Tag: truth & reconciliation

Posted on

The Ongoing Journey of Reconciliation Work at York House School

On Wednesday, September 28, in advance of National Truth & Reconciliation Day on September 30th, the Senior school participated in a set of cross-grade Reconciliation experiences, hosted by guests, students, and faculty. The goal of each experience was to define and commit to at least one act of decolonizing ourselves, and to generate a shared understanding of what decolonization is, and is not, in our school. 

We are undertaking this work with clear objectives in mind. In our work about Reconciliation, we are guided by six criteria for success:  

  • prioritize Indigenous voices in person, and in text, audio or video resources 
  • interrogate if well-intentioned acts have any oppressive impact 
  • expose assumptions  
  • connect to classroom learning, now and in the future  
  • prevent tokenism or commodification 
  • be action-oriented, and not performative 

We welcomed Musqueam Elder Kelly White and Shona Sparrow from the Syilx Nation, to facilitate the KAIROS Blanket Exercise for a small group. 

Squamish weaver Cheximiya Allison Burns taught another small group to weave in our STEAM lab, and shared numerous examples of her own weaving. 

The Grade 10 class, as a group, took the entire day to journey to the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre in Whistler village.  

A small group visited  Xʷc̓ic̓əsəm Garden, the Indigenous gardens at UBC Farm, and met with Dr. Eduardo Jovel, and Dr. Will Valley, to learn about this Indigenous Health Research and Education Garden. 

Our student and faculty leaders led these sessions: 

  • How can we, as individuals, honour old forest trees and their Indigenous significance?
  • A beach and Vancouver Mural Festival excursion was guided by the question: How did Musqueam support the 368 passengers on the Komagata Maru in 1914?    
  • A Walk Outside: Listening to and Viewing Indigenous Poetry
  • Poets’ Space:  How can poetry help us process grief and trauma?  
  • What happened when Pope Francis came in July? 
  • The Art and Activism of Robert Davidson
  • Listening to Braiding Sweetgrass 
  • The Social Costs of Resource Extraction 
  • Learning from the YHS House Names change process 
  • My Culture is NOT a Costume:  Cultural appreciation vs. Cultural appropriation
  • Blanketing the City Mural tour and discussion 

As part of this journey, two weeks later in our Senior School assembly, our Community Service Captains, Ruby Harris and Jaclyn Boxer, extended our collective thinking on these same goals, with Mr. Cropley, as they asked the school to investigate the history of Thanksgiving, its traditions, and ties to the Columbian Exchange and colonization.  

This work is ongoing, and a journey, but at this moment in time, the following images capture some of our collective learning:

 

Posted on

Exploring Truth & Reconciliation

Canada’s first National Truth & Reconciliation Day was held on Thursday, September 30th. In the days leading up to this day, our teachers across the school worked to develop age-appropriate ways to honour this day as well as to commemorate the lost children and survivors of the residential school system in Canada. 

In the Little and Junior Schools

Last week at the Little and Junior Schools, teachers were focused on designing appropriate experiences around Truth and Reconciliation for students at all ages and stages. On Monday, the primary teachers did a read-aloud of a book of their choice and engaged in discussion and reflection. For intermediate students, classes watched the short film, Shi-shi-etko which is about a young girl who spends time with her family before going to residential school. This is also a lovely picture book which Little School teachers shared with their students. All of these stories create springboards for thoughtful discussion and opportunities for students to explore their feelings of empathy and compassion for their young Indigenous peers. 

On Tuesday, we had our Junior School Assembly which was run by our Grade 6 teachers, Kellie Young and Jacqueline McCallister. Their guiding question for the assembly was, “How can we demonstrate or practice Truth and Reconciliation as Junior School students? Each section of the assembly was a thoughtful presentation about how young people can take action on this issue that we all care about. 

Finally, on Wednesday, students watched the music video, “We Won’t Forget You.” Each teacher designed follow-up conversations about the video, and the Grade 6 teachers conducted their first Harkness discussion based on the lyrics of the song. Coming to understand what Truth and Reconciliation really means will be a process for all of us over time, and we are proud of the beginnings that our faculty have made this year. 

In the Senior School
To honour and build understanding of what Truth and Reconciliation means, Senior School student leaders, such as our Poet Laureates (past and present) and student executive members, and faculty co-built a series of seven experiences that students and staff could choose to attend for 60 minutes on Wednesday, September 29. The shared goals of the experiences were to help each of us define and commit to at least one act of decolonizing ourselves, to generate a shared understanding of what decolonization is in our school, and to be a catalyst for individual actions on September 30 and beyond.  

Students and faculty self-selected one experience to attend and thus each group was mixed-age, and varied in size. One experience was to listen to Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass, read her book in our darkened theatre. Her work explores “how Skywoman’s gardens, known by some as global ecosystems, function.”  

In our STEAM Lab, participants investigated how First Nations and non-Indigenous partners have created effective place-based water filtration systems together, using RES’EAU’s Community Circle problem-solving model which “places community operators at the heart of the innovation cycle.”

Poets came together in an experience to investigate how poetry can help us process grief and trauma. They read the poetry of David Groulx, Rosanna Deerchild, and Abigail Chabitnoy and watched Shauntelle Dick-Charleson’s slam poem “I Was There,” about intergenerational survivors of residential schools before creating some poetry of their own, in response, with the guidance of YHS poet laureates, Millie (past) and Maggie (present).  

A large group elected to connect to the place where we are, as their experience, and walked in the rain together. They reflected on whose land we live and how this impacts us. In the Learning Commons, an experience took shape to watch, listen, and share thinking about Indigenous identity and representation in the arts. Participants viewed film excerpts to analyze stereotypes, and heard from Indigenous actors and playwrights on the importance of authentic representation before engaging with one another in discussion. 

Another experience offered a deep dive into oral history. Each participant shared a story of their own, from the past month, that created a strong emotional response for them; and each storyteller was a witness to others’ stories. Another experience was a gallery of items to analyze for potential cultural appropriation, which led this group into a discussion that investigated an article, a video, and their responses to these everyday items. 

Through these experiences we hoped to amplify the voices of Indigenous people, and to turn inward to self-reflect about how we can each engage with and be called to act with thoughtfulness towards reconciliation.