 through collaboration, and we applied for that with Samson Cree Nation, Nip Sikopak, and since then, that was two years ago, we're in our third year, we've been working on quite a bit of projects with Samson, it's been certainly a reciprocal relationship. Our part from STAR was to provide NEA with some professional development opportunities that we do, and piggyback on that, so their teachers come to our PD days and get assistance with literacy and numeracy, and those types of things that they want access to, which hopefully is going very well, there seems to be a lot of attendance with that. On our end, we were excited to have access to Cree culture, and start developing an awareness and understanding of where we need to go as a school division. We were certainly spurred on with the fact that the new teacher quality standard of Alberta has a significant component of, it's not just, it would be nice to know, but it's a, you need to know this as a teacher in an Alberta school. We wanted to get a head start on that, just because we've had a close relationship with Muscochise since this school began here in Pinocca. From my perspective, I was born and raised here, I went through this school system, and from my perspective, our school wouldn't exist without the assistance of Muscochise, and the First Nations students who started coming all the way back from 1962, who volunteered to get on the bus at six in the morning and come to the Catholic school in Pinocca. So we have that relationship, we have now alumni, the grandkids, and the great grandchildren of people who have gone to school here. Some still live in the Four Nations, but some also live in Pinocca. So we've always been blessed with having people with a Cree background in our school. That's just the way it's always been, and I don't know if it's always been recognized as a gift and a blessing. So I'm so passionate about this, I'm so excited for this. So our part of it is one sentence here that really struck a chord with me in this grant was that First Nations students who attend our Catholic schools have not had the same level of access to Cree language and culture education like student counterparts who attend NEA schools. That for us is a challenge, and that's what we want to move forward on in that if a First Nations student, an Indigenous child wants to come to school here, they don't have to choose between going to a Catholic school or going to a school where their culture is valued and respected and promoted as well as their language. We're on a journey, we're certainly not there yet. We, that whole offering any language in a small rural school, be it Cree or French or Spanish, is difficult for us. There's no doubt we're going to find a way so that kids have choice in what they want when they come to school here. But I think it goes beyond this in my two years of doing this. It goes beyond just looking after the First Nations students. That book I have back here, this one really, this is a strong sentence. We are all treaty people and I don't think people understand that. That is our first learning. That's where NEA started with us when Bruce Cutknife came in to talk to us the first time. We didn't even understand. It was nice to have an elder that was patient with us and said, okay, this is where you are in your journey. We're going to start here. Here, St. Augustine and Sacred Heart staff, here's the history. You need to understand this history before we talk about anything else. And that was two and a half years ago when Bruce introduced that to us. Since then, the networking has been amazing. We have all sorts of contacts, the relationship, what word that is in Cree, I've heard that so many times from Kevin Wells and from Aida. And that's been good. And it's sort of culminated last September when we had the StarCatholic learning day here, which was attended by all of the teachers of our school division and the support we got from us, which is to further elders to be willing and trusting to come and run a PD day for us and have conversations with teachers. That was a very, very powerful day. And I just want to build on that. So our kids have been busy. We're blessed to have, like I say, our own indigenous leadership group with Ms. York and with Ms. Newton. They're the same but different. They focus on different things. One's more of a healing and wellness group. And the other one's more of a cultural awareness and education group. What in your opinion makes it an example of excellence in indigenous education? I don't know if I'd use the word excellence. I think we're working hard. And when I get the feedback from the elders that say, Kevin, you're doing a good job. Keep going. That's meaningful. For Ms. Bull to say, okay, you finally got the teepee upright. That's meaningful. So I don't know. We just want to try to do our part. And we want our teachers to really understand this. I think it's important for moving forward as a whole society. We have a lot of challenges ahead with the environment with the way we just do business that we have a lot to learn that people's ears have not been open to. So I'm hoping those days are ahead of coming. So you kind of talked on how do you measure the success of your program? But do you want to kind of touch on that a little more? Measuring the success. I think if we can get to the point where it's not just the our indigenous students who may not even, maybe they live off reserve and they're not really connected to their own culture, or the indigenous students that come from Muscovites that already speak Kree and they're immersed in Kree culture, or the second generation landed immigrant from Europe to who we have, say a Dutch family or something, that everybody understands and honors the indigenous worldview and the culture and just how important it is and how precious it is for everyone to understand. I think that would be my measure. When I don't hear conversations that include, I'll just get over it or can't we just move on or why don't they just do it my way. Yeah that would be a good day. So then from your perspective what is indigenous education? I think that's what it is, is having an understanding and respect for the Kree worldview to be able to see through the eyes. You may not be able to fully experience it but at least you understand it enough that you respect it. I think that's important. I think language is important. The roots of language and culture that they're so intertwined that if we are going to maintain cultures we need to maintain language. We have a lot of Filipino immigrants that their first language is Tagalog. I think back 30 years ago people would be discouraged to speak Tagalog. It would be like, I remember even when I started here there was conversations, how can we let the kids speak Tagalog at recess? They should speak English because this is an English thing, they need to learn their English. That's so backwards. So that link to language is important. I think we are blessed to have Maskuchi so close to us, like literally 15 minutes away. When I was in school at St. Augustine and I got bused up there for shop, I learned how to build a three-legged chair. I'm hoping one day maybe if we can't offer Kree, we can bus or we can share. We have a welding teacher part-time. Can we share that in exchange for, can you send us someone who can speak Kree fluently? That's what I'm looking forward to. That's what it means to me. Awesome. That's a really cool idea by the way, kind of having that back and forth. We've always done it on and off. It's exciting to... Just to not see that as a barrier, but like flexibility. What is your vision for Indigenous education over the next 10 years? I think for me being a Catholic school principal, we've always had to really define why we have Catholic school and one of the things we talk about is looking at all the curriculum that we have through the lens of our Catholic faith. That whether we're teaching social studies or science, our value system and what we believe, we teach that curriculum through that lens. We want people to be able to see and articulate through that lens. I want to see that for Indigenous worldview, that schools teach through the lens of an Indigenous worldview in all curriculum so that whether it's social studies or science, what are the values that a First Nations person uses to make decisions about politics or about science discovery. That in my head is familiar to me because we're a Catholic school and we have to do that all the time and it's my hope that we get a system, an Alberta system, that that is what we need to do. What's interesting to me and what I seem to be learning and by no means I'm just beginning, is that Indigenous cultural awareness and worldview is so tied to their spirituality, much like our Catholic lens goes through our spirituality. So I wonder how that's going to be reconciled in schools that aren't used to spirituality. So that I think is a conversation that's going to have to happen over the next while. I don't think you can separate the two, just like we can't separate the two as, oh just teach religion class and then teach your core curriculum. It's so, it's like fibers. So I am hoping that that comes to fruition, that it's not just like Indigenous studies 15, 25, 35, that it's, it becomes permeated throughout all of it based on the values and culture. Like you just mentioned, we need to know it's okay to use. Like we have Alberta and approved resources. It's like we need Indigenous approved resources. This is okay with the elders. Just like in Catholic education, our religion resources are approved by the bishop. We don't use them unless they're approved by the bishop and we feel very strongly as well when we're doing things. We want the approval of an elder or a group of elders or the chief or somebody says this is okay to do. We don't want to be disrespectful. I think teachers, most teachers are really enthusiastic about getting going on, getting on the bus. A lot of them are fearful of making mistakes. So if someone can say this is okay to you, do this. Likewise, we need to build that trust with the elders. We need to earn that trust that the knowledge that they're imparting to us is going to be put to good use and we need to honour that. And that trust relationship is broken a lot of the times. So they're definitely healing that I know we've been working on for the last two years is that trust relationship where we can have conversations and trust each other to do it, to put that knowledge to good use.