Students from Jasper Place School, Queen Elizabeth School and Amiskwaciy Academy will gather on Tuesday, February 28, to learn how the wisdom of Aboriginal traditions can help build a sustainable world.
Elder Francis Whiskeyjack will guide students through a traditional drum circle followed by a brief presentation on Cree culture with teachings from the medicine wheel.
Afterwards, the three schools will join students and educators from across North America via video conference to discuss Aboriginal wisdom traditions and the current state of our world. They will be joined by experts such as Dr. Jane Goodall, Chief Gordon Planes of the T’Sou-ke First Nations and members of the David Suzuki Foundation.
The conference will include a solar lantern workshop by creator Steve O’Gorman, and an indigenous gardening presentation on permaculture, where students will create their own vermiculture (indoor worm-based composting systems) to take back to schools. The completed solar lanterns will be donated to the Attawapiskat First Nations in Ontario, as well as to Haiti and to parts of Africa where Dr. Jane Goodall operates.
The conference will celebrate a new kind of learning where students from diverse learning communities partner to share ideas of environmental sustainability through hands-on projects infused with Aboriginal customs.
The event will be followed in the future with a renewable energy tour of Edmonton and the building of a native plants species garden at Amiskwaciy Academy in the spring.
