With jurisdiction over their children’s education, the Tsq̓éscen̓ First Nation is now deciding what their curriculum will look like.
Chief Helen Henderson said it is exciting to see the community take on the leadership role and start down the drafting path of laws.
“Even the drafting in and of itself, meeting with our members, talking about traditional practice and then taking that pen and drafting your first Secwepemcstin educational law,” she said. “It’s pretty powerful when you take something that is land-based, a value that is land-based or a value that is tied to a specific special area in our territory and build an educational concept around it.”
The band is looking at different programs within B.C. and Alberta in regard to their language and curriculum on the land. They are hoping to travel after the winter months and see how the programs are run and if they can adapt them to their own community and school, said Michelle Archie, the senior education manager.
One of Archie’s goals is to get a smokehouse right on the school grounds where students will be able to go through the whole process of the preservation of fish and wild game.
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“So they’ll go from catching it, whether they’re catching the fish or the hunting of the animal, and then they’ll come to the school where they will learn about cutting the fish or the animal.”
They’ll learn that whole process, how to hang it, how to cut the fish and wild game for drying and smoking before sharing it amongst themselves, the community and/or elders.
Knowledge keepers from the community will teach them how to do these things under the direction of teachers so that they can get credit for this in school as well.
This is an idea that is echoed by Henderson. Other Secwepemcstin communities have traditional hunting and fishing stations set up during the summer including drying racks and a place to teach the children infrastructure - that they are able to garner from their territory and to pass those teachings on to them.
“It’s another tool that we can use to bring our culture back, our teaching culture back,” Henderson said.
Currently, Tsq̓éscen̓ runs along the school district schedule as it works for the parents who have children both in the community and in the public school system. Whether this remains the case will be determined as they develop their educational laws and the input they receive from the people.
Other nations follow a 12-month schedule something they might consider taking a look at if parents and the community are interested.
“Because we would run it based on the seasons. It’s not happening as much now but in earlier years, some of our kids would be gone during fishing season or during hunting season because that’s what their parents did,” said Archie. “And they have week-long hunting camps with our Wellness Center and stuff.”
Students currently have language classes three days a week in order to help bring the language back to the community. At Eliza Archie Memorial they still want to meet and exceed the education requirements for B.C. That way if any students transfer from there to the school district or from the district to Tsq̓éscen̓ they will not have any setbacks.
Archie said so many First Nation children fall through the cracks in B.C. and the Tsq̓éscen̓ First Nation is no exception.
“They get lost in the public school and they aren’t getting when they’re coming to graduation, they aren’t they aren’t ready. So we want to be able to ensure that our students are ready at the time for post-secondary or even entering the workforce after,” Archie said.
In 2021/22 they had their first graduate in years and last year there were four graduates. Students attended distance classes for the core courses such as math, English and social science in the morning with teachers in Vancouver or elsewhere in B.C.
“In the afternoon, we had the teacher that did the art and the PE and the other and that was all done locally,” she said.
They work with knowledge keepers in the community such as Jerome Boyce who came in and taught the students how to carve. Last year Horse Lake Elementary School students worked alongside Eliza Archie students to build two dugout canoes with cultural worker Joe Archie.
Archie said it is projects like this that allow them to work with the school district and provide more programs like this in the future.
Henderson said she is cognizant of the fact that currently, many of their children have to head into 100 Mile, especially for high school. A few generations from now, however, she envisions the Tsq̓éscen̓ community having “a very thriving healthy school from kindergarten right to Grade 12.”
