Through their eyes – Pique Newsmagazine

The Xet’òlacw Community School on the traditional territory of the Lil’wat Nation was founded in 1972, when a group of parents unhappy with Canada’s treatment of their children decided to take matters into their own hands.

Today, the school serves as a beacon of hope: a place where an education system built on resilience helps future leaders connect to their culture and traditional territory, and where the youngest members of the Lil’wat Nation turn the tables on future generations .

Today, Rosa Andrews is the school’s proud principal and a welcoming face to both current and former students. She has revolutionized the local education system and created a friendly atmosphere for the locals.

“I was a student of Indian Day School. I was afraid of going to public school,” Andrews recalls. “My brothers were in the public school system and were not treated well. One of their friends was punched and knocked unconscious by a teacher. My brothers had to find their way home. They hid in the ditches all the way home because the teacher drove along the road looking for them.”

Andrews’ mother decided to take action when her boys refused to go to school ever again. “They said if she wanted them to go back to school, she would have to start our own school,” she says. “Then my mother and a few others took over the Indian Day School in Mount Currie. They brought in elders to teach us. I began to learn that we had songs, a language, a culture, and our ways.

This momentous change was the beginning of something special, the beginning of restoring balance. “The way the education system functioned meant it gave us no pride,” says Andrews. “It was a form of assimilation. It was a continuation of ‘Kill the Indian in the child.’”

Xet’òlacw Community School’s super courses are an integral part of a curriculum that prioritizes protecting their students’ sense of self. In addition to the regular classes such as Mathematics, English, Ucwalmicwts, Social Studies and Science, Xet’òlacw Community School organizes five super courses throughout the year. Each course lasts a minimum of five days and offers students the opportunity to delve into an area of ​​interest, develop new skills, engage with traditional and contemporary aspects of Lil’wat culture, and explore potential career directions.

The super courses are usually held in September, December, February, April and June. This year’s super courses include: mountain biking, restaurant kitchen preparation, fine arts, exploring the area, ultimate frisbee, traditional crafts, golf and frisbee golf, bull riding, Shakespeare, cedar hat making, independent studies, graduate preparation and construction. Former students were able to learn woodworking, skiing and snowboarding, hunting and fishing, driver training, philosophy, wilderness first aid and emergency preparedness, and equine studies.

The school’s annual super courses are a favorite with students and teachers alike. Students from group 8 go camping to Skelula7 (Owl Lake), while students from group 11 make an exploratory trip to college and university. Meanwhile, group 12 walks the long path to the Stein.

Charlotte Jacklein is one of the teachers on the super courses.

“In my current supercourse exploring the area, we are canoeing on One Mile Lake, hiking the Duffey, whitewater rafting on the Green River, horse riding near Birkenhead Lake, and visiting Elder and Hereditary Chief Hubie Jim in Sutikalh in the Duffey,” she says. “In addition to exploring their traditional territory in a variety of ways, students help plan and purchase meals, discuss and decide on possible itineraries based on weather, conditions and group needs, and develop their teamwork and leadership skills.”

Andrews says the courses have been around for as long as she can remember.

“The super courses are more our way of connecting children to their land and traditional territory,” she says. ‘When I take the children in group 12 to the Steindal, I take a spiritual leader and elder with me. We do our sweat ceremony. The children build the sweat lodge. They learn the proper procedure for building a sweat lodge. The elder and the spiritual leader are both there to teach and guide them. They go through sweat. When I have sweated with those children, I see and hear what is being learned there.”

For many students it is the first time they sweat. The journey gives them time to disconnect from the modern world and connect with what really matters.

“It’s really good for them because there’s no Wi-Fi,” says Andrews. “They need to disconnect and reconnect with the land and the spiritual connections that are out there. When they reach grade 12, it’s a long walk. Along the way, the children learn team building. Our culture is not just about us. We always think about the community and how we can contribute to our community.”

Photos taken by the students show the important bond between the elders and the youngest members of the community. Andrews has seen firsthand how culture saves lives. One student’s story stuck with her because it shows how important the super courses can be.

“There was one student and for some reason his parents moved,” she said. “He ended up in Alberta. When he came back to us in high school, he was very disconnected. He suffered greatly from alcohol and drugs. He started coming to school, but he couldn’t stay in a classroom. I started feeding him. I kept asking him if he was hungry. I gradually got him into the classroom and he started taking lessons.”

The following year, Andrews took the young man on the Stein trip with her Grade 12s.

“When we got there, he found a drum that someone had brought. He started singing and said he wanted to learn to play the drums,” she says. “He wanted his own name. We said we would work on that. The fog came and we couldn’t fly away. We decided to have a naming ceremony…

“They sat by the sacred fire and talked about the name. Suddenly I heard the boy screaming. He started running towards me. He was so excited he didn’t see the guideline on my tent. He hit him and fell.”

The young student was so excited because he had finally found his name.

The group then held a naming ceremony for the young man, with all the Grade 12 children participating.

“During our naming ceremony… you lift the person up. We put him on a block of wood. We wrapped him in a bear skin,” says Andrews.

“During the ceremony he kept telling himself he wasn’t going to cry. When he was officially named, one of the students said they wanted to sing him a song. They sang the Bear Song to him. Then another student wanted to sing him a song and they kept doing it.”

After being honored with the songs, the young boy vowed to reconnect with his language and become a fluent speaker. “When we take the children to the land, it’s about connecting them to who they are as Ucwalmícw, people of the land,” says Andrews.

Former students are always welcome at school if they feel lost or just want to feel at home.

“Many students come back. They come back as teaching assistants,” says Andrews. “There has to be balance. The mission and vision of our school is to be proud of who we are. We must raise our children in such a way that we can entrust them to be our future leaders, as we have been entrusted. There must be balance within that. Our children must be able to survive in both worlds. They have to survive in the Western world with their identity intact. At the moment, the Western way of thinking is so dominant that we are losing balance.”

Learn more at slcc.ca.