Ermineskin school highlights culture and heritage

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"It's more than just a learning facility," said John Balon, project manager for Ledcor Industries Limited. "It's a part of their heritage."

Balon was one of the key Ledcor employees who took a vision of a new school for Ermineskin Cree Nation and made it a reality.

On March 12, Elders, students, parents, teachers, engineers and construction workers gathered to celebrate the grand opening of the Ermineskin Junior Senior High School on the reserve.

The project began close to 10 years ago, when the Ermineskin band bought the old residential school building at the site.

During those 10 years committees were formed, blueprints were made and a community came together to design a school that would be special to their people.

"You can see the passion in their heritage," said Balon, who worked on the project during its final stages.

"Construction of the site took about 20 months and about $9.6 million to construct," said Balon.

Funding came from the Department of Indian Affairs ($9 million), the Ermineskin administration ($1.2 million) and the Miyo Wahkohtowin Community Education Authority ($0.5 million).

From the beginning, Miyo Wahkohtowin Community Education Authority wanted to design a school that reflected the strong beliefs and values of the Plains Cree people while incorporating technology for the future.

"The school starts you on your journey, but you continue it yourself with learning," said Brian Wildcat, director of education.

To reflect that the school is the beginning of a life-long journey, it is built in a half circle with a 15-metre fibreglass tipi located on the south end of the building.

"The tipi reflects that the whole education system begins with the Cree beliefs," said Wildcat.

Ed Oram, architect and project co-ordinator from Workun Garrick Architects and Associates Inc. explained that the tipi provides a focal point from which the rest of the school evolves.

Oram and his associates were chosen by a committee comprised of Elders, teachers, parents and the board to design the school. Workun Garrick Architects and Associates Inc. had worked on other Aboriginal schools in Alberta.

Oram and his organization spent more than a year interviewing and commissioning the committee, which outlined what cultural and historical aspects it wanted the structure to include.

The exterior and interior of the building is yellow in the south of the building, red on the east, blue on the west and white on the north.

"They are very important colors to the Cree Nation," explained Wildcat.

Oram also incorporated the colors into a band that wraps around the outside of the school that portrays historic beadwork patterns from the community.

"We received materials and photographs that showed these designs," said Oram.

These cultural elements of the Cree people can be seen in every detail of the building.

"They wanted the school to be open, to have a welcoming feeling," said Oram.

To achieve this Oram designed the main entrance into the school to face east.

"The morning sunshine provides a warm feeling," he said.

Also lighting up the interior of the building on the east side are two large, stained glass windows with the Ermineskin band logo.

In the front gathering area there are 16 paintings done by George Littlechild, originally from Ermineskin and now living in Vancouver.

Littlechild spent two months researching the themes and ideas that people wanted to see on the panels.

"They are themes that are important to our community," said Wildcat.

Littlechild's work portrays the Treaty 6 signing, residential schooling, sports, and families from all four of nations of Hobbema.

"He did a great job of capturing those ideas," said Wildcat.

Beneath the paintings are glass cabinets filled with historic artifacts that educate visitors and students about the history of the Crees.

"It's a special project with the Glenbow museum in Calgary," said Wildcat.

The artifacts are provided by the museum for a Grade 7 project, which t Wildcat's knowledge is the first of its kind.

"It's a very unique program and a great partnership between the school and the museum," he said.

Students study the artifacts at school and travel to the museum to learn the history of their community.

Throughout the school there are many classrooms specially designed for specific programs, including an art room, a sewing and cooking room, a music room with space for teaching drumming, and a language laboratory.

Ermineskin Junior Senior High School is also part of a Macintosh computer initiative that features the school on the computer company's Apple web page. The entire school uses I-mac computers.

Technology is at the fingertips of all students. Each classroom is equipped with three student computers and one teacher's computer; also there are four computer labs that offer the shared use of scanners and printers.

"All of the computers are networked onto the internet," stated Wildcat.

With the incorporation of history and technology into the new school, Wildcat saw the numbers of registered students jump from 226 in the 1999/2000 school year to 272 this year.

"I think there was an interest in our community about our school," said Wildcat.

The school is built where the first residential school in the area was located.

"That is the exact spot where the residential school was, and it was demolished prior to the new construction," said Oram.

However, not all of the school was demolished; the gymnasium was saved and built into the new facility.

Expansion was also considered during construction, with two spots designated for linking to other school buildings.

As teachers and students begin to enjoy and learn at the school Oram suggests they are not the only ones who benefited from the construction.

"All of those cultural things that they felt were important helped me learn and understand the Cree culture," said Oram. "It's been an exciting project."