Blog Posts

Wildflower Blog Post - Expanding Awareness

May has been a bright, sunny, and busy month in Ab Ed! To honour MMIWG2S+ for Red Dress day on May 5th, students beaded and coloured dresses, writing inspiring messages of support and ideas in solidarity to break the cycles of violence.

May 5 is the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two Spirit Peoples (MMIWG2S). It is also known as Red Dress Day. May 1 to 7 is the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) Mental Health Week. May is also Mental Health Awareness Month across North America. This report includes articles related to each of these events.

Take Me Outside and Begin to Notice! 

At Canyon Lister Elementary School we have been busy with all our learning. Students have been eager to participate in several different learning opportunities such as the Equity Youth Circle, Soap Carving, and Traditional Medicines. As a community we are also looking forward to the raising of our school tipi and the SD8 Youth Pow Wow.

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.

This year the students in the Aboriginal Education program welcomed elders Donna Wright and Ann-Marie Smith to South Nelson to share the drum making process. This was an extra special project because it was 3 years in the making. We had hoped to make the drums in the spring of 2020, so we were so excited and honoured to be able to finally make the drums. Students spent the day stretching, tying, and weaving the drums together.

Mental health is described as one’s emotional, physiological, and social well being. At Kootenay River Secondary we are beginning to take the mental health of the student and staff body incredibly seriously. To create awareness, the Aboriginal Education Program has taken steps towards mending students' mental state and overall well being; we have noticed the staff and especially the students struggling.