Port Perry student Jake Robinson working on his tiles.

In January of 2011, Port Perry High School student Jake Robinson, took Project of Heart “to heart” in a unique way.  You can read about his endeavour in the following excerpt from the Port Perry High School Newsletter of February 10th, 2011.   Congratulations Jake!

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Port Perry High School participates in a national project:  Project of Heart.

“Project of Heart” (P.O.H.) is a hands-on, collaborative, inter-generational, inter-institutional artistic endeavour.  Its purpose is to commemorate the lives of the thousands of Indigenous children who died as a result of the residential school experience. It commemorates the families and communities to whom those children belonged.  This year, our students have adopted three Residential Schools and created over 600 tiles to honour these children.  We have been very fortunate to have former Residential School students relate their experiences to our students.  This year Cliff Standingready, author and Oshawa resident, spoke to our class and shared his story.  Jake Robinson, a grade 11 student was so inspired by this project that he has taken on the job to commemorate 200 children on his own and during his free time.  His artistic talent speaks volumes of his passion for this commemorative project. To date our students have commemorated over 1100 children and we won’t stop until every child is honoured.  The tiles are sent to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission meetings held all over the country for the next four years.  Our tiles to date were shown at the first National Event held in Winnipeg at The Forks from June 16 to 19, 2010.  The final resting place for our tiles will, hopefully, be at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights currently being built in Winnipeg.



Native Studies teacher Stacy Villeneuve from St. Pius X H.S. in Ottawa and her
students commemorated the lives of the students of Desmarais Indian
Residential School as well as Joussard IRS both run by the Catholic
Church in Alberta. After students decorated the tiles, Christopher
Herodier Snowboy, a James Bay Cree, was invited to speak to the class
and recounted some of his IRS experiences.

Stacy’s students were energized by their experience with the
process; for the social justice component of the project, they witnessed the Federal Court hearings as the Aboriginal People’s Television Network (APTN) appealled the Human Rights Tribunal decision to not allow the network to broadcast the Tribunal Hearings. St. Pius X students arrived at the Federal Court on March 7th dawning their “I Am a Witness” t-shirts. They were an impressive sight as they filled the Federal Court, demonstrating an overwhelming support for First Nations children and their families in their fight for fair and equitable access to government services.

St. Pius X students were rewarded for their support by a visit to their school by Cindy Blackstock from the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society. She brought with her Wesley Prankhard, age thirteen, who spoke of his activism in raising money for a playground for the children of Attawapiskat. Each student was also given a certificate, signed by Cindy and Charlie Angus, Member of Parliament for Timmins-James Bay. Continue reading →

On Monday, April 4th, 2011, Project of Heart interviewed Tara and Olivia, both students at Summit Alternative School in Ottawa. Tara and Olivia chose to learn about the Indian Residential Schools for a Geography project.

Project of Heart attended the presentation they gave during Mr. Farley’s geography class in January of 2011. We were amazed at the research that Olivia and Tara had undertaken and the skill with which they presented their findings to the class of grade 8 students.

We caught up with these enthusiastic learners a month later, to find out what they learned while doing their research and to hear their ideas about what could be done to address the lasting legacy of residential schools. Continue reading →

This week we are recognizing a fantastic educator from Merivale High School in Ottawa — she is Tanya Rafuse, who introduced the project to her students in November and then led her students through a unit on Indian Residential Schools in Canada. Her classroom ultimately choose to commemorate the deaths of the children at the Sandy Bay Indian Residential School in Manitoba with beautiful works of art.

Grandmother Greta Neepin, survivor of the IRS in Manitoba, came to the school to talk about her experiences at two different schools, and to share her knowledge with students who, until this point in time, had very little information about the topic. Grandmother Greta also smudged the tiles outdoors, sharing with the students a part of her Cree culture.

As the social justice action component of the Project, some learners put up flyers in downtown Ottawa for missing Kitiganzibi/Maniwaki Indigenous youths Shannon Alexander and Maisy Odjig http://www.findmaisyandshannon.com/. Some students signed petitions while others wrote letters to their Members of Parliament regarding the lack of human rights protections afforded to Aboriginal youth and women.

Meegwetch, Merivale High School!

Project of Heart wants to thank Kevin Conquest and Duulaa Roba for their hard work in getting P.O.H. off the ground and into the hearts of the students at Sir Wilfred Laurier High School in Ottawa. Chris Herodier Snowboy, IRS survivor and singer/songwriter, joined with the Sir Wilfed students to interpret the Project from his own experience, making the learning far more personal than  what most learners have come to expect from a history module.

With the help of classmate Hannah Hurst, Kevin and Duulaa  arranged for guest speakers from the Indigenous People’s Solidarity Movement Ottawa  to speak to the class about issues facing Indigenous people today, and what can been done can to support their struggles. Sovereignty issues that the Barriere Lake First Nation in Quebec are struggling with are strongly linked to the environmental concerns that many Indigenous people are facing in their communities; this whole topic was a focus of concern in classroom discussions. It is perhaps not a coincidence that the Sir Wilfred students commemorated the survivors of the Amos IRS in Quebec, a school that many children in Barriere Lake once attended.

Several students shared their responses to Chris’s powerful personal account of life at an IRS:

-What caught my breath was when he had a break in his speech while retelling his experience; I could see him reliving his experience in his eyes. The sadness and anger was there and shared among the class. There was a long silence while he was recuperating. I was amazed for his bravery just to get up in front of the class and discuss about such a personal experience. The moment I witnessed this presentation, I reflected upon my own life, and decided I should not take my life for granted anymore. I have the privilege of going to a good school, being able to speak my Singhalese language, and not being repressed from anything. He (Chris) inspired me to create awareness of the loss of Native identity and health for the victims of residential schools.“

-Without these types of testimonies it is incredibly hard to sympathize with what they have experienced. However, when a student is exposed to a firsthand account of the horrors faced in the Residential Schools, or even in general, it has a much greater affect and meaning.“

-The project was very inspiring considering the things that we heard and the cause that we were supporting… Making the tiles was a lot of fun. I saw a lot of people enjoying it, and once I told them what the cause was it just improved from there… The presentation Chris made was very touching. To hear what he went through was just amazing, what he overcame and what he had to do to cope with what he faced.  It’s one thing to talk about the survivors in residential school, but to actually see how it affected someone was just eye opening…Overall this was an awesome project to do and I would recommend it to anyone that wants to really see what residential schools were.”

Teacher Earl Heneke concludes: “students were deeply moved by the honesty of Chris Herodier Snowboy, and remarked on how his story really brought the impact of Residential Schools to life for them.”

UPDATE: E.A. Lovell Continuing Education Centre has participated in Project of Heart for a second year running,  this time commemorating Pelican Lake IRS in Northern Ontario. Their newly-completed tiles can be viewed here.

The beginning of January found E. A. Lovell Continuing Education Centre in Oshawa preparing for the finishing ceremony of Project of Heart. Soon, Elder and Indian Residential School survivor would Cliff Standingready would arrive at the Centre to engage the hearts and minds of the students of E. A. Lovell, many of whom had no idea what the Indian Residential Schools were all about or how the children that went there had their young lives forever impacted with its fallout.

Teacher/facilitator Robyn Fluxgold was a relative late-comer to the Project, but she was able to draw on the assistance of Aboriginal Programming Officer for the Durham District School Board, Bill Littlefair — so despite her delayed start, her class became the first in the DDSB to complete the project. Students from the centre displayed their 100 tiles, representing half the current population of E.A.Lovell, while Cliff Standingready gave vivid and emotional testament to a history which he is helping to insure will never be forgotten.

And Robyn’s perception of the project? “Wonderful. The kids felt connected. They needed this,” referring to Grandfather Cliff’s teaching during the smudging ceremony. (If link doesn’t work, story from the Oshawa Express is quoted below) Continue reading →

Recently the Children’s Aid Society (CAS) of Ottawa undertook Project of Heart as a way to enact meaningful gestures  to acknowledge the systemic imbalances that see many Aboriginal children  placed in child protection services away from their communities.  The CAS exercise was spearheaded by Kristin Moir; her team  is one of four that has been designated within the Society to serve the First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities in Ottawa.

The three “West Pod” teams that specialize in serving the First Nations and Métis community spent several months to learning about the Fort George Indian Residential School in James Bay, Quebec, a Residential school that was run by the Catholic Church.  The culminating event of for the West Pods’s seven-month journey toward knowledge and awareness was a learning circle, where Grandmother Irene Lindsay oversaw the cleansing ceremony of 335 beautifully decorated wooden tiles, each in memory of a child who did not return to her family.  Christopher Herodier Snowboy, from Chisasabi, was present to offer his lived experiential knowledge of the Indian Residential Schools, and sang a song dedicated to all the children of innocence who survived to tell their stories.

To complete the social action portion of Project of Heart the West Pod with the support of the Children’s Aid Society of Ottawa’s internal First Nations, Inuit and Métis Forum challenged the rest of the Society to participate in a “social action-coffee break”.  Staff across the Society  attended the event and discovered new ways to raise their own awareness and become involved in the First Nations, Inuit and Métis community nationally and locally.  Over 100 staff attended; they read posters, interacted with those who undertook POH, and signed the following petitions:

1.   I am a Witness Campaign
2.   Jordan’s Principle
3.   Shannen’s Dream
4.   Touchstones of Hope
5.   Stolen Sisters

Computers in the Society’s information technology training room were set up so that staff could easily sign the petitions online at the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society Continue reading →

An Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) professional development workshop at 440 Albert Street in Ottawa was the scene on November 25, when Project of Heart presented on how “emotional intelligence and cultural proficiency” could empower teachers to integrate the First Nations, Inuit, and Metis perspective into their classrooms. It soon became obvious that there was a lot of expertise in the room, and the lived experiential knowledge  that participants shared with each other as they listened and learned helped the group to grapple with our ‘newcomer’ ancestral historical legacy.

In one evening session, teachers experienced the entire cross-section of Project of Heart methodology, learning from  experts like Grandmother Irene Lindsay from Minwashin Lodge and Chris Snowboy, a singer, songwriter, and poet, both former students of Indian Residential Schools. The two survivors shared their experiences and spoke of the impact that the Indian Residential Experience had on their lives, their families’ lives, and the life of their community.

Teachers came prepared with their hearts and their spirits, as they created works of art, smudged by Grandmother Irene, and offered a gesture of reconciliation by signing the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society’s “I Am a Witness” petition. Many thanks to OSSTF District 25 for making this event possible and to Gibb McKay of the OSSTF Provincial Human Rights Committee for organizing the workshop. Photos courtesy of Brian Armishaw.