guest speakers from our local aboriginal community

The intermediate students have had the honour to have visitors from our local aboriginal community. Rhiannon Bennett and Karen Campbell of the Musqueam First Nation shared their personal stories with divisions 1, 2 and 3. Rhiannon spoke about how her family had been affected by residential schools and shared how the Musqueam are working to revitalize their culture and language. She shared some of the Musqueam language books and shared the community plan the Musqueam is developing for self-sustainability.

Rhiannon's stories had a significant impact on our students and the students from division 3 wrote very reflective pieces about the experience.

This past week, a local aboriginal elder, Roberta Price, shared her story with the students from divisions 4 and 5. She shared the effects of both residential schooling and foster care on her family. Her personal experiences with the loss of her culture and language deeply touched the students and many of them asked her poignant and heart-felt questions. Roberta commented afterwards that she felt truly honoured by the genuine questions that students asked in such a respectful way.

We are very thankful that these special guests gave their time to share their stories with the Blair students to enhance our learning about residential schooling and issues affecting our local aboriginal community.
~Ms Novakowski