This spring at Hume has been filled with Indigenous language learning and art. Students in K-2 listened to "A Home for q̓ʷəq̓ʷc̓wíyaʔ" (Chipmunk) which is a Syilx captíkʷł (traditional oral story) illustrated by Billie Kruger and published by the Okanagan Nation Alliance. It teaches Syilx values, family decision-making, and connection to the land through the story of a chipmunk finding a home. Grade 3-5 students listened to “How Coyote Broke the Salmon Dam” where Coyote (snk̓lip) breaks the salmon dam by disguising himself as a baby to trick the sisters guarding it. After being adopted by the sisters, he tricks them, breaks the dam, and brings salmon to the interior, sharing them with the people. Throughout the story, students learned different Nsyilxcen animal names, and afterwards learned numbers to 10.

In April we have been focusing on learning some Southern/Heritage Michif and about different aspects of Métis culture, through the story “Métis Like Me” by Tasha Hilderman. We discussed different family traditions and learned a few Michif words for cultural foods such as bannock and saskatoon berries, and greetings. We also learned some michif words for different colours, and compared and contrasted the french words to find similarities.

Greetings

Taanishi (tan-shay) - hello

miina kawapamitin (Meena ka-wapa-min-tin) - good bye

Maarsii (mar-see) - thank you

Traditional Foods

La gaalet (la gallet) - Bannock

La faarinn - flour

Di loo - water

Li seuk (sucre) - sugar

Enn boll - bowl

Lii pwayr (lee pwear) - saskatoon berry

We are ending April with a whole school art project inspired by Christi Belcourt’s paintings. We began by reading the story “We Are All Dots: A Big Plan For a Better World” by Carolina Zanotti and Giancarlo Macrì, and discussed how everyone on earth is connected and we all have the ability to make big changes in the world by showing compassion and helping one another. We connected this idea to Christi Belcourt’s art, as she has said about her work “It’s always primarily a message about the respect for lands and waters: the respect we need to have for the earth and everything that is around us. As human beings, we are mistaken if we think we are superior to other species.” Christi’s art uses pointillism to represent the beads used in Métis beadwork. We took this idea and used beadwork templates to create beautiful pointillism flowers that will be turned into a beautiful collective work of art that represents the connectedness of our school and how we can do wonderful and beautiful things when we work together. We hope to have the final art piece finished by the beginning of May.