 I'm Jenny Marshall and the student services coordinator for Meagma Gnambannoy and the program that we're working on in collaboration with our communities is yoga and school and mindfulness which we've which we've called Jenny Dasink. We're unique in the situation in Nova Scotia that yoga 11 for example is an accredited course in high school and so we've we've worked for the past five years to train multiple cohorts of teachers that can deliver the curriculum and some of them are presently teaching yoga 11 and some of them are teaching other grades so really we have yoga teachers yoga teachers certified rather in I think our youngest yoga teacher or youngest grade rather that they're delivering programs is grade three so grade three to grade 12 really but having said that we'll be working probably this fall to train another cohort of you know K to K to three teachers and that sort of thing it's it really is dependent on on funding and our board of directors and what pilot projects are able to approve and phases and that sort of thing so we we have we have trained teachers that are delivering yoga 11 curriculum and then we have other teachers that are delivering yoga within their context so learning centers regular classrooms that sort of thing the mindfulness curriculum that we're creating is primarily for at this point it's primarily for grades seven and eight and it's still in development phase we've partnered with the department of Nova Scotia education and really it's it'll probably grow again like much like yoga did or is and I can't really say specifically what age it's for because even though it's contingent on grade seven and eight outcomes or indicators in the curriculum in the province it it has the capacity to be used in other grades as well what we're seeing in our community of schools is we're seeing a lot more and more of our children dysregulated in a lot of ways whether they have experienced effects of trauma whether they're just detached culturally and linguistically we're just seeing a lot of dysregulation manifest itself in behavior and what I'd like to hope that the program is is doing and what we've seen with yoga in schools in our schools in our mk family of schools is we're helping kids to find the calm within the storm so being a young person in 2019 is a heck of a lot harder than it was when I was their age it'll be even harder in the generations to come in terms of navigating what it is to be an indigenous person in in this country and how to retain who you are and where you come from without all the extraneous distractions you know it's tough so really that's the aim of the program is to help them find that calm within their storm one breath one posture one lesson at a time retention of teachers you know we we invest we have invested a pretty significant amount of resources collectively in training teachers each cohort or each teacher that has taken yoga teacher training in in Nova Scotia it's 200 hours of training and it doesn't come at a cheap at a cheap price tag unfortunately what's happened is it's challenging to retain all of those trained teachers to keep teaching in our family of schools when we're competing in some cases with provincial pay scales that may not be reflective of you know or may not be as equitable as First Nations pay scales I think no matter what program you're creating you always have to have the idea in education that you are just the conduit to plant a seed that the work of one program is not the work of one singular person the work of keep teaching kids regulation and and balance and pride doesn't just come from one foot one person it comes from it comes from taking that seed and putting it in an environment that it'll grow and nurture be nurtured and that it's grown and nurtured by teachers that believe in yogic philosophy that believe in the strength that comes from being indigenous that harnesses the wisdom and the guidance from our elders and our environment in our land and believes in the in the in the process of what that seed can become so you know oftentimes programs are created and they're created in the context that we're comparing our model with something else somebody else has done so to really own the process and make it a truly magma process of developing our own curriculum of of looking at what the provincial guidelines are in terms of curriculum and outcomes and indicators and then what that actually means in a classroom and in our context it's a bit different we haven't we haven't relied on other models we've uniquely created our own and our own framework and our own mindset on it because you know people here on the east coast have been extremely resilient and to be able to put that resiliency skill set in in lessons in content in in the multiple forms that it'll take has been a unique unique process and it's it's not the process or the way that I had envisioned it happening but it's it's become uniquely magma and something that I'm very proud of I've had a lot of advisors that have said you know put your name on this and you created this and you're the conduit for making this happen and all that I'm just the vessel I'm just the vessel that holds it or helps facilitate it where the lessons have come from I never could have predicted I never could have predicted that a story that I heard when I was seven years old the very first time on reserve would ever would ever guide a visual framework and a diagram to to teach children that them being magma is amazing you know I was just nourished by an elder at seven and at a very pivotal time in my life where family and home was tough and I never never would have thought where it would grow into or that it would become a model and you know you hear so many stories of elders saying that it's always been there it's it's always been right in front of you everything you need is right in front of you and it literally was so to take those gifts and to utilize them in a way that teaches children to to meditate to find that calm within the storm of their lives of being indigenous of you know trying to reclaim their what was taken to re-identify with their language all of those things are are critical so you know I guess the best thing I can say is that one never knows what grows out of untended seeds and you know here on the east coast our people and our communities and our elders it's it's been all there right in front of us but it's up to us to take the time and and develop it and share the story and share the process so much of curriculum is not about literacy and numeracy it's what is beyond the curriculum or the scope of curriculum and how one connects to something within themselves that makes them a better person to give back to the next generation and that's a uniquely indigenous perspective you know in in western knowledge here's your indicators here's how you measure success here's your performance here's this to me how i measure the success of jenny dosink and yoga in schools is when i have former students that were in yoga 11 or have been part of helping develop this process and they're not hanging on a rope i speak to a lot of a lot of teachers in the public school system and i don't think nearly as many of them have lost as many students as i have and you know curriculum is important but if that young person doesn't find their spirit and find their voice what are they going to do in life it's about teaching them that they are part of their nation they are valued they are needed and they have a purpose whether or not that means they have a job in some cases where they might not have felt that they were qualified to to go out and seek that job whether it means they go into an area of employment or education that they themselves wouldn't have seen themselves go into prior and i don't necessarily know if it would all be all be the result of yoga and mindfulness but what i've heard from students that are going through the the rigorous stress of you know academic curriculum that have the time to or make the time rather to take yoga 11 as an example they've they've developed a level of resiliency that they see the challenges in front of them they know the obstacles that they face as an indigenous person as a magma person and they persevere and they push through it you know so my hope and my measurement of success is that i won't have another fall that i'm going to as many wakes and funerals as i did this fall and when we see those patterns and when we see that that unhealthiness manifests in our people what do we do collectively to rally to support to ensure a brighter future for them so there's lots of indicators but really you know healthy active living and the end movement and yoga mindfulness meditation all of those things are connected in wellness and you know rekindling and reconnecting to spirit and their environment um to me is a measure of success when our youth know how to go out in community and speak to an elder that's a measure of success when they know the protocol in an environment that a ceremony is taking place that's a level of success that to me can't necessarily be measured by mainstream curriculum but it really speaks volumes for the individual the type of individuals that they're going to become in their lives find uh find the funding that's going to allow the continued collective voice to come forward i never could have done this without other teachers that were like-minded and said you know what we're not doing we're not doing enough of the right things to give kids value in the classroom or make them feel valued or let them know that it's okay that they're not feeling uh in balance with everything um you know so for for lack of uh you know i hate corny puns but really it's about finding your tribe and what i mean by that is it's about taking an idea and finding other people that are similar in their thinking but maybe make it happen in their classrooms or in their context a little bit differently and pooling those people together so that when you do develop your lessons and the process and you're defining what that process looks like for your nation um it's uniquely reflective of collective voices so it's reflective of voices of youth of teachers of administrators of elders and even leaders if you can find leaders that are yogis themselves um i never thought that i would be in a room where i would get some of our traditional leaders to to be doing yoga poses to be taking a mindful break to be sharing what they internalize mindfulness is and it's uh it's been an interesting process like and know that the process is going to take a lot of time i ambitiously thought that we would have polished lessons and you know a curriculum guide and all of this stuff um and it's nowhere near where i hoped it would be um but the process has been uniquely reflective of of us as magma people it's messy it's dirty work you know there's there's a saying in yoga that we have issues in our tissues well as an indigenous person you have hundreds of years of issues in your tissues so be prepared for the mess that comes out be prepared for hitting students nerves and build a network of of yoga teachers as an example or mindfulness teachers as an example so that you have that network of support when when tough things have come up with students um because it uh it can get messy and uh it is emotional and um you know you never know sometimes where you're going to trigger students um and when you do trigger students man you feel like crap um but then it allows them to grow and it allows you to learn and it allows you to support and and all of that so it's a completely different take on curriculum but it is really building that capacity of sharing and caring and and kids knowing that they're validated and and where they're coming from and where they're at in their lives and it it's frustrating for them too because they're all zendote and yoga and meditation and then they go back to the classroom right so teaching them that that resiliency piece as well of how to go back and forth um and it is so symbolic because you know even as an indigenous person you are constantly bombarded by um non mainstream like mainstream culture and society and and how do you relate and how do you retain your identity in that context i'm hoping that uh within the next year or so um there will be uh the polished you know guide if you will uh for you know and again it's it's a model that works in Nova Scotia um so it's a model that will be linked to uh grade seven and eight curriculum um in a provincial system um but it'll also be a curriculum that will be connected with uh uniquely magma concepts and and ways of knowing and it'll also be something that is grounded in uh evidence-based practices with other links to other researchers work um you know so we're we're helping to validate the work of kelly moeller and interoception and we're helping to validate um you know the fact that teach principles and and structured environment and all of those things can work in in a context like that um you know so i'm hoping that you know mainstream society will will learn from us as well as as we've learned from them what we've had to take evidence-based practices and and make them make them our own and what does that look like and you know so that that defines a whole another level of uh layers of research that you know need to be done and documented indigenous education to me is uh you know it's um it's uh it's about honoring first voice you know it's it's about looking in your environment and uh seeing who your first teachers are who are your first teachers what did they teach you you where did they teach you how did they teach you um when you failed when you fell flat on your face they might have pointed at you and laughed but how did they help you get back up again and as they were helping you get up what were the supports that they put in place so that the next time you tried again you were successful um you know so many so much of our history has been about what's taken from us but not enough of our history is about what still remains and we still remain and there's a reason why we're here and there's a reason why we've adapted and we've evolved and we've become stronger and it's about time that we celebrate that that we share good practices and what best practices look like for us in our context on the east coast in the middle of the country west coast wherever our context is what does best practice look like for you and it's about seeing the smiles and the love from the children that are in front of us every day i never would have thought of this i never would have thought of bringing yoga in schools if i didn't have the experience of being an educator in community and supporting our our learners in community and seeing them struggle and watching me improve my practice as an educator and watching myself fail and getting back up again and learning again and trying again you know so it's it's that constant recycling or process if you will of you know try something uh you know take a step back improve it all of that it's that give and take you know and and not being afraid to uh to put yourself out there as an educator to be that goofy teacher that is completely saying where it's wrong in migma because you grew up off reserve um and uh and constantly showing that you know learning is a lifelong process and embracing that you know what i know at 42 what i will know at 93 and i can say 93 because i have grandmothers that are 90 um and they're still learning and you know to to teach our kids that you know what we learn from k to 12 is one thing but what we learn in the span of our lifetime is immense and it's rich and it's beautiful and if it's embedded in our culture in our language uh with the voice of first teachers it's remarkably impressive and they become remarkable human beings i would love to see a funding model that is not just about equity but uh or parity in the country i would love to see a funding model that recognizes canada's history of colonization and what it has done to hundreds of years of our people and instead of it just being about equity or parity that it really becomes about enhancement because the only way that this world is truly going to be a better place uh is if all peoples listen to indigenous peoples as this environment um is ours and we are the keepers of it and we know what works best for it and all along throughout this history of colonization we have known what works best for our kids and works best for our peoples to really have the opportunity to not only give them equal platforming of you know lunches and schools and you know better roads and buses and all of those things that make education happen but really about giving them a better road a better path so that they can come back and help transform everything you know i hope to see better funding in my lifetime i look at the complexities of what our communities face in terms of trying to meet learning needs and it's hard there's not nearly enough funding