Public schools in the Saskatoon held various activities, including Rock Your Roots walks around their neighbourhoods on Monday, a community-wide event part of the observance of National Indigenous Peoples Day.
Saskatoon Public Schools Communications and Marketing manager Veronica Baker said the walk around the neighbourhoods, where each school was located, was already planned since a community-wide commemoration was not possible due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions still imposed by the provincial government this year.
The Saskatoon division took to social media in promoting the walk and other virtual sessions presented by Elders, Traditional Knowledge Keepers and SPS staff organized by the First Nations, Inuit, and MétisEducation Unit. Classes from different schools were invited to take part in the webinars.
“The education unit also shared a number of resources with all teachers last week for planning lessons for [Monday],” added Baker.
The event gives the younger generation an opportunity to reflect on the importance of knowing important issues like truth and the value of reconciliation.
Students carried banners, posters and Treaty No. 6 flags with Colette Bourgonje, school staff member, starting the day with a smudge around the school’s outdoor rock circle while students at Lakeridge School painted 215 rocks in honour of the 215 remains of children in a residential school in Kamloops. LS students then scattered the rocks during their walk and they wrote their own commitments to truth and reconciliation when they went back to their respective classes.
“On National Indigenous Peoples Day, we are reminded once again of the following commitments in our strategic plan: enact anti-racist/anti-oppressive practices, pursue a representative workforce and to focus on Indigenous student success,” said SPS Education Director Shane Skjerven.
