Mother Earth Project

Story

Niji Mahkwa School is located on the original lands of Anishinaabe (Ojibwe), Ininew (Cree), Oji-Cree, Dakota, and Dene peoples, and on the homeland of the Métis Nation (Treaty 1 Territory). We are a nursery to grade 8 school that has an enrollment of over 304 students. Even with the pandemic, our young warriors participated in sustainable activities all following COVID19 regulations. For instance our children went on community walks as they explored their ancestral lands, the children participated in traditional pipe ceremonies, also many classrooms turn off their overhead lights during the day, every classroom recycles their paper products, and a class calculated the cost difference of recycling bowls to that of washing bowls. This coming year we hope to have our children paint our community Niji Mahkwa library that will be attached to our school. We are very excited to share this initiative with our young warriors, and we would like to participate in this endeavour.

Sustainable Actions in this Community

Last Friday children from our middle years community went outside to honor their creation and design of their parachute(s). One class focused on our Clan System (Artwork by Jacobson) honouring our families, our relatives, our ancestors, and some of the Indigenous oral stories, language, and teaching that have been passed on by each clan. Another classroom observed how our sacred medicines are being affected by climate change. For instance, these past years we have noticed that many of our sacred medicines are having difficulty sustaining themselves because of lack of water and increasing heats. This is very important to our young warriors, our school, our school community, our community and Turtle Island. Tomorrow is the first official National Day for Truth and Reconciliation here in Manitoba. Our School division is closed. This continues to be a time of learning, acknowledging, and reflecting. As an Indigenous School, our school community has and continues to reflect on this solemn day.