A group of young students in Bragg Creek were given an in-person eye-opener on Canada’s not so rosy past recently.
On Nov. 24, Piikani elder Wesley Provost was invited to Banded Peak School to share his residential school experience with 75 Grade 3 and Grade 4 students, a move teachers agreed would contribute to the students’ education on Aboriginal history.
“I feel people need to start understanding how we were treated by the government,” Provost said, though adding he didn’t want to get into the devastating details.
He gave the children an introduction of himself as a First Nation elder and his circumstances as a child.
“We had no choice in the matter we were forced to go to residential schools. If we didn’t go our parents were arrested and sent to jail,” Provost said.
After four years of attending the school, the residential section was shut down but the children were still mandated to attend.
“We were still bused there every day. We still had the same staff,” he said. One teacher for the grades 1, 2 and 3 students, who was also a nun, was particularly abusive but Provost said not all the teachers were like that.
Provost shared with the children some of the harsh realities, including a whip that was used on him and his peers at the school, but he also highlighted some of the positives that came from the school.
During his time as a student, he played competitive sports including a peewee hockey team, and was flown to Quebec for 10 days to attend a tournament.
“It was a good experience for a 12-year-old to get on a plane and fly,” Provost said.
After giving background to of his experience, Provost said he turned it over to the Banded Peak students to ask questions.
“They were really interested in what I had to say.”
Lila McLean, Grade 3, and Gracie Auger-Grier, Grade 4, both attended the event and thought the lesson was valuable.
Auger-Grier said she was excited to have a visitor to share an experience versus learning from her textbook.
“He’s very interesting because I’ve never met a person in my life who went to a residential school before,” she said. “It must be very depressing for his family and getting taken away like that.”
“I thought it was sad hearing his stories, like how … he got taken away from his family and if he tried to run away they had big trucks that they would he would be chased by. So I thought it was sad but neat,” McLean said. “It was also really cool how he wasn’t really scared to talk about it.”
Andrew Spelrem, who teaches one of the Grade 3/4 classes and helped organize the visit, said Provost’s words moved many of the children and some even became emotional. However, he added that the visit offered a balanced learning experience.
“He was really engaging. He used a lot of humour and really solid story telling to get across his experiences which the kids really appreciated.”
Spelrem said he also wanted the students to gain an empathetic point of view of people’s backgrounds, especially that of First Nations people.
“Right now in social studies, we’re talking about quality of life and multiple perspectives,” he said. “It’s really important for the kids to understand different upbringings in their own community.”
The Banded Peak students have had a number of visits from various First Nations, mainly from Tsuu T’ina Nation who are located across the highway from the school. Spelrem said the visits add to the children’s general knowledge on Aboriginal traditions.
In the past, they’ve lead tipi raising and take down ceremonies at the school and participated in talks with students about First Nations relationship with the land.
“When Elder Provost came in, kids got to see some of traditions around getting an elder to speak such as the gift of tobacco.”
Spelrem said the feedback from students and parents was overall positive.
“I’ve had a couple of parents come and talk to me since then and express that their child really gained a lot out of it and that they were happy that they got to listen to that firsthand experience.”
