, older than me, that never got the education. So I want to reach as broad as I can to try and engage those learners and break that awareness,” she said.

The program has each class learning about the history of a local residential school. Each participant then learns about a specific child who died while attending the school. The class also decides on an activism in which to participate throughout the course.

Tickell doesn’t give the students ideas of what to do. They come up with it themselves. Last year the class became involved in a push for the municipal heritage designation of the Regina Indian Industrial School cemetery. This year the group will once again learn about the Regina Indian Industrial School, though their specific activism has not been decided on yet.

The program is free and for all ages. For more information, contact JennaTickell@hotmail.ca

Heritage Status for Regina Indian Industrial School Cemetery

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Janine Windolph

Janine Windolph, president of the Regina Indian Industrial School commemorative association, at a fence that marks the RIIS cemetery in Regina, Saskatchewan on Tuesday September 27, 2016. The RIIS cemetery was granted heritage status by Regina city council on Monday.MICHAEL BELL / THE CANADIAN PRESS

‘What needs to be happening;’ residential school cemetery gets heritage status

CANADIAN PRESS
Published on: October 3, 2016 | Last Updated: October 3, 2016 7:31 AM CST

REGINA — Along a dusty gravel road on the edge of Regina is a small plot of land surrounded by a rail fence with peeling white paint, weathered teddy bears, flowers and a couple of dream catchers.

There’s just one headstone in the 680-square-metre cemetery for the two children of Rev. A.J. McLeod, the first principal of the Regina Indian Industrial School, belying that dozens of indigenous children from the school are buried there too.

“It’s easy to overlook the cemetery itself. Even when I first came out here, we drove right by,” said Janine Windolph, president of the Regina Indian Industrial School Commemorative Association.

“The site needs to take another step further in basically acknowledging the students that are here and how we can start making it more apparent that this is a scared site for gathering. That’ll all come in time.”

A big step came Sept. 26, when Regina city council voted unanimously to grant the site municipal heritage status. Civic administrators suggested the move after a 2014 land survey found there were potentially 22 to 40 unmarked graves of children in the cemetery.

Windolph said an archeologist for the association identified 36 anomalies, but she said there could be many more children because it was practice at the time to bury several together.

Sakimay First Nations Chief Lynn Acoose, whose grandmother attended the Regina Indian Industrial School, said the heritage designation process has been emotional.

“It’s not only about preserving the memory. It’s not only about preserving the site and the graves. We need to also, from this tragedy, create something powerful and good out of the loss of these children,” said Acoose.

The Regina Indian Industrial School operated between 1891 and 1910. An unknown number of students died there.

Justice Murray Sinclair, who led the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, has estimated at least 6,000 children died at residential schools but it’s impossible to say with certainty.

The federal government stopped recording the deaths around 1920 after the chief medical officer at Indian Affairs suggested children were dying at an alarming rate.

Residential schools were often crowded, poorly ventilated and unsanitary. Children died from smallpox, measles, influenza and tuberculosis. Some were buried in unmarked graves in school cemeteries, while others were listed as “missing” or “discharged.” In some cases, parents never found out what happened.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s offices are now closed and the work has been transferred to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation in Winnipeg.

Centre director Ry Moran said the designation in Regina “is just exactly what needs to be happening.”

“It means that one city in particular has really stepped up and honoured the children that are buried in that cemetery,” said Moran.

“And sadly, across this country, there are many, many, many other locations exactly like the one in Regina. So the fact that we’re seeing the city designate this site as a commemorative site, really I think can help encourage other cities and other jurisdictions to take a real hard look at this work that needs to happen across the country.”

Moran said preliminary estimates suggest there could be around 400 burial sites across the country directly associated with a residential school or where residential school children are likely were buried.

He said the centre recently looked at the cemetery associated with the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School in Kenora, Ont.

“That’s a really good example of a site where we know there’s kids buried there, but it’s heavily overgrown,” said Moran.

“We know that there’s graves likely outside of the cemetery as well, and that’s just one of many examples of a cemetery that’s really been forgotten and a critical part of our history being ignored and disrespected, truthfully.”

The work is not done for Windolph. She would also like to see the Regina cemetery get provincial heritage designation.

She said it marks a pivotal point in history — the time where cultural and identity loss began.

“And so, in order to start our healing journey, we have to go back to that point where this happened. We have to make good out of our past and simply acknowledge it is the beginning of that journey.”
Residential school cemetery outside Regina gets heritage status Regina Leader-_Page_2

Residential school cemetery outside Regina gets heritage status Regina Leader-_Page_3

Massive Turn-out for Day of Education for Reconciliation at the University of Regina

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A wonderful story from yesterday’s Regina Leader-Post, with video featuring survivor Eugene Arcand and Charlene Bearhead from the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.

Teaching about the Residential School Era is still not a mandatory part of the Saskatchewan K-12 curriculum but thanks to the events of the day, 1500 students and teachers went home having experienced a crash course on Canada’s hidden history. The Faculty of Education at the University of Regina organized the day’s events and Project of Heart was also on the program; students decorated tiles as witness pieces.

Our thanks go out to Dean of Education Jennifer Tupper for taking the lead in organization a superb Education Day!

(Repost from National Project of Heart site)