THUNDER BAY -- Redecorating the yard can be a painstaking process.
But that wasn’t the case for St. Jude School students on Friday as the elementary school completed the construction of a multi-use garden to help integrate Indigenous education for students and staff.
“A few years ago we wanted more to make a garden, but we wanted it to be more,” said St. Jude principal Cynthia Gordon. “We wanted it to be a learning space for our entire school, and for the entire community to come explore Aboriginal culture.”
Gordon said the idea was sparked years ago and needed a lot of outside support to come to fruition.
“This used to be a mudpit,” Gordon said. “There was just so much traffic that it was not functional.”
The school’s front yard is now drastically different, featuring a medicine wheel made up of traditional Indigenous medicines and nine boxes growing various fruits and vegetables.
Some of the help for the inspiration came courtesy of Elliot Doxtater-Wynn, the project’s Indigenous knowledge creator.
“To see something come from nothing is amazing to me,” Doxtater-Wynn said.
Doxtater-Wynn devised digital sketches for the area, and said to watch it come to life was heart-warming.
“Absolute happiness,” said Doxtater-Wynn. “I just stood off to the side and watched the kids plant, and the songs play, and everybody was in good spirits.”
Gordon said she wants the experience of Indigenous culture to be seamless in the school’s education.
“We want [Indigenous culture] to be woven in throughout everything the students do," Gordon said. “It doesn't have to be, ‘Oh we’re doing a lesson on Indigenous culture.' ... We want our curriculum to signify that this is who we are.”
Doxtater-Wynn said the process of making that happen was extremely rewarding.
“The energy here was just so peaceful, and that’s the part I really enjoyed about today,” Doxtater-Wynn said.
