Xast ̌ sxl ̌x: ʕ̌alt (KHAST - Sill -HAWT) Good day. It is Sinixt awareness month and students at Hume are learning how to say, Iskʷíst ___. (EES- kweest) My name is ______ and ask and answer the question, Ćkin̓ aspʔús? (Ch-KEEN-as-puh-oos) How are you? Later this month we will be exploring Sinixt creation stories and examining the map of the traditional territory of the Sinixt people. 

January is a time for looking at our goals and visions for the upcoming year and finding ways to be better people. We continue to look at our relationship with the land and how it connects us.

To kick off the month students at Hume continued with their Tipi Teachings and we looked at the Cree concept and teachings of Wȃhkôhtowin (WA-ko-toe-win) which means, We Are All Connected and We Are All Related. Students visually experienced how interconnected we are through the story of Nipiy (Cree word for water) and each played an animal or plant in the story. Each time the animal or plant was mentioned, we connected them with string and by the end of the story, each person had multiple connections in our intertwined web. Students reflected on why certain characters had more connections than others. We asked what would happen if any of the characters were removed from the web and what that would mean in the world outside. We also discussed that if we feel we are related to our brother the eagle and our sister the water, we have a different kind of relationship with the natural world and we are more inclined to care for nature as we do our own families. 

By examining how tied in we are to the land and its inhabitants, we become people of action, those who will care for the land for the next several generations.

Submitted by Naomi Legg, Aboriginal Academic Success Teacher at Hume Elementary