In the spring of 2021, Canadians were horrified to hear about the unmarked graves in Kamloops. For many, this was the moment they really started to consider the impact of the residential school system in Canada. One of the teachers at Bert Church High School, Amy Stachniak, wanted to do something to show our remorse and concern for Indigenous peoples - the idea that took root was to create a garden that would help us to remember the children, reflect on the legacy of the past, and encourage reconciliation.
Initially the idea was to create a garden that would bloom with spring flowers like daffodils and tulips, but it was decided that because many of us participating in the garden were settler Canadians, we needed to reach out to local Indigenous Elders and knowledge keepers to help us create a garden that would reflect reconciliation within our community. This proved more difficult than we expected, as we thought we could have the garden done by the first national Day for Truth and Reconciliation in September 2021. It wasn’t until March of 2022 that we were able to bring a Metis knowledge keeper, Kalyn Kodiak with Kodiak Herbal to share her knowledge with our students and staff. |
The Indigenous Studies class then took on the task of taking this knowledge and designing the garden. Kalyn taught us about the various traditional uses of the plants, and how some plants are complimentary while others can hurt each other - which is a perfect metaphor for the relationship between Indigenous peoples and the rest of Canada. We took many of her ideas to help us start to create our vision of the garden, including the use of blue and yellow flowers which attract bees, (and are the colors of Bert Church / the province of Alberta). As we reflected on her discussion of the traditional uses of the plants as food and medicine, we thought it would be a good idea to include the Biology and Foods classes in our exploration of the garden plants. By creating links to learn more about the plants, visitors to our gardens can explore more than just the peace and beauty of the garden.
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Kalyn cautioned us that sweetgrass does not grow well on its own in our area, so we decided we will replant sweetgrass each spring as a way to show our ReconciliAction every year. We wanted to identify these plants in a respectful way, so the class decided that we would reach out to the Metis, Siksika, Tsuut’ina and Stoney Nakoda First Nations to help us create signs in their languages. The art class agreed that they can help us paint the signs that will be created by the construction class. |