When I worked for First Nations, I had the pleasure and privilege of making many friends. Elder Jessie Nyberg, Canoe Creek Band, Shuswap Nation, was one of them. After an interview on preserving cultural knowledge and practices regarding early childhood development, she asked me if its okay if she regards me as a grandson. I was speechless. All my grandparents have long passed. I said yes. I am very glad I did. Jessie told me that when she was a little girl, her grandmother made friends with the Chinese workers in Ashcroft, Thompson Country. On Shuswap Nation celebrations her grandma would invite her Chinese neighbours to dinner, cooking moose, deer, salmon, and on Chinese New Year Jessies family was invited to town to celebrate with their Chinese friends. She remembers being babysat by them. It warms my heart, these cross-cultural friendships over the generations. It is my intention to honour and continue this friendship. My life is better because she has blessed me with a grandmothers love. The shirt I am wearing I choose because it contains all the colours of the medicine wheel: Red, White, Black, Yellow. Jessie is wearing a cedar headband, given in an honouring ceremony symbolizing the strengthening of the mind in acknowledgment of working hard for the people and the children. I was honoured to be one of the four witnesses in the ceremony, to observe the ceremony, to report to everyone what I witnessed, and to bring this back to my community. The Aboriginal Steering Committee guides Human Early Learning Partnership in conducting research that is mutually honouring and empowering to Aboriginal children and families. It is an amazing collaboration that is laying the foundation for a better society for Aboriginal children, and the partnerships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal scholars is building a template of mutual respect, mutual compassion, and mutual honouring that makes Canada a better place. Parliament can learn from this. So can the media. With this post I honour my role as a witness. earlylearning.ubc.ca/edi/aboriginal-EDI/
Posted on: Thu, 24 Oct 2013 06:20:28 +0000
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