Blackfoot Confederacy hosts annual education conference

By Alexandra Noad - Lethbridge Herald Local Journalism Initiative Reporter on November 13, 2024.

Herald photo by Alexandra Noad Karli Roszell, wellness service provider at Napi's Playground Elementary School, speaks to educators at the Blackfoot Confederacy Education Conference on Tuesday at the Agri-food Hub.

Teachers from four reserves of the Blackfoot Confederacy have gathered Tuesday and today for the annual Blackfoot Confederacy Education Conference.

This conference helps educators, support staff and trustees throughout the Confederacy come together with the common goal moving forward with helping the children and youth of the Nations.

Each year a different tribe hosts the conference and chooses a theme for the event.

This year, it was the Piikani Nation located in southern Alberta’s turn and they chose the focus to be “developing critical thinking.”

Lisa Crowshoe, superintendent for the Peigan Board of Education Society, says the theme stemmed from the state of emergency announced early this year due to the opioid crisis.

“One of the main things with this is we wanted to give tools and resources to our educators so they can take them home and back to their classrooms, or even back to their families,” said Crowshoe.

Margaret Potts, vice-chair of the Peigan Board of Education Society, says it is important for these children to have their identity and understand their culture to help combat the opioid crisis.

“We’ve got our educators that teach the curriculum, but that is just a part of getting education. The bigger part of it is who we are and to teach our children their language and to be able to teach them land-based learning,” said Potts.

Potts also emphasized the importance of making sure the students are well fed as they’re growing.

Crowshoe says the schools are prepared to give support if the students have loved ones who pass away through the opioid crisis.

Crowshoe also touched on the importance of storytelling, not just as a Blackfoot way of life, but also to develop critical thinking for the children.

“Storytelling is a pedagogy. We become better at it as we become more seasoned…if you’re really developing critical thinking, for children to listen to a story and understand their take away from it,” said Crowshoe.

Both Crowshoe and Potts expressed the need for Blackfoot children to attend schools on the reserve to gain the Blackfoot ways of knowing.

“From the time they set foot into the school, when they are four years old, they know they’re in an Indigenous school. They know they’re being taught by Indigenous people (and) our Indigenous ways are shown every minute of the day,” said Crowshoe.

Potts added the goal for the schools is to bring healing to the Confederacy by healing their children.

“Going back to intergenerational trauma, we want to move forward into intergeneration healing. This is a big part of our kids being at home on the reserve in our own school,” said Potts.