Salmo Secondary School Aboriginal Education Program and Indigenizing the Curriculum

This year the Aboriginal Education Program at SSS has chosen two main focus areas: beading and plants.
Recently, we have been focusing on beading earrings.
Yellow, white, black and purple earring represent non-binary.
Black, gray, white and purple earring represent asexual.

We read an excerpt about Gramma Tilly planting and harvesting tobacco from Monique Gray Smith’s “Tilly: A Story of Hope and Resilience”. We discussed some tobacco teachings from Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass including:

The gift of tobacco is a spiritual gift and a way to show your highest regard.
Offering tobacco to plants is a way to show reciprocity.
Tobacco seeds germinate when they smell smoke.

The students chose sweetgrass to wake up the seeds.

A collaboration between the Foods classes and the Aboriginal Education Program received a grant from the
Harvest Bin Program from BC Agriculture in Classroom to explore growing and using plant medicine in Foods class. Students read about the significance of the three sisters and planned their garden beds to incorporate plants that have significance to indigenous peoples.

The staff at SSS continue to learn about the Circle of Courage and how to incorporate these teachings to best meet the needs of all learners.

On May 25, Jocelyn Stuart Family Connections Navigator from the Metis Nation of British Columbia will be
co-hosting an information session for Metis families in Salmo with Aboriginal Success Teachers Kari-Lynn Hatt and Lisa Berk.

Submitted by Lisa Berk - Aboriginal Academic Success Teacher - Salmo Secondary School