ESTEVAN — Sacred Heart School/École Sacré Coeur in Estevan hosted many activities ahead of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, continuing to build up students' knowledge about different aspects of history, culture and more.
In the past, they built a teepee, had language learning, talked about Every Child Matters and had other activities. This year the school decided to focus on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its report.
"We're trying to take them to the next level. First, they were aware, now [we learn about] how can we actually help? So we're trying to lay the scaffolding that they can take action and not just the knowledge," said Michella Prokop, Grade 1 French immersion teacher, who is also the community member on staff for Indigenous learning and Indigenous education.
This year the school looked at 94 calls to action in the commission's report and the fact that 13 of them have been started or completed, and then tried to address the ones that are still to see progress.
"We've chosen as a school to take a rock from Mother Earth, from our community, and write on each rock one of the calls to action that have not been undertaken yet or that have not been completed," Prokop said. "Each class received a different call to action, wrote on the rock what it is; each class discussed their call to action. We tried to pair them so that young students were learning appropriate subjects."
When finished, rocks with calls to action were placed around the school, as well as at different locations in the Pleasantdale community.
"It's been a great learning experience for our students; they are more than aware of what went on in Canada's past as far as the residential schools and the suffering and the pain that was caused, and how we're all moving forward together. And that's our biggest goal is to get our children in the know … It'll be the youngsters that are moving forward with Indigenous peoples of our country. So we want them to be informed as to what the future steps are and the positive things that we can do now together," Prokop added.
Activities in the school were happening throughout the week leading up to Sept. 30. Prokop noted that they again touched on the Every Child Matters topic, and many kids chose to come to school wearing orange T-shirts on Friday. But the last day ahead of the Sept. 30 was focused on the commission's report.
Prokop noted the work they've been putting into Indigenous education over the past few years has already made a big difference.
"As a school and school division, we've really focused on Indigenous education the last few years, and I will say, as a Grade 1 teacher, I definitely noticed that the students are coming in from kindergarten and pre-K with knowledge. I don't have to impart all of that knowledge anymore," Prokop said. "They're much more aware of what's going on. They're aware of [why] we acknowledge the land and that there are still Indigenous people living here … And by the time they're getting to Grades 6,7 and 8, they really have the awareness, the vocabulary, the concepts."
