 St. David's School is a inner-city school. It's located in the Donovan area of Sudbury. In general, and this is a big generalization, our children come from families that potentially have had struggles in their life. No question. So that being said, our children are as bright and beautiful as any other children in any other school. We really believe in instilling a sense of identity and pride in who you are. So our hope is that, number one, you will love school. When you leave the building, you will go on to great things, and that doesn't necessarily mean educationally. It doesn't mean that you're going to go to university, but it means that you're going to be a good person. It means that you're going to treat people respectfully. It means that you're going to be a good parent to the next generation. Potentially, you could go to university. Doctors, lawyers, that's what we want to see, but it doesn't mean that everyone's going to fit into that mold. Our building is filled with amazing children of all different backgrounds, but we do have a high population of First Nation, Métis, and Inuit students. Primarily, we have First Nations students in our building, so we do have a true responsibility to be responsive to their needs and to complement the math and literacy curriculum with the cultural supports and a better understanding of our students and their families. What happens here doesn't happen anywhere else. The care and the focus into recognizing the value of Indigenous teachings here. This is what gives our young people hope, their identity. It's very important that our young people have their identity and that they can appreciate their identity. All that previous curriculums have embedded into young people that there's no hope. It's important for them to see their path through the future, but the only way they'll see that is to see the footsteps that have come behind them. It's very, very important. Everyone, Indigenous, non-Indigenous students, teachers within this building are committed to that holistic view of that lifelong learning, that we have them here for a short bit of time, but while they are here, they will be taken care of in mind, body and spirit. And everything that happens in the school, whether it be academic, whether it be the extracurricular activities, it is 100% dedicated to that mindset. So that's a really important piece, I think, is the importance of that holistic approach, the importance of identity and culture that everyone sees themselves within this learning environment. So those are some really precious things. For myself, as an Indigenous person, I came through the same school board as a child from JK all the way up. And when I went to my elementary school, I didn't see these posters up on the wall. I didn't see Anishinaabe people in the system. So I was lost for a long time, and I didn't see it until I went to Laurentian University. And that's when I started learning about my people and understanding myself. So for them to see it as a young age, you walk with your head a bit higher. You walk around and you nod at people and you know that I am a celebrated, I am even acknowledged, I am even included, because we know what it feels like not to be acknowledged, not to be included. And when you have it in your home, when you walk around, it changes you, you know? You can be yourself. You can... Ah, yes I am. I'm here. Back when they were developing the school, it was recognizing the importance of letting architects who have been conditioned to build boxes know that this is not a building. This is a space for human beings to be human. And it needs to be understood that it's not your typical building. And because of where it's located, that's what was exciting so many people, but myself personally was knowing that my children would be in a building this close to nature. Because most of the summer, we would be spending that time outside. And then to have them come to a school that had no access to the outside would be stifling of them being humans. And that's that message that indigenous knowledge is actually human knowledge. And if we look to all cultures and all spiritualalities and traditions that we will see those human teachings. And education is one of those places where more of those human teachings need to be infused and more of the spaces need to be more conducive to that human way of learning and engaging. Our school is a brand new school to the neighborhood. We used to be farther down the street and it was all surrounded in concrete. When we first moved here, when people would come and ask the kids what's the difference about the school, all they would talk about is the grass and the trees. They didn't care about the inside of the school, they didn't care about the new gym. It was evident that they hadn't been surrounded by nature before. They were really proud of that. They're proud of our brook. They're proud of how much time we spend on the trails. They're proud of the outdoor classroom. And just to spend time in those spaces is important to them, so it makes it important to us. We're privileged in that the leadership in our building really enables us to do that work. But it's like I wouldn't even have started thinking about this if it wasn't for our principal and vice principal and other people in our building. I'm terrified of snakes. I don't like bugs. I'm not particularly an outside lover. But it was like kindergarten is doing these great things and they're going outside and the kids love to be there and our vice principal and one of our ECEs is going to this really cool workshop. Do you want to come? And the next thing I know, I'm like, sure, I'll take my kids outside every Wednesday all year long. This is great. Lots of animal tracking this year, which is funny because I didn't come out with a plan that we were going to really focus on one thing or the next about my kids. Just they love tracking. They love identifying plants and medicines. They love building shelters, so it's a completely different way of thinking. So instead of me going out there necessarily and thinking, okay, we're going to cover curriculum expectations 3.2, that's not necessarily what happens. So it's like they do what they kind of want to do and I guide them in that. Like sometimes I have a bigger idea of what sort of where we're going but it's sort of doing it backwards. Then I go and look and see what it connects to and then try to fill in the gaps. When we look at curriculum, we are pushing for that inquiry-based approach where there's that shared leadership for learning. And so yet there are some challenges around that because as a teacher, often we do have that type A personality of wanting to make sure that we're controlling that environment in a very prescribed way because that's the way our curriculum is set up. As a teacher, you have a role and your role is to ensure that you're providing opportunity for students to lead the learning. Then the learning becomes that, it becomes a collective knowledge and taking that approach, that's what we're talking about when we're talking about Indigenous education. When you walk through these doors, you're going to hear laughter and you're going to hear laughter from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. because it's the culture that everyone has helped cultivate in the school. There's a lot of things that are sad working here but those kids are the best. They're the best kids in the world. They're so funny and resilient and they just want to learn and to have kids that are so grateful and love school. Like that's our goal here. I care about curriculum but my number one goal is for you to feel safe for you to feel loved and for you to love school. Like that's my biggest goal over everything and I think that's why the people that work here do such a good job because we put kids first and I think the joy of working in this building is that for sure. When we talk about protocols and bringing in elders and the Indigenous knowledge it's a co-guided learning. So there's an openness that is present within this building. When we consider what that looks like when an elder comes into the classroom the teacher is sort of that guide on the side. Indigenous education really is about a collective. It is not one person that is necessarily an expert. Any elder or knowledge keeper will tell you that. I always get asked about the Catholic Board and I've gotten a lot of flack from our community about working in the Catholic Board. What am I doing here? And the main reason is First Nations spirituality. When you talk about the medicine wheel you can't talk about the medicine wheel without a focus on spirituality because again everything, our language, everything that we did connected to spirit and the earth. And everything was about the children. So it's really hard to teach about our culture when you're not talking about that spiritual part. And then of course we've got kids in this building. When you do work for that Catholic School Board look man, we've got a lot of kids in this building that are First Nations. And those kids need support. And they don't get the teachings and I bring it in. And again I can freely and openly talk about anything I want. That spiritual part is such a big deal man. For me, for students, for our people. So there's more freedom for me to do that, which I like. I've had the opportunity to have a number of teachers who were too scared to identify. But because of the teachings in the classroom doing the teachings with the children, they came out and they identified after me. And that was very powerful when that started to happen because all their lies they were probably told they would never say those things. Never to admit that. And to come out after having the teachings and realize it. Hey I should be proud of William. This is a home, not just for our students but it's a home for the parents. And all those community partners that want to come in here and help us educate these children. It takes a village to educate our children in a good way. And that saying is lost these days because that's what this place is. The village raising our kids, not just a teacher in a classroom. It's the EAs, it's the ISWs, it's the elders, it's the better beginnings, the after school program. We're all this community that teaches and educates and raises our children here. And that's what makes this such a great place to work. It's not just a closed door place like a lot of schools are. Now is the time. For hundreds of years we had to keep it secret, we had to keep it safe. But when that white buffalo returned to Turtle Island in 97 that was the time that that door kind of closed and the next fire was lit. Now is the time that we're supposed to be sharing these teachings with the rest of humanity. It doesn't matter what color you are. This Anishinaabic teachings that we learn and that I teach those are human being teachings. They're not for just one part of the medicine mill. They're for all races of mankind. And we've gotten so far away from that beautiful holistic circular thinking that that medicine mill teaches us. That's what we need right now. Like society needs to get out of their hierarchical short-term narrow-minded thinking and get back to that seven-generational circular way of thinking. For many years in Canada quality education was judged in a Western philosophy. So it was your math, your literacy, but it was not in nature. It was not in the world we live in. It was in textbooks. It was theories. It was formulas. And I think today we're at a different place where we are as a country recognizing that Indigenous knowledge is of equal value. I left school learning that I contributed nothing at all to Canada. You know, I left school learning through those books that my goodness, it was a good thing somebody came and discovered us, you know? So I leave school walking around with my head down feeling not very good about myself, you know? And St. David's School has one school that shares the culture, it shares the gifts, it shares the contributions that our Indigenous community has put forward that we do have a presence in Canada on this land.