I. General Information
School Name: Ladysmith Secondary
School District: SD#68 Nanaimo-Ladysmith
Inquiry Team Members:
Brenda Kohlruss: brenda.kohlruss@sd68.bc.ca
William Taylor: wtaylor@sd68.bc.ca
Mandy Jones: vjones@sd68.bc.ca
Gena Seward-Wilson: GSeward-Wilson@sd68.bc.ca
Tanya Heidelbach: tanya.heidelbach@sd68.bc.ca
Stefania Rosioru: stefania.rosioru@sd68.bc.ca
Jesse Winter: jesse.winter@sd68.bc.ca
Stephen Epp: sepp@sd68.bc.ca
Shelley Gvojich: sgvojich@sd68.bc.ca
Inquiry Team Contact Email: brenda.kohlruss@sd68.bc.ca
II. Inquiry Project Information
Type of Inquiry: NOIIE Transitions Study
Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Secondary (8-12)
Curricular Areas Addressed: Other: Attendance and sense of place and belonging
Focus Addressed: Indigenous understandings (for example, Traditional Knowledge, oral history, reconciliation)
In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? Including local Indigenous Elders more strongly at our school.
III. Spirals of Inquiry Details
Watch our story here!
Scanning: The scanning built up over the other years of the study. It is less about attendance and connecting to curriculum. We did see that our learners saw strengths in themselves that weren’t apparent at school. The four questions that matter related to home life and not particularly to school life. The people that believed in them were unconnected to us. They felt they could do well in life, but just had to get through school. The strength of their lives was completely separate from school – they didn’t see or feel a connection.
Focus: We were hoping to find a better sense of the students and connection between their respected home life and here. By respected home life, I mean the best parts of our living culture – not necessarily what is lived every day. The best way we could think to do that was to bring Elders in more. We needed to develop a genuine partnership with elders respected in the local community.
Hunch: There has been a growing sense of place and belonging at the school with the Hul’qum’i’num room, Indigenous Learning classroom, and Indigenous Education room being together. Seven years ago, many local Indigenous students were skipping and were not in the building. There was an improvement as they started coming to our rooms, but even we were scattered and our room felt temporary. Our Elder in residence, one of our team members, listened to Elders always. In the last two years, one Elder in particular wanted an “Elders Gathering” to talk about our sacred teachings. We approached him to see if this was something we could do at our school. He led us to include an “advising committee” of other highly respected Elders. There is a duality to the word Elder – someone older or someone older who has strong teachings to give. He meant the latter and found Elders involved in longhouse ceremonies, and along the way, one suggested we include two up and coming Elders. They became our core group.
New Professional Learning: Our core learning came from the meetings that we held: Elders’ meetings. At first we thought we would only have one meeting to seek advice on how to hold an Elders’ Gathering at our school and decide on the topics to be discussed, timeline etc., but the first meeting we scheduled lasted several hours and only one question was broached – should we record the Gathering. We were also advised during that time that we needed to get to know each other. One of our Elders had gone to our school and had a terrible time with racism. We needed time to truly find our common ground. It couldn’t be talked over as quickly as an agenda item. We needed deep listening skills, patience, and the ability to be vulnerable ourselves.
Taking Action: We invited those Elders, and sometimes a few others as time went along, to other Elders’ meetings in preparation for our Elders’ Gathering. We paid the Elders each time for their time. This is a sticking point to be honest. In our Indigenous culture, it is customary to pay in cash on the day of – not to take a person’s SIN, address, etc. and send a cheque. Cheques are troublesome – but in school accounting systems, cash is troublesome. Anyway, we found ways to satisfy both for now – getting information ahead of time and having cash on hand for the day of… I don’t know how that was reconciled exactly. Then we had lunch together, which is often a time when more teachings would come. The students in our Land and Language class were part of the last 2 meetings, sitting behind the Elders. We spent a lot of time teaching our class how to be respectful with Elders – specifically how to escort an Elder to their seat (holding out an arm that the Elder can choose to take or not), how to make coffee and tea, how to listen (no ear buds, focus on the Elder, not treating Elder as secondary to their friend). The pre-teaching and constant reminders of the importance of showing respect to Elders paid off beautifully. Many of our students are from the local Indigenous community, and some are not Indigenous. This was helpful having them there so that the Elders would have a glimpse of the kind of students we had and could feel safe. They also had the choice of who they would be talking to – some teachings are sacred and can only happen with certain people. The Elders chose to talk to all the students and save those teachings for a different place and time. Having the Elders feel safe was paramount. We didn’t want to overwhelm the Elders. We also tried to work as traditionally as we could, even down to paying witnesses 50 cents from each family member/staff member and our main host Elder. Many others from the community joined us in paying as well, showing us they considered themselves part of our family. Our class caught fish to share with the Elders and guests at the Elders’ Gathering and next day gathering. We had a Hul’qum’i’num language sharing event the next day, which Elders were invited to watch. Many did. The students served the Elders lunch and took great pride in their contributions.
Checking: The difference we made is a strong one, but one that needs to continue. The Elders felt comfortable to come this year. We have never had so many Elders in our building. In general, Indigenous adults from the local community don’t come for parent teacher interviews or for many events. The disconnect is strong. Our institution is still hostile territory. The young people were truly embraced at our meetings and at our Big Elders Gathering. We had two young men that volunteered to be our youth speakers, and we had no idea how large this was. The speaker that we hired for the event spoke to the young men about the role in community, and many Elders stood up to publicly to give teachings and encouragement to the young men. We paid each speaker that spoke to the young men a dollar from each family member to show our thanks for their words.
Reflections/Advice: We all learned so much. We need to continue having events that include Elders at our school and perhaps in the community. The Elders are already asking when the next one is going to be. They are hungry to gather to share their teachings with the young people. I personally have not soaked in even half of what was offered that day. You are supposed to hear the teachings over and over and as you are ready, you hear what you need to learn. If I were to give advice, I would find ways to make acquaintance with a local Elder. Ask who they would recommend you talk to about teachings for the young people. Go visit in person and bring a gift. A basket of fruit or a blanket or whatever is appropriate to your area. Definitely pay the Elders at a good wage. We did $200 for a morning for each Elder. Their knowledge is past invaluable. Show respect in all ways and mean it.