Vision

The main focus for our climate action project is to create a garden at our school where people can sit, relax and visit – a “You Matter” space. It will include plants native to our area, flowers that attract pollinators and a Medicine Wheel Garden. We want to educate ourselves about plants that are native to our area and their importance to Indigenous Peoples. We will make bee waterers and are researching and planting flowers that attract pollinators.

Action

To gain knowledge, we invited an Indigenous Knowledge Keeper to teach us. He told us that plants like sweetgrass, sage, are important for ceremonies; pigweed, dandelions, cow parsnip, wild raspberries and rhubarb are good for food; and mint, yarrow, lily of the valley, plantain and willow provide medicines for pain, colds, sore throats, bug bites and bee stings. Clare also shared this knowledge with 2 Grade 10 Biology classes.
Tobacco is another very important plant to Indigenous people for making contracts with others, giving back to nature when you take something and it is used in ceremony. We are partnering with Mountain View Moccasin House and Olds to College to help grow tobacco plants and learn about protocols that go along with this. Elders have guided the process and will oversee the harvesting when we get to that point.
We will make plaques for the garden that describe each plant and its significance.

Reflection & Celebration

This project has been very insightful. Learning from Clare, an Indigenous Knowledge Keeper was very interesting. We look forward to having him visit us again as we get near the completion of our garden. Learning about Fast Fashion has made us all look at how we shop for clothes. We will be highlighting this at the UNESCO Associated Schools conference we will be hosting in the spring of 2025