Long Weekend

Fancy Shall Dancers

Sometimes things can get rather depressing here. Garden Hill is a community that has chosen to refrain from many cultural practices such as drumming, dancing, sweat lodges and traditional medicines in favour of a very narrow minded interpretation of Christianity. There are many  residential school survivors living up here, and one of the goals of those schools was to sever the connection those children had to an indigenous education. However about a 20 minute drive from here is St. Theresa Point, a larger reserve where the people have found a way to incorporate traditional practices rather than demonize them. This week we attended a PD there to learn about incorporating traditional knowledge into the classroom. Drumming is alive and well in STP and we were privileged to hear several songs.  The community considers the Creator and God as the same being and therefore has brought drumming into the Church for worship making it an important part of daily life.

Grass Dancers

Fancy Shall Dancer

Jingle Dancer

Fancy Dancer

This weekend we were invited  to attend a pow wow at STPS. For those of you who don't know a pow wow is a gathering for dancing, socializing and celebrating tradition. There were dancers and drummers from many different reserves in Manitoba and I was lucky to be invited to experience the culture. One of the other teachers who was with us commented that Garden Hill is about 50 years behind STP and that as soon as the youth start demanding to learn about their culture it will become a part of the community again. A hopeful outlook was welcome.

Traditional Dancers

Yes. All of it beads. All of it hand sewn.

Regalia is hand made by the wearer or family member and is determined by the kind of dance the dancer wants to do. Fancy shall dancers spin and twirl while jingle dress wearing dancers have many tin cones sewn onto their dress which 'jingle' as they move. Fancy dancers wear elaborate feather adorned regalia and have slow careful movements. I loved the grass dancers. Mostly children, they were all seeping motions and waving fringe.



The same teacher who invited us to the pow wow (Art the elementary Phys. Ed Teacher) asked if I wanted to tag along to help him check his trap lines. Art considers himself a 'weekend trapper' and mainly does it to keep the practice alive as well as supplement his income. Plus it's an excuse to get out to the bush. Art mainly traps marten for their furs and snares the occasional rabbit for food. It's the end of the trapping season, animals are breeding now and it's bad practice to trap pregnant mothers so we were taking everything down. This year he has caught about 70 marten and the average market price for their furs is $60. The traps we collected only caught two squirrels (not the target animal) but we talked a lot about animals, how he learned trapping and snaring from his father, and about recent wolf sightings. A  wolf pelt is about $450 but Art doesn't believe in killing wolves for their fur. He sees them as his brothers and you don't skin family.

Tricksters

I've done a terrible job of updating these past few weeks and I really have no excuse for it. I guess I just haven't felt like writing anything. But things have been happening and I have photos to post so better now then never I suppose.

Last Friday the grade tens performed the the story of how the crow became black. They worked for two weeks with three performers from a program called the Trickster Effect. Trickster Effect is a partnership with Breakfast Canada and performers from Cirque du Soleil. The program goes from community to community visiting First Nations and Inuit schools, working with the students to tell traditional stories through acrobatics, juggling, dance and costume.

For two weeks the students learned how to tumble, juggle and perform in front of their community and peers. They also explored ideas of identity making, creativity, collaboration and belonging.

The final show was really great. The kids were focused and professional, the music was well chosen and they were really proud of their accomplishments. They performed the show twice, once for the elementary and once for the high school.

They got the story from Charlotte Monias who is one of the community elders. It was a story her kookum told her when she was little. The crow used to be the most beautiful bird in existence, but he wasn't satisfied with his beauty. So he asked Nannabush (the Creator) to change him. First he asks to be blue like a blue jay, then red breasted like a robin and finally yellow like an canary. At this point Nannabush is getting annoyed and warns the crow that if he asks to be changed again that's it, he'll stay that way forever. The crow agrees and while flying around the Earth he sees a peacock and asks to be transformed a final time. Nannabush agrees but instead of becoming like a peacock, all of the colours blend together and the crow becomes black. it turns out Nannabush is also a trickster and felt like teaching the crow a lesson. The theme of the show was to be satisfied with who you are and your own talents rather than being jealous of others.



I volunteered to help make the costumes after school with the kids and the guys form Quebec. We had simple felt masks for the birds and larger masks for the crow and Nannabush (Who can appear as anything and any gender which made things tricky. Eventually so we went with bear.). I am keeping the crow and bear masks as examples for an Art/English project my class will be doing in March.

While working on the masks one evening, three girls from the elementary school came to visit and brought a kitten with them! They were taking her to the 't.v. station' to sell her because their mother no longer wanted a playful kitten running all through their house. It took all of my will power not to buy her from them. As nice as it would be to have a kitten here, it would make coming home and traveling in general very difficult. Besides, we're dog people.

Those eyes!

Walking a thin white line.

I went snowshoeing for the first time since I was a little kid yesterday with Lesley, Cindy and Felix. For the most part we stuck to paths they had previously cut, or snowmobile tracks, but there were times when we needed to venture into 4 foot powder drifts to find connecting trails. For the most part the feeling of isolation here is incredibly depressing. Out in the woods though the solitude is relaxing.

Yesterday was cold. But not as cold as it's been for most of this week. We missed two days of school because of extreme windchill (lower than -40C) and this week will likely be just as cold.

Welcome 2013!

Grade 5's at the Christmas Concert

Well we’re back in Garden Hill after a fantastic holiday with family and friends. Because we've been so busy I didn't get much of an opportunity to write about the holidays, so consider this to be a well over due holiday summary post. 

12 Days of Garden Hill Christmas

Both the high school and the elementary school held Christmas concerts during the day for parents. Ender’s class performed ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas complete with costumes and four tiny reindeer. 

Mr. A reading the poem.

Flinging open the shutters.

Santa

Final number.

'Spirit' week elf hat.

Our class's Christmas corner

The high school also had a Christmas corner decorating contest, in which we were only allowed to use paper and cardboard to create an enchanting Christmas scene. I built the tree as a base for the kids and then they had a day to decorate it however they wanted. I especially liked the chair and the bearskin rug. 

Our class won 2nd place!

Silent Night in English

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

Silent Night in Cree

Cards Against Humanity

Some of Chrissy's decorations.

Once the Christmas craziness was done and over with we packed our things and headed home for the holidays! Unfortunately because we spent the majority of the break in BC we didn't have much time for all of our Ontario loved ones. However, we had enough time to spend the first half of our holiday in Prince Edward County, Ontario. We visited with friends, attended a pioneer party with a gift exchange, and managed to see Ender’s family as well.

Ender and I ready for our first day on the mountain.

On Christmas Day we flew out of Toronto for Comox, BC where we spent the next week at a chalet with my family on Mount Washington. With four metres of snow and discounted lift tickets at our disposal, I learned to ski and Ender learned to snowboard. The scenery was breathtaking.

The whole family.

Science!

For new years we met up with our friend Sarah and spent some time in Vancouver. We went to Science World on New Years Day, ate sushi and noodles and toured the city. It’s by far the nicest city I've ever been too.

Sarah was watching her sisters dog. She's blind in one eye... I think she looks like a wizard.

Sarah checking out the cloud tornado. .

View from the ferry.

Ender fell in love with BC when he visited it as a child and has always wanted to eventually move out there. I must say I've had a very similar reaction to the west coast and we are already talking about returning sometime next year.

We're almost out of ketchup so it's a good thing we are coming home!

Classroom Updates

Just a quick update on how things are shaping up in my classroom. It's December now and the end of the first term so my class is actually getting things done! The final world map is up in all of it's glory and the kids really like it. 

My class as started their final ecology project which involves researching a animal population in Canada and summarising that information into the colourful informative poster. They also need to complete a map that shows the range of that population, a food web, and complete a drawing. I'll post photos of the completed projects at the end of the month. We are making a Christmas corner out of cardboard... which is why my classroom has turned into cardboard central.

The pink monkey is Jojo. He is Ender's classroom mascot. He attends class, has his own desk and comes to school dressed in a shocking variety of doll outfits. I think he's even married to one of the students. Around the same time Jojo showed up my student Chloe (below) gave me this little guy. Now we both have classroom monkeys though mine is far more docile.

That's it for now. Christmas is fast approaching and we are getting into the busiest and yet least productive academically season of the school year. Wish us luck!