Orange Shirt Day only comes once a year, but students at Sergeant Tommy Prince School at Brokenhead Ojibway Nation learn about their cultural history and the importance of truth and reconciliation year-round.
In the lead-up to the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, students of all ages worked on projects and attended guest presentations to help further their understanding of their community and its history.
Former director of education Wendell Sinclair is retired, but is still involved in the cultural teachings at the school, which his grandchildren attend.
“Our students have to learn to live in both worlds. Our world here as Anishinaabeg, but also the outside world. They have to know what’s going on and to be able to thrive in either world,” Sinclair told Global Winnipeg.
“I have many relatives here. My grandchildren are here, my great-nieces and nephews all go to this school, and I’m very proud to see the amount they’re exposed to the positiveness of who we are as a people.”
That cultural positivity, he said, is in stark contrast to what he learned as a child. Sinclair attended residential school in Brandon, Man., between 1965 and 70, and said the curriculum at Sergeant Tommy Prince School is a “night-and-day” difference — and something he’s proud to be a part of.
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“I can see the importance of retaining who we are as a people. The residential school system tried to take that away from us.
“I think back, as a child, on some of the things I’ve experienced in a negative way, and it’s rooted in me, and I can’t get rid of it. I can try to learn to cope with it, but it doesn’t leave you, it seems.
“I feel proud of seeing what (today’s students) are doing, because that was absent in my early years in school. It’s a sign to me that we’ve made progress back to learning who we are.”
Principal Wendy McPherson said the school’s programming was designed to empower the students by giving them a curriculum rooted in their culture and teaching them how to advocate for change.
“It’s very important that they know their culture, and that they know they have a place in this world … and that the world is waiting for them and all the beautiful gifts they have,” she said.
“They are the generation that has the power to change some of the outlooks and some of the past wrongs — a change that is going to affect their communities and their families, and, I think, eventually as a whole nation.”
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