Cultural workshop day ‘sets the tone’ for school district educators

Education workers kicked off the school year with a day of cultural experiences at the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre in Yellowknife.

Roughly 270 people attended Tuesday’s workshops and keynote speech on decolonizing education and teaching practices by author and Indigenous educator Carolyn Roberts for Yellowknife Education District No 1’s Indigenous Languages Education Professional Development Day.

The workshops – from hand games to fish scale art to storytelling to soapstone carving – are rooted in Dene Kede and give teachers and educational assistants a chance to connect with Elders and knowledge keepers, Andrea Harding, regional Indigenous languages and education coordinator at YK1, told Cabin Radio.

In the high school foyer, educators faced off in northern games like the head pull.

In the drama room at École Sir John Franklin High School, about nine staff members gathered to learn hand games.

The educators peppered instructors with questions about the scoring, strategy and hand signals, and ran through several practice rounds before, all too soon, the session came to an end.

Upstairs, staff tried their hand at fish scale art. Participants glued dyed fish scales and vertebrae to paper and wood backings, often opting for renditions of flowers or fish.

Satellite workshops took place on the Yellowknife River and Pontoon Lake, so staff could sign up for whatever piqued their interest, be it indoors or outdoors.

“Starting the year with this professional development day, I think sets the tone for what we value and what we want our staff to value,” Harding said. It also gives educators a chance to try out and appreciate new skills they can bring back to their students, she added.

“We’ve seen a lot of staff build several relationships and then start requesting for those Elders to come in,” Harding said, noting the district has started the school year with this professional development day for at least 15 years.

“We’ve seen a lot more staff feeling comfortable with trying out something new on their own, which is … really great to see.”

The day concluded with a drum dance on the high school’s soccer field.

Most schools are welcoming students back to the classroom during the last week of August or first week of September.