'We came together': Moose Jaw school shows off tipi classroom

King George Elementary School now has classroom located in a tipi – following a recent school wide project of learning about Indigenous history and culture in Canada.

“We know that it’s important that our First Nations and Metis students feel that they are a part of our school and important here, and we want to learn alongside them,” King George Elementary School Principal Jill Tressel explained. “So really this was an inquiry project for all of us. We all learned something and I think all of our staff and students benefited.”

A tipi now stands in the school yard, which is intended to be used for a variety of purposes to help educate everyone about Indigenous culture, and the importance of truth and reconciliation.

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The final post and canvas were set up during a school assembly, which included students sharing what they had learned with the rest of the school as they studied several topics pertaining to Indigenous culture and history.

“I learned that their culture is a very big thing in [Canada’s] past, so that’s why we do things like this and powwows and all that,” Grade Six student Callen Berner explained. “Because we don’t want [the] past to come back and hurt us even more. We’ve already had some damage done to us so as long as we can keep that away from us by doing this and teaching – that would work.

“Because we might repeat the past. We don’t want the schools going back up like residential schools. That would be terrible,” fellow sixth grader Jaiden Hawke added.

The assembly included performances from dancers and a drum group, in addition to a smudge and prayer to bless the tipi.

“This has been quite a bit of planning and work, and we’ve learned how to put a tipi up which is amazing,” Tressel said.

“It’s a large tipi. So I’m just so proud of everyone, we came together, worked together and that brought us to today.”

Now that the structure is up, it is intended to be used functionally as a classroom for staff and students to continue learning on Treaty Four territory.