School nurtures Aboriginal culture in the child

It's a chilly morning, and the buses arrive at the front of a sandstone building. The schoolyard quickly succumbs to scrambling children as they fly off the buses, coats undone and backpacks dragging on the ground.
The buses come from all over the city, taxiing kids from the four corners of Calgary. This school appeals to Native parents in search of a curriculum designed to nurture Aboriginal culture in the child.
The Grade 2 classroom smells of sage, and the smoke is diffusing. An eight-year-old Native boy named Pitta Crazybull, with a braid hanging down his back, is kneeling over a smoldering smudge bowl. He cups his hands to gather the smoke and wafts it over his head. He cleanses his spirit with the nobility of an elder, and seems wise beyond years. The voice of his teacher resounds with the words "Oh Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the wind," and a day at Piitoyais begins.
Drums come through the school's intercom and reverberate through the classrooms. Singers begin the high pitch chanting paeans of the flag song. The children stand solemnly as the drum beat reaches their young hearts.
"The flag song is the song of their history. It's like standing for O Canada," said Lindsay Shultz, the Grade 2 teacher at Piitoyais, trained by the Saskatchewan Urban Native Teachers Education Program (SUNTEP).
Piitoayis Family School is a Kindergarten to Grade 9 environment that is culturally based from an Aboriginal perspective. It serves a diverse group of Aboriginal students and offers Blackfoot and Cree language classes, as well as drumming, singing and dancing. The school integrates an Aboriginal perspective into the Alberta Learning curriculum and practices cultural ceremonies when and where appropriate. Cultural resource leaders (Elders) are an important component of the school.
"When Nookum comes to class, the kids give her a big hug. They don't even know her name.....It's just Nookum, which translates to Grandma," explained Shultz.
Nookum is there once a week to leave stories on the children's hearts. They hear traditional legends in the Blackfoot tongue. The words sift from the lips of the wise, wrinkled elder. She sits, wrapped in a patterned blanket, a cane by her side. The students gather by her embroidered moccasin-covered feet.
"The kids have a special relationship with her," said Shultz. "Elders are the most important people in Native culture, and Native kids, no matter the age, seem to understand this."
In the classroom, dreamcatchers twirl in the soft light. Posters of tipis and chiefs adorned in feathered headdresses and other regalia, steal the white on the walls. They help the students identify with their ancestors.
It is time for the circle of sharing. The cultural aspect fixed into the common curriculum flows easily into the day's lessons, and children quickly form a circle around Shultz, some eager to tell a story. Shultz passes "the grandfather" to an eight-year-old girl named Harmony.
"The grandfather is a rock. The kids can't speak unless they have the grandfather," explained Shultz.
Harmony begins her tale about seeing spirits. According to Nookum, it is the world of great spirits that guide the souls of all people, and traditional Native families foster these visions as a signal from the Creator.
Piitoayis is a Blackfoot name given to the school from the Elders in the community. The school is situated in Blackfoot territory, and the name recognizes and respects that fact.
Piitoayis translates into Eagle Lodge in English. The eagle is a creature of importance to most Aboriginal people and the name recognizes that the school serves a variety of Aboriginal cultures. The second part (lodge) recognizes the school as a gathering place for families, ceremonies and prayers.
The day's lessons are soon over. The buses are waiting, ready to carry their young charges home. As they leave, some students run up to Miss Lindsay for a quick hug. Written high across the decorated ceiling are the seven teachings to be learned and shared-honesty, bravery, love, respect, wisdom, humility and truth. The children will carry these lessons on their shoulders into the world beyond.