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New FN resource centre opens at Hazelton Secondary

A new First Nations’ resource centre opened at Hazelton Secondary School and a comprehensive aboriginal-based curriculum was also unveiled.

A new First Nations’ resource centre was officially opened at Hazelton Secondary School last week and a comprehensive aboriginal-based curriculum was also unveiled.

The new centre has been an idea for some time, but has been on the official funding list since for more than a decade.

For the past couple of months Jody Tetreau and Katrina Johnson, who will be supervising the centre full-time, have been setting up the room, which is open for all to visit from students to the public.

“I had one block on my schedule to set this room up and Katrina and I did most of it,” Tetreau said. “So many people and organizations put a lot of effort and time into making this happen. It’s a huge step for the area. There was a lot of discussion about where the room would be and it’s good to have this as a central spot in our school.”

Cheryl Sebastian, district principal aboriginal education in the Kamloops area, who formerly held the same position in the northwest, couldn’t be at the ceremony she did so much to help make a reality.

However she sent a letter to ensure her thoughts were heard.

“What started as a dream has now come to fruition,” Sebastian said in correspondence, echoing the sentiment that collaboration made it all happen. “Thanks to all of you for your dedication to students and your efforts to ensure that [Gitxsan] culture and heritage are integral threads in the fabric of our school.”

Accompanying the opening of the resource centre was the release of Nurturing the Spirit, a curriculum created specifically to teach Gitxsan and other aboriginal content.

Sebastian found what would be the basis of the curriculum and shared what she found with Kirsten Barnes, First Nations high school and Virginia Morgan, Hazelton Secondary.

The master’s thesis Sebastian found focused on suicide prevention, but Barnes and Morgan expanded the original concept to include Gitxsan content and cover all areas of education.

Barnes was on hand to describe the program to those present.

“We all agreed suicide is a problem, but to have a program that only touched on that issue would be under serving our students,” Barnes said. “We all decided that we should create our own culturally relevant curriculum that could be used throughout our entire school district.”

The program was also a collaboration between the Coast Mountain School District, Gitxsan/Wet’suwet’en Education Society and funded in part by the Ministry of Child and Family Development.

Nurturing the Spirit is an eight-chapter program that a student can work through from start to finish or by section as needed. The program ranges from self-awareness to seven sacred teachings to First Nations literature, Barnes said.

“I see this room as a bridge,” Tetreau said. “It’s a transformation of our classrooms to include many voices. It’s a way of honouring the territory and the Gitxsan people.”

The resource centre will be open Wednesday (8 a.m. to noon, Thursday (1 to 5 p.m.) and Friday (noon to 4 p.m.).

For more information on catalogued resources visit follet.cmsd.bc.ca and follow the FN resource centre link or call 250-842-5214 (ext. 3121).