Student retreat hopes to impart lifelong lessons

By Ry Clarke - Lethbridge Herald Local Journalism Initiative Reporter on October 21, 2022.

Herald photo by Ry Clarke FNMI support worker Kristen Shade helps students from Gaylene Duke's Grade 1 class create an mural with their hand prints centered around the medicine wheel Thursday at Our Lady of the Assumption Elementary School.

Our Lady of the Assumption Elementary School held its annual Student Retreat on Thursday, focusing this year on Catholic and Indigenous learning and how the two work together in regard to students’ spiritual awareness.

Using the medicine wheel as a central image the school took students around to various sessions throughout the day to work on projects geared towards this learning.

“We have a faith plan that is laid out for us, and we wanted to see how we could make connections to that,” said Caryn Swark, associate principal at the school. “An ongoing concern within our school district is First Nations, Metis, and Inuit learning for all. We are always looking for ways to make those connections and to integrate Indigenous perspectives and ways of knowing into our schooling. This year’s Faith Plan looked at the theme of looking inwards and hearing the voice of God within yourself. The medicine wheel seemed like a very natural way to integrate those two.”

Helping towards the learning, Holy Spirt Catholic School Division has FNMI support workers to make sure Indigenous learning is taught in its schools.

“For me to be able to share my knowledge and teaching, my Blackfoot culture, I want the students to have an awareness before they get to junior high school. Then they have that connectedness of our culture,” said Kristen Shade, FNMI support worker at Our Lady of the Assumption and a Blackfoot educator. “They will bring that interest into a deeper more understanding way and want to educate themselves. I want to bridge that link.”

During the school’s retreat, students went to various sessions of knowledge towards the medicine wheel and how it can be incorporated into their faith across aspects of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual knowledge.

“With the medicine wheel, everything is connected, it all has to be balanced,” said Shade. “There is no such thing as a true perfect balance, but in order to be that neutral positive healthy lifestyle, they have to be balanced and take care of themselves.”

Working towards that balance, the staff at Our Lady are present with the learning as well to incorporating it into their own studies.

“One of the great things that we have done as a district is encourage people to gain knowledge and to be more aware. To look for places where that learning intersects with opportunities to bring out Indigenous people’s perspectives in our knowledge,” said Swark.

With a day of fun learning activities, the students gained more appreciation and knowledge for Indigenous culture while creating connections across all levels of mind, body, emotion, and spirit.

“My hope is all my students take a little bit away from my teachings,” said Shade. “I’m only in there every other two weeks, so I hope what I get to share with them, what I educate them with, they are going to take that knowledge and use that as lifelong lessons.”