"One of the many things my grandmother taught me was not to discriminate against any race or religion, because, she told me, you don't know who your child is going to be, you don't know who your grandchild is going to be. One of your children may marry into that race and even before your grandchildren are born you are putting them down."
This was part of a story shared with the Living Sky School Division board of education last week when members of the division's Elders Council visited central office.
Elder Ethel Stone said, "I always think about that because my grandkids have married out and I have a great-grandchild who has a white dad, and I look at her and think that's what my grandmother told me about, and it is something that is very precious."
Learning to look at things in a different way is one of the most important things establishing the Elders Council has brought to Living Sky.
"We don't always come to resolutions on things, sometimes it's about getting feedback from the Elders Council," said Randy Fox, director of education. "We slowly but surely get things done, but a lot of it is just trying to understand things from a new perspective, or a different perspective."
Items that have come up at the table are the board's operational plan, the role of the Elder, Treaty education, student engagement, the land-based learning/cultural camp being developed by Cando School principal Tammy Riel, an elder and cultural leader directory being established for the division, the First Nations and Métis Education Achievement Plan.
Riel has been a real help in the establishment of the Elders Council for Living Sky School Division, said Fox.
"I mostly just try to get an agenda out and then sit and listen because I have lots to learn from the elders."
In addition to Stone, the Elders Council is made up of Don Pooyak, Jon Sloan, Jane Tipewan and Margaret Ruda along with division representation from Riel, Fox, board chair Ken Arsenault, the division's First Nations and Métis Achievement Co-ordinator Michelle Sanderson, Superintendent of Schools, Curriculum and Instruction Brian Quinn and Learning Consultant Sherron Burns.
Riel told board members, "I think you are really lucky to have the elders you have on the council."
She pointed out that Stone sits on the Northwest National Education Council, Pooyak is with the Battlefords Agency Tribal Chiefs and Ruda is with the Battlefords Métis and Indian Friendship Centre. They bring their organizations with them, so they are helping to make connections toward partnerships, said Riel.
In her remarks to the board, Stone said there are many things elders can work at in the schools.
"It's time now for us to work together rather than separate from each other," she said.
Stone is on staff at Cando School where most of the students are First Nation.
"We had to do a lot of work with the teachers for them to understand where our children come from why are they the way they are."
There has been a history that has affected First Nations families negatively in the past, and still affects them yet today, she said.
"So that understanding needs to be there to be more sensitive towards the children A lot them come from homes that are dysfunctional because of our past."
She said their children have this idea that the education system looks down on them.
"I don't agree with that personally," said Stone. "We're equal. We are all human."
There are things educators need to know about children coming from a different culture and traditions, she said. Understanding that, she said, will be an asset.
"Sometimes we have different ways of learning, are more visual, or more into experiential learning, that's how most of our kids are," said Stone.
Elder Margaret Ruda said she believes there is no problem so great that can't be solved when everyone puts their heads together.
"But," she said, "we also need to do our inventory. We don't just look at the negatives, we've got to count our positives. We're blessed with many of them."
Ruda would like to see a community where each group of people can celebrate who they are.
"Being a Métis and going to school in North Battleford we were the outcasts," she said, "Today it still happens, and I think if different people can celebrate who they are there are always some that will come and celebrate with them."
She pointed to success being made in some Saskatoon schools in this way.
"They've made great strides," she said.
Also addressing the board was Jon Sloan. As a non-First Nations member, he said he was honoured and humbled to be asked to sit on the council, based on his past experience as a board of education member and his contacts in the First Nations and Métis communities.
He expressed excitement about the work Riel has been doing on land-based learning, including a trip several students were able to make to the culture camp at Old Crow, Yukon.
"These things are life changing, they really are," said Sloan.
Thanking the council for attending, board chair Ken Arsenault said, "I know this journey has just started, but it's going to be very exciting as things start to develop and grow.
It was said when Sanderson made a presentation to the board recently, Arsenault noted, that the right people are in place now.
"It's just to let them go and do the job they are here to do."
