Learning Story – Confidence, Maturity & Self-Care

What Happened? 

We noticed a general sense of ease, relief and joy in the Bushkids today. Many of the Bushkids participated in the last session – we noticed increased confidence, maturity and some very good self care. Construction play consisted of multiple quinzees, forts and floor plans. Physical play took place on the sliding hill with some very creative games and a bouncing magic school bus (the bus is a huge tree that fell down in a windstorm). A huge maze was made on the lake. Fred Mandeville surprised us today and dropped off a huge bag of whitefish – what a gift. We cleaned, prepared and cooked a large coney (wıı̀lıı̀) as well as some bannock which (oopsy) a bit too much sugar was “accidentally” poured in! We ended the day reading the book that Sebastian published about Bushkids!

Why is all of this meaningful? 

Like always, Land led the learning. It was cold upon arrival so it was an opportunity for the Bushkids to gather in the morning over a snack, a drink and a book of riddles. Gathering. It’s something we haven’t been able to do very much in the midst of the pandemic. It’s tough to know why there was so much joy today but maybe it was because we are old friends who can gather together again. There was so much snow for the Bushkids to engineer into their forts and quinzees – after one of them was completed – the Bushkid just wanted to rest and gather with friends and family in it. 

What does this mean for next time?

Many educators and knowledge holders joined us at Bushkids today. They would like to share their knowledge about fur next week. Fur is so important in the winter to keep us warm and it’s a time for trapping. We hope to continue focusing on the idea of “gathering” together next week to celebrate the importance of fur. We will learn how to scrape and prepare a fur (fox, marten and maybe wolverine), we will see examples of furs that are ready for the auction and we will explain the importance of this Indigenous economy.