Tipi raising cause for celebration

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/06/2019 (2533 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The spirit of reconciliation is alive at Kildonan-East Collegiate.

On June 10, students and staff at KEC held a tipi raising ceremony on the front lawn of the school at 845 Concordia Ave.

“It was very fulfilling,” said Nathaniel Lenton, a Grade 12 student at KEC from Peguis First Nation. “It was such a great feeling, having the whole ceremony. It filled my heart up.”

The 20-foot tall tipi is part of a permanent outdoor Indigenous learning space. The celebration on June 10 included a blessing from elders Norman Meade and Carol Moar, drumming and singing by Buffalo Red Thunder, along with the raising of the tipi itself.

“It shows that the school is diverse, that it’s welcoming to Indigenous people,” said Kiera Fleury, a Grade 12 student from Bloodvein First Nation. “That’s what I wanted this tipi to show.”

“It’s important to show our commitment to truth and reconciliation,” Darwin MacFarlane, principal of KEC, said. “We’re excited for how this new space will enhance student learning now and into the future.”

Lenton and Fleury are members of First Nations Together, a student leadership group at KEC that spearheaded the campaign to raise the tipi and build a permanent outdoor Indigenous learning space at the school. The group was founded two years ago as a way to make the school a more inclusive and welcoming space for Indigenous students.

“We wanted to make a difference,” Fleury explained. “(Too many) Indigenous students who come from reserves to go to school, they turn to drugs and alcohol, they start skipping and they don’t graduate.”

After First Nations Together proposed the idea, the administration at KEC and the River East Transcona School Division quickly got on board.

“This would not have happened without the support of people in the school,” said Luke Klassen, a teacher at the school who has been a liaison with First Nations Together. “We’ve been lucky to have that support, which gives me a lot of hope around how it will be used in the future.”

Along with the tipi, the second semi-permanent tipi in RETSD, which will stay up for the rest of the school year, and will be raised at various times going forward, the learning space also includes a medicine garden. (Bernie Wolfe Community School is also home to one, which is raised for special occasions.)

“I’m thinking about how Grade 9s are going to feel, kids coming from the res. That’s going to be such a connecting feeling,” Natashsa Bignell, a Grade 12 student who came to KEC from Thompson, Man., said. “Without even having to enter the doors, they’ll feel connected to the school, like they have a place here. That would have helped a lot for us, back when we first came in.”

“In my childhood, I’d seen one tipi as big as that put up in my own yard on the reserve,” said Isabelle Young, a Grade 12 student from Bloodvein First Nation. “Being able to experience it now, it took me back to my childhood. It was like, wow, this is who I am, this is where I come from, but it’s happening at my school in the city. It feels like a home away from home.”

Having the tipi and medicine garden displayed so prominently on school ground is only the beginning of an ongoing dialogue between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students, though.

“I hope this will bring us all together, and we can all learn from each other,” Young said. “I hope more non-Indigenous students are open to learning about where we come from and why this tipi is up.”

Sheldon Birnie
Community Journalist

Sheldon Birnie is a reporter/photographer for the Free Press Community Review. Email him at sheldon.birnie@freepress.mb.ca or call him at 204-697-7112

   Read full biography