We invite you to experience three intensive days of personal and professional learning into the worldview of the Metis. Your days will be designed around activities and explorations to enrich your understanding of the significant foundational cultural perspectives that have supported indigenous cultural resilience through the millennia.
The purpose of the workshop is to explore and build Inclusive Relational Spaces for Reconciliation Education. Our time together is a great opportunity to become closer to the history of our land and our first peoples by learning through the guidance of authentic indigenous eyes. Having our elders share their thoughts and wisdom can bring us closer to viewing our experiences from within an indigenous worldview and encourage us to open our hearts and minds to other ways of Knowing, Being, Doing, and Relating.
Featured Experiences include:
The Brain Architecture Game is a group tabletop simulation game experience that builds understanding of the powerful role of experiences on early brain development; what promotes it, what derails it and with what consequences for children, families and society. (Facing Historical Trauma)
Learning from the Land: Visiting Metis Crossing and Fort Victoria. Métis Crossing is Alberta’s premier Métis Cultural Center is located in Smoky Lake County along the Victoria Trail. Métis Crossing is a major initiative of the Métis Nation of Alberta’s mission to provide a premier center for Métis cultural interpretation, education, gatherings, and business development. During our visit we will:
Tour the historic Métis Crossing barn/museum space that will reveal key elements of what it means to be Métis, both spirituality and culturally, and who they are today.
Stroll into a Métis fur trapping camp where you will be a part of the fur trapping process and witness key
components to living off the land, including making and tasting locally foraged teas.
Take a guided walk along the river valley to learn about local wildlife, and medicinal plants and trees. From Beaver Birch Trail you will jump into a voyager canoe and travel 5 km to Fort Victoria where you will experience what life was like at this early settlement when it was originally founded in 1860.
Our time at Métis Crossing will conclude with a Métis jig (lesson), bannock and tea.
(Learning from the Land)
Community Action Poverty Simulation: Living on the Edge is a unique experience designed to provide a glimpse into what it might be like to live on a low income, trying to survive from month to month. Participants are placed in different households, each with a story that describes their financial situation. The simulation is divided into four simulated weeks. Following the simulation, participants and community volunteers debrief the experience relating on how marginalized communities, and families, might impact student learning. (Facing Historical Trauma)
Closing the Achievement Gap- Kim Barker-Kay will draw from her Alberta based research and subsequent implementation of an Equity Framework Model identifying 8 common barriers to indigenous student achievement.
Educational equity is how educators provide all students with the individual support they need to reach and exceed a common standard. Within equitable schools, 4 common characteristics can be observed:
- Expectations set the bar for high achievement.
- Rigor provides the skills and learning the student needs to succeed.
- Relevancy connects the learner with the instruction and curriculum.
- Relationships helps the student believe in the teacher’s high expectations, engage with the rigorous curriculum, and respond to the relevancy of the learning.
Missing any one of these equity characteristics from an individual student’s experience in school, that student is likely not to succeed. (Creating School- based Relational Spaces).
This learning opportunity is being offered through a grant from Alberta Education.