Visiting a Cree High School on a Native Reserve, Alberta

May, 2016  

A Visit to a High School in this northern reserve-  Kihew Ashiniy Education Centre.

When we first arrived at this northern reserve in Alberta last Saturday, we drove by the Kihew Asiniy Education Centre. But we were not sure what this place was about.













P., our leader for this trip took us to visit the Education Centre on Monday afternoon.

Kishew Asiniy is a school for students in this northern reserve community from grades 6 to 12.

The Kihew Asiniy Library

The school has a little over two hundred students with twenty staff members. 

From the moment we stepped inside the school, the Cree culture and influence was evident throughout the school both in its design and artwork such as posters and wall hangings in the school

A Cree statute greeting visitors to the school

In the main lobby, a native sculpture welcome students and visitors proudly into the school.

The Vice Principal and a couple of students took us around the school for a tour. 

We met many students and they were very friendly towards us.

Many just came up, extended their hands and greeted us with much warmth and sincerity.

There were a lot  of encouraging messages posters all around the school.

We visited the following classes:

A co-ed gym class - the gym teacher invited us to participate in some games with the students.

Youths from our team were invited to participate in a game

Gym Class -Some of our young people did take part in a few volleys with the students. 

We took part in a Gr. 10 Cree Language class

A Grade 10 Cree class where we sat and learned along with students. 

A Cree language class where our young people sat side by side with some of the students to learn the Cree language.













I learned that there are 42 characters in the Cree alphabets and about the history of the name of the reserve. 

A cute pin cushion! 

As a former Family Studies teacher, I was interested to see what students were learning in their sewing class.

A project in progress in the Sewing Class

In this class students learned about sewing, arts and crafts and working with traditional beading.

It was interesting  to learn about the Beauty Culture Class as well.

A poster on the Elders' Room

What made this school unique was the school's emphasis on Cree language and culture.

There were artworks of native themes by students throughout the school.

Many classrooms and throughout the school were decorated with beautiful artwork pieces related to aboriginal themes.

A smudging table was set up in almost every calssroom

Each classroom had a table with things ready for students to perform a smudging ceremony and to say a prayer before class started each morning.

A corner of the Elders' Room where elders would come in and talk with students

One of the rooms was dedicated to be used for meeting and counselling of students.

It is called the Elders' Room when the elders of the community can come in and talk with students and share with them their wisdom.















In the last period of the school day, we participated in a high school sex education class in the assembly hall given by the Public Health Dept.

Using a couple of games, the nurses tried to teach students the different types of STD – sexually transmitted  diseases and how easily  these diseases could be passed on from one person to the other.

We visited a Cree class and learned about the alphabets of the Cree language

Our experience at the Education Centre an educational and a pleasant one.

Colourful quilts were being made at the Sewing Centre

We also visited the Sewing Centre briefly where a number of women were employed to make quilts and clothing items with native designs.

The ladies at this sewing centre were busy making ten quilts for the Fort McMurray evacuees fleeing the wild fires.

We saw many handmade quilts with beautiful designs. I will make sure I buy a couple of them and bring them back to Toronto as gifts!




R.T.
A Northern Reserve
Alberta

Pride of the Cree People Preseved in a Northern Reserve Museum

May 09, 2016

We visited the Outreach School located in the Youth Centre in this northern reserve. We met three female high school students there studying their grade 12 courses in order to obtain their Grade 12 diploma.  

We  visited the band council administrative building, a stone throw away from the Youth Centre and met with the band members at the admin office. The council members were gracious and friendly, a few of them came over and shook hands with each one of us.

One of the wall murals in the museum

After the brief visit at the Council meeting, we took a quick tour of  the little museum also located within  the same building. 

Animals hunted by the Cree people, preserved and donated to the museum

The gentleman at the museum informed us that a little while ago the Cree people in this northern community realized the older people are gradually dying in the area.

People on the Reserve realized that less and less Cree people would be able to remember the past, their customs and traditions.

Tools used by the Cree people in the past to trap animals 

As people got older, passed away, their things got dropped off and given away.

Some concerned wanted to preserve the things their fathers and grandfathers used to utilize such as their tools for hunting, their ceremonial clothes and the animals they hunted etc. 

The Chief's head dress of Cree people

In this temporary museum, we saw beautiful ceremonial headdress worn by past chiefs and many other things of the past of the Cree people.

With a strong desire to preserve part of this northern reserve history and its people, the idea of a museum has started in order to store and keep the things of the past.

Though not a very big place. beautiful wall murals adorned the walls of this room.

 

For the future plan, what the museum people really hope would be to have a proper place for the museum to house the precious items left behind by their ancestors so that future generations can be taught about the customs and way of life of the past!

For a small population, I congratulate the residents of this remote northern reserve for starting your collection of museum items.

We learned a lot about the Cree people and enjoyed our visit at this northern reserve museum in Alberta!

R.T. 

A Remote Northern Reserve

Alberta

Attending Church Services on Mothers' Day in a Northern Cmmunity, Alberta

Looking out from the front of the Christian school in northern Alberta

The northern community we are visiting is about two hours  behind Toronto time. When it is 7 am here, it is 9am in Toronto.

We spent our first night at our host’s home. Praise God, both S. and I slept well.

Today was Sunday and Mothers’ Day. A special day indeed!

We attended two Sunday services at two different churches. For the morning service,  our local friend picked us for the 11 am service. 

Before the service started, M. took us for a tour of the Christian school located right next door.

The school is a simple portable donated to be used for Christian education in the area.  It is a school intended for students from Grade 1 to 12. Because of the residential school history, the enrollment of the school has declined dramatically .

After the school tour, we attended the Sunday Service at a local Christian church.We met M., the wife of a local pastor who passed away recently. She is a strong woman, full of faith. Despite of her husband’s recent death, she was holding up quite well.

Though a small congregation, there were quite a number of musicians among them!  Besides Pastor O. there were two other guitar players, one of whom was a young child. I enjoyed the singing very much. 

After the songs, M. encouraged mothers to come up and shared since today was mothers day. A few of mothers did, including me. There were a few touching stories.

Pastor Ed. shared a Mothers’ Day message in which he encouraged the congregation to pray for mothers everywhere. M. prepared long stem roses for mothers and Pastor O. and Pastor Ed prayed for each one as the mothers came forward to receive their roses.

At the conclusion of the service, our youth sang a hymn and explained to us the touching background of the hymn – All is Well.

 I didn’t think there was a dry eye in the church.

We went to see a rodeo in the afternoon, an interesting show indeed!

After dinner, we attended the evening service at the north church. Our host, L. was there leading the worship. The elderly gentleman, Pastor O. pastor of the church was there too. The singing was awesome! L. invited people came forward to share and a few of us did. I would never forget C. sharing about how God blessed her with a daughter after trying for six years to have a baby and finding out that they were an infertile couple.

It was a long day, but a great day spent with God’s people!

R.T.

Our 2nd Day

Northern Alberta

Watching a Rodeo on a Northern Reserve, Alberta

We are only visiting this northern reserve, Alberta, for a little more than a week, however, we were lucky enough to be there when the rodeo was taking place on the same weekend.

This northern reserve has a few facilities which city folks like us have not even considered. For instance, we drove by a beautiful outdoor structure which is called the Pow Wow Ground. I learned that the Pow Wow is a huge three day event that happens annually.

Another place we city dwellers do not see often is the rodeo ground. Though having lived in Canada for more than 40 years, we had not attended a live rodeo competition until today at this northern Alberta reserve .

The admission to the event was not expensive at all. For $5.00, you could hang around all day watching the various competitions. We were there for about an hour and watched the women, the junior and the barrel racers’ competition.

These competitions could be exciting if you know some of the competitors and could cheer for them at the top of your lungs.

Though we had no one in particular to cheer for, we cheered for everyone, especially the young competitors.  

We were surprised at how long some of the young racers managed to stay on the wildly behaving horses without falling off!

Some of the records announced were something like 2.84 seconds, 3. 14 seconds before a competitor could loop a horse!

I could hardly get my camera focused and the looping had taken place already!

It was a mild sunny day with soft wind blowing across the viewing stands and we were watching the riders trying their best in the various categories of competitions. 

With a freshly cooked bowl of poutine fries in my hands, sharing them with my beloved better half and teammates, exchanging a few funny stories and having some good laugh, we had a ton of fun at this northern rodeo!

R.T.

A Nortern Reserve

Alberta

Experiencing a Pow Wow in Edmonton - Day 1 of Our STM Trip

We met up with our STM trip teammates in Edmonton

A Pow Wow in Edmonton


We met up with our STM team members at the Edmonton Airport.

Since it was lunch time, P. took us to the Lee Garden, in Chinatown, Edmonton for a Korean lunch.











This was the first time our entire team sitting down and shared a meal together. We had  a great fellowship and got to know our team members a little better.

We went to \a Pow Wow at the Edmonton Stadium

Since we are going north to a reserve, P. felt it was important that we learn as much about the cultures and traditions of the aboriginal people as possible.

It happened that there was a Pow Wow in Edmonton this weekend, so the entire team went to the event.

Pow Wow is a big event for the aboriginal peoples in Canada!  It is their way of meeting together. The first nations people participate in dancing, singing and competitions.  First Nations people come from afar visiting others,  renewing old friendships and making new ones at this event.

We heard a lot about it and looked for one close to Toronto to attend.

A few years ago, we drove about 300 Km north of Toronto to a town called Owen Sound and attended a Pow Wow close by.














It was a good experience, something new to us and we enjoyed it.  But I remembered it was a big event for many of the aboriginal  people in the area and we had a very hard time finding accommodation for that weekend.

 Eventually, a kind heart motel owner took pity on us, and found us a bed and breakfast place for the night.

It happened that the couple of days we were in Edmonton, there was a Pow Wow held at the Edmonton Stadium.





Since many of our group members never attended one our leader decided we should go and learn more about the culture and traditions of our aboriginal people.

This Pow Wow was a huge event as it was held in the Edmonton Stadium.  The place was packed with first nation peoples from all over the areas.



People of all ages took part in this big celebration. Many brought their own lawn chairs, found a good spot and and parked themselves there with members of their families.

Dressed proudly in their traditional resplendent costumes decorated with colourful feathers, beads along with their beautiful headgear, many aboriginal people were there to compete in dancing as well as taking in the sights and sounds of the event.

Boys and girls were strutting their traditional costumes proudly!

We watched some dancing competitions, with boys, girls, women and men's team from various regions and communities

There were displays of native arts and crafts. beaded jewelry , clothing and other items.

We saw some creative aboriginal beaded jewelry and some women in our group got excited about them.


The Pow Wow in Edmonton was big in size compared to the one we saw before.

The only thing I could not find was the delicious seafood that we tried at our last Pow Wow, But it was a good learning experience.

R.T.
Edmonton, Alberta