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Foreword

Brittany Mathews and Madelaine McCracken

Orange Shirt Day

Hazel CK

Castle Oaks Learning Portfolio: How we stand tall to end injustices and become allies to walk the path of Truth and Reconciliation

Students in 3A, 34A, F3A, F4A, F45, F5A, F5B, Castle Oaks Public School
Students in F3A, F4A, 34A, F45, F5A and F5B at Castle Oaks Public School are learning how to stand tall and how to use their voices to advocate for equitable services and resources for Indigenous children. We are learning how we can listen, learn and honour the Truth in order to be allies and walk the path of Reconciliation. With our Reconciliation Ambearristers, we are learning how we can stand tall to end inequities and create a fair, safe and caring world for all children. We created a learning portfolio to showcase our learning thus far.

Reclaiming Indigenous Sign Languages and Supporting Accessibility and Inclusion for Indigenous Deaf Children and their Families

Kristin Snoddon, Dominique Ireland, Joel Abram, Marsha Ireland, Max Ireland, Elizabeth Osawamick, Shelly Tanner, Miigwaans Osawamick-Sagessige and Shayla-Rae Tanner
This paper reports data from a research study and workshop about reclaiming Indigenous sign languages and cultures, and strengthening services for Indigenous deaf children and their families and communities. The purpose of this workshop was for presenters to share their lived experiences and knowledge as deaf and hearing Elders, parents, and youth, including what resources were and were not available to them. Findings revealed themes including the importance of support for accessibility and inclusion from First Nations political and community leadership; the importance of supporting children’s intersectional identities; the need for greater resources for First Nations communities to access services and supports for deaf children; and youth experiences of learning about deaf culture and sign language, and attending deaf schools. These findings also suggested innovative models for including deaf children and their families.

Ayás Chap – Peace to All

Kelley McReynolds, Hannah Rushton and Calder Cheverie
Acknowledging the occurrence of family violence in our community is an integral step along the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh pathway toward healing and wellness for our families and community members. Within this work, it has been important for us to give cultural context to what we mean by “family violence”, better held in the language as kwétsiwit na wa ḵeyátnewas—violence toward one another. This short film was created as an offering of space for this context, while upholding our Sḵwx̱wú7mesh traditions of oral storytelling as a generative knowledge practice during the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw Family Wellness Week in November 2022. This short film honours the ancestral wisdom of Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Elders and Knowledge Keepers as they share stories of traditions, teachings of love, connection, and hope. For us, it has allowed us to create safe space for both truth and hard conversations in our understandings of kwétsiwit na wa ḵeyátnewas. The stories within highlight the resilience of Sḵwx̱wú7mesh families to remember where we came and how we are moving forward on a pathway to healing.Community should be a place where people & families feel safe & secure. Restoring dignity, redressing harms & learning from the past as we see each other with renewed understanding in the need to move forward. Sḵwx̱wú7mesh cultural practices and traditions serve many purposes - often these traditions not only help define our community; they help create community. We are Sḵwx̱wú7mesh strong.While rooted in the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh context, we know that there are echoes of this story and healing path in First Nations communities across the country. It is for this reason it feels important to share. This work was created within community, guided by the wisdom of Yataltenat, Kelley McReynolds— Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Nation member and Director of Ayás Mén̓men. Hannah Rushton—Team Leader of the Ayás Chap Program & Wellness Team; and Calder Cheverie, filmmaker and (former) Team Leader of Youth Services are invited guests into this community, both honored and grateful to be helping relatives.Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw is located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia with traditional territory extending from Vancouver to Gibsons Landing, and north of the town of Squamish into the Elaho and Squamish Valleys.We hold our hands up to the knowledge keepers for their stories & teachings in this video.

Learning, Indigenizing, and Delivering Forum Theatre Activities in Indigenous Communities: Reflections of Community Facilitators

Laurie-Ann Lines, Shaun Anderson, Cindy Jardine and Casadaya Marty
In many Indigenous communities, wellness is a holistic balance of spiritual, physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing through connections with self, family, community, and environment. Interventions to promote mental wellness (as a means of suicide prevention) with Indigenous youth thus need to focus on strengths and promoting these relations. First Nations and Métis communities in Alberta and the Northwest Territories in Canada partnered with academic researchers to adapt Forum Theatre as a mental health intervention for Indigenous youth. Forum Theatre, developed by Brazilian activist Augusto Boal, is based on playing games that encourage laughter, trust, and cooperation to build a community. The games lead to creating images with participants' bodies to reflect different life events, which are developed into a play with conflict and oppression. Through interaction with the play, community members explore solutions to the conflict.Indigenous community partners handpicked community members to train in facilitating Forum Theatre activities to deliver this mental health intervention. Our video showcases the reflections of a group of community facilitators and researchers on the process of being trained in Forum Theatre and indigenizing it for delivery to the participating communities. Community facilitators explain how they came to understand the potential and power of Forum Theatre activities. They describe their training experiences and briefly explain how they indigenized Forum Theatre in a manner that prioritized each community's assets and needs. Their description of the impact they saw in themselves, participants, and communities emphasizes the transformative nature of delivering indigenized Forum Theatre in communities.

Supporting School Attendance Among Indigenous Children and Youth in Canada: A Rapid Review and Call to Action

Maria Rogers and Karen Aglukark
Many community leaders in Canada have asserted the need for improved school attendance to promote educational success and well-being among Indigenous students. This paper reviews the extant literature from researchers, government agencies, school districts, and other organizations that have identified factors that improve school attendance among Indigenous students in Canada. The reviewed literature and reports indicate a need for more culturally relevant supports, as well as a more wholistic approach for Indigenous students and their families. This review also highlights the dearth of research on this topic and demonstrates the need for studies and initiatives that closely examine contributing factors at various levels (i.e., administrative, policy, community, classroom, household, individual), and that deeply engage families and communities.