2021-2023 National Service Project ReconciliACTIONs

Stories of ReconciliACTION

Thank you to GGC units that participated in the 2021-23 NSP: ReconciliACTIONs in partnership with the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund (DWF). We are proud to have reached over 11,000 members throughout this project. Here are some stories that we’ve seen.

Sparks

43rd North Bay Sparks and Embers:

We learned about land acknowledgements and made one for our unit. We then surrounded it with the girls’ art of what they enjoy doing in nature, demonstrating the gratitude they had for Indigenous land. We learned that actions speak louder than words, and the theme of our night was #dosomething. The girls chatted about what they knew about residential schools and how it made them feel. We brought up the mood by saying what can be done to make a space inclusive. We completed the Storytime and Shannen’s Dream word search activities for the NSP, and we also played Safety Tag and came up with ideas about what makes us feel safe and comfy.

Storytime and word search activities Storytime and word search activities zoomed picture

42nd Pickering Sparks and 43rd Pickering Embers

We researched and talked about the Indigenous Peoples who occupy the land where our meeting place is located. This helped us to create our own land acknowledgement for our meetings. We also learned about residential schools: the nearest one to our meeting place, when they were active, and what it meant to go to a residential school. We read some books to give us more information. We created a poster showing how we think all students should feel when they go to school.

 



Embers

1st Delaware Embers

We learned about a number of inventions and activities of Indigenous origin that we use or interact with regularly, and we built our own craft kayaks and canoes. We learned a bit about medicines and treatments that settlers learned about from Indigenous Peoples. We also attended the Ska-Nah-Doht Village and Museum and were taught by a lovely gentleman about its history, his culture, and some of the cultures of the Nations we live closest to. We also created our land acknowledgement and learned about the Treaty we live under, and we completed an active activity that demonstrated how Indigenous Peoples were forced onto smaller and smaller lands over time. We also learned about and mapped Chanie Wenjack’s journey home. We read some books by Indigenous authors, and we have plans to watch some episodes from the animated series Molly of Denali at our last meeting before the break. It’s been a wonderful, sometimes quite sombre, but overall enlightening learning journey!


1st Airdrie Embers

Our Embers unit had a lot of fun crafting with our special guest, Shauna Simpson, who is a member of the Métis Nation. We learned about Truth and Reconciliation, Indigenous culture and traditions, and land acknowledgements. We made two bead gifts with Shauna’s guidance. In Indigenous cultures, the practice of gift giving has unique significance. The tradition shows respect to the receiver of the gift, as well as to their family and ancestors. It is also a way to show appreciation of knowledge that is exchanged. Our girls made one of their beaded gifts and exchanged it with another girl within the unit to learn how unique and respectful gift giving is and the appreciation that comes when someone else makes a gift for you. We read the book When We Were Alone by David A. Robertson. In this story, a young Indigenous girl who is curious about why her grandmother always wears colourful clothing, keeps her hair long, speaks Cree, and loves to spend time with her brother. Her grandmother explains how residential schools enforced conformity and tried to destroy the culture of Indigenous residents. We gave out the NSP: ReconciliACTIONs crest.

 


Pathfinders

1st Colwood Pathfinders

We invited an Indigenous teacher to come to our meeting to educate and talk to the girls about the local culture. She talked about our local land acknowledgement, taught us some words like “thank you,” “goodbye,” and “good night” in the local language, and made a diagram showing where the different Peoples are located on the island. Then we discussed the types of natural materials that Indigenous Peoples on the island used in their daily lives throughout history. The teacher brought examples of cedar, natural tobacco, and different types of sage, and she also brought in two handmade drums made from animal skin. She talked about how these materials are sacred and how animals give their lives for drums and food for peoples’ livelihood. She talked about how Indigenous Peoples lived off salmon on the island and how they had to make sure not to catch too many fish so that there would be enough left for the next year.

Eastern Trail District Pathfinders/Rangers

In September 2022, our unit dedicated a meeting night to completing our goals for the NSP. During that meeting, we did the following:

  • Created a land acknowledgement and learned more about local First Nations (Mi’kmaq, Wolastoqiyik, and Passamaquoddy).
  • Discussed what the DWF organization is, how it came to be, and what its goals are. We learned about Gord Downie and Chanie Wenjack.
  • Watched The Secret Path videos and wrote personal notes to the Wenjack family. The notes and letters were mailed a few months later.
  • Reviewed the DWF swag that was provided and voted for our favourite items. We then had a random draw and distributed the items to the girls.
  • Gave each girl a DWF button and info sheet to take home. The info sheet explained the NSP and offered other suggestions on how families can do a ReconciliACTION themselves. Many girls took extra buttons home to share with friends.
  • In October 2022, one of the Rangers in the unit hosted a StoryTent at our Area’s “Come Back to Guiding” provincial event. The Ranger used the DWF book provided and borrowed a few other books from her local library. At the event, she had the younger girls choose a book from her selection and then read the Indigenous story to them. For the older girls, the Ranger set up a tent and put a selection of books inside so they could have a quiet reading space for themselves. The Ranger also taught the girls the Mi’kmaq word for “butterfly,” which is “mimigej,” and helped them make a butterfly hat trader with the new word on it.
 

Rangers

36th Hilltop Rangers

Our unit created our own land acknowledgement and completed the “Map Chanie’s Journey” activity. We used The Secret Path book provided in the DWF kit and the timeline on the website to illustrate Chanie’s story. We used a road map of Ontario so the girls would get a better picture of the area where Chanie lived his short life and a better perspective on the scope of the journey he faced when he ran away from the residential school to go home. We highlighted his home and the significant places along his journey to and from the residential school on the map. We also did another mapping activity provided in the DWF resources.