Fort William First Nation Chief Georjann Morrisseau was back in the classroom Thursday.
The newly elected chief spent the morning getting to know students at Algonquin Avenue Public School, fulfilling a campaign promise to share the culture of her people with her neighbours in Thunder Bay.
“One of my main passions has been to be able to educate our young people, and especially our youngest children,” she said.
“Being a mother of three young boys, I know how important it is to educate and create awareness about our culture as Aboriginal people of Canada, and being able to highlight the good qualities that all of our Aboriginal people have here in Canada and some of the historical content coming up to today in 2013.”
With the city’s First Nation population on the rise, and Fort William First Nation next door, Morrisseau said it’s time to tackle cross-cultural differences and similarities head-on, talking to youngsters at their own level.
She’s hopeful it will help eliminate misunderstandings that may otherwise develop over time.
“Absolutely,” she said. “I think the younger we get more cultural awareness into the curriculum and to the students, the better. Because then they grow up with that knowledge and then when they grow up that knowledge is not new knowledge.
“It’s continuously building on that and growing. So I think it’s important that we sit here and incorporate a lot of the Aboriginal content into today’s schools, from elementary right up to the university level,” Morrisseau said, a day before national Aboriginal Day celebrations were slated to begin.
Students travelled from station to station at the north-side school, learning everything from lacrosse and how to make bannock to the secrets of Aboriginal drumming.
Laila Doblej, a 12-year-old Grade 6 student at the school, said she was excited to see her culture on display for all her friends and classmates to see.
“I think it’s important because different cultures can see how our culture is, how different it is from other cultures and how we live the way of life as Aboriginals.”
It’s especially important to start at a young age, she added.
To cement her new friendships, Morrisseau handed each student a gift, a comic book that details the legend of the Nanabijou, the Sleeping Giant.
