DAY 11: CONFERENCE - CULTURAL CAMP DAY

 

We woke up to a temperature of 1 degree and sleet.  Made our way to Saskatoon University for the Cultural Camp day.  While walking to campus we called in to the local elementary school and had a chat with the Principal Shari .... Shari is in her first year of Principalship.  She is excited to be in the position and is happy in her school.  She told us that principals in Saskatoon get moved around every 3-5 years so they don't stay in schools for long periods of time.  I know that New Zealand used to do something similar with teachers back in the day, where they were placed in schools and moved around - giving them experience in different areas, particularly rural schools.  I wonder if this would work now in NZ?  It would only be successful if all rural schools had housing and they weren't necessarily teaching/principal roles.

The cultural camp was a great experience despite the sleet and freezing wind.  There would have been between 80-100 participants show up, I'm sure many stayed away because of the weather.  It was led by a Native woman called Julie Andrews (not of the sound of music), Julie is on the executive for the PHE Canada organisation.  Set up for the day were tents and Teepee.  In each was an activity or stall showing different aspects of the First Nations people.  There was a clothing/skins stall ran by what we in Aotearoa would call a Kuia.  She shared some of the native clothing and footwear that belonged to her and her whanau.  There were jackets, moccasins, books, skins and hats.  All hand made by friends and family over generations.  She also had a hide outside the tent where she showed how to skin the hide using moose bones.  Participants all had a go...certainly not an easy exercise and this kuia made it look easy.  There was a

tent where 2 wahine shared 'rongoa' - medicinal herbs and spices.  They explained the medicinal purposes and benefits of each herb and allowed participants to feel and taste some of them.  Very interesting to hear some of the similarities and differences to rongoa here in New Zealand.  There was a Teepee making group and a teepee for drum making and playing.  Wondering around the tents, for many of the Canadian participants this was an opportunity to get up close the First Nations culture and to learn of their heritage.  Most new little of the language and culture of the people which I found sad.

While at the camp we met Professor Emerita Dr Verna St Davis and we had the privilege to interview her to discuss the work she did at the Univeristy of Saskatchewan.  She is the Professor of under graduate and graduate courses integrated antiracist education in the Department of Educational Foundations from 1992 to 2022.  Dr. StDenis is both Metis and Cree, and member of Beardy’s and Okemasis First Nation, Treaty #6. Completed a BEd. (with distinction) U of S in 1982, Master of Arts, University of Alaska-Fairbanks, 1989 and a Ph.D. in Education at Stanford

University, 2002, Fulbright Scholar, 1994. Conducted extensive research on the personal and professional experiences and knowledges of Indigenous teachers working in Canadian public schools. Co-authored, etal., Contemporary Challenges and Approaches in Anti-Racist Teacher Education, Oxford International Encyclopedia of Education, Fall 2022. Winner of the R.W.B. Jackson Award – Most Outstanding Journal Article, Canadian Educational Researchers’ Association, May 2008. Author of most widely circulated journal article: “Silencing Aboriginal Education through Multiculturalism”, 2011. Researcher and co-producer of SSHRC funded film: Finding and Understanding Our Way: Decolonizing Canadian Education, 2021. Co-editors with Dr. Amanda Gebhard and Dr. Sheelah McLean, White Benevolence: Racism and Colonial Violence in the Helping Professions, Fernwood Press, best-selling for 2022-2023. Near completion of research titled: “How school leaders narrate their personal and professional engagement with anti-racist education?” Appointed by the Government of Canada to the Saskatchewan Federal Judicial Advisory Committee, Fall 2022-2024. Currently funded 23/24 by Institute of Indigenous Peoples Health Research to examine anti-Indigenous racism in health research funding protocols. 

PODCAST - Indigenous Education with Verna St Davis

It was truly an honour to speak with Dr St Davis, even though we did it on the field in near 0 degrees temperature with sleet and -4 windchill.  I would love to have spent longer to hear more of her amazing knowledge and experiences in indigenous education.  You can listen to the brief but interesting conversation on our intrepid journey: principalship 101 podcast.