Over 700 students from the Louis Riel School Division (LRSD) stepped out of the classroom Thursday with the goal of developing a greater connection with the land.
16-year-old Lacy Bird stood before her peers on the CN Stage at the Forks. She explained that she was filled with excitement and pride in herself and her fellow students as they embraced Learning With the Land.
“To me, learning with the land is recognizing that our land, as I said early on stage, is not just a resource. It’s a relative. And the land I was always taught growing up had spirit. It was like living life itself. And to be able to go back to our traditional ways and respect and live alongside our land is pretty nice.”
Bird is also a Youth Chief with the Southern Chiefs’ Organization. Through her role as Youth Chief and emceeing Learning With the Land’s opening ceremonies, Bird said she takes her responsibilities seriously, wanting to be an example for future generations, like her younger sister, who was among the crowd.
Bird and other students diverged when the opening ceremonies closed, heading to stations across the grounds of the Forks. These stations covered a diversity of topics and studies. Some explored Indigenous teachings, and others focused on academic sciences. Suzanne Simpson, a teacher/librarian at École Provencher and École Varennes schools, got students to be hands-on, organizing various seeds while they learned about their life cycles and the role of foraging.
“I think most kids think of it as something you can buy or something that magically turns into a plant. But we wanted to capture the whole lifecycle and empower them to collect seeds. You don’t have to be part of capitalism in order to grow things successfully. We want to highlight that reuse and empower them to collect seeds by showing them the steps needed to take them.”
Simpson said many students fell in love with the activity, learning about the numerous seeds they could collect and store.
Until the mid-afternoon, students participated in these activities, learning and getting their hands into the grass and dirt. This day, planned to become an annual tradition, was inspired by the United Nations Sustainable Development goals, land-based learning, and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Roy Norris is part of the organizing committee for the Louis Riel School Division Learning With the Land event. He explained the day is part of the division’s multi-year strategic plan and ways to create new avenues of learning.
“An event like this is an opportunity to celebrate together and to dream about what is possible for the future,” said Norris. “Out of this, we’re hoping to be able to spur action at a local level with the schools, with regard in particular to the sustainable development goals, and this whole idea of let’s take our learning out of the classroom and into the land and onto our school grounds, and then clearly into our local parks as well.”
In the Journal of Climate Change and Health, a co-authored paper from Lakehead University asked young people about their thoughts on climate change. Seventy-six percent of respondents said they find the future frightening, with climate change negatively affecting their mental health. From the School Division’s perspective, the Trustee of Ward 1, Ian Walker, said holding events like this and having sustainability goals is about setting an example for youth and providing them hope.
“I’ve done that in my own life. My wife and I sold our car a number of years ago, and we get around actively and use transit. We have turned our house into a multi-family so that we have more people living on the land that we exist on in the city so that we don’t have to have as many folks sprawling out. From a school division perspective, I think that the whole point of teaching kids is that we want to make sure that they have a sustainable future. We want to ensure that they can thrive when they grow up.”
Connection to Indigenous teachings and practices was fundamental to the event’s identity. Through reconciliation and understanding the seven sacred teachings, Bird said these acts of decolonization are helping build a brighter future. For Bird, that history before settlers came was a way of life that can be learned from in keeping the water and the land healthier.
“Like whatever happens to the land will affect us too. Lots of people need to realize that. Especially governments need to realize that what’s going to happen to the waters and our lands will affect us as people. We’re gonna get sicker.”
She said she hopes that by the time the next generation comes, many things will have changed for the better.
Full of smiles, with students sitting and running in the sun, Learning With the Land successfully explored land-based learning. The event will continue, said an organizer, but it will likely be under a new name. The future name will recognize the contributions and efforts of Kookum Hilda Kentiban. Kookum Hilda shared Indigenous ways of knowing and being within the division before her passing. Many explained that the pleasant weather during the day was thanks to the spirit of Kookum Hilda.
– Ryan Funk, U Multicultural
