Learning Story – A Hike Across the Lake

Learning Story – A Hike Across the Lake

The Week of February 14, 2023

What Happened? 

Today we focused on love. We learned to say ełeghǫnets’eètǫ (love one another), a Dene Law, and made efforts to show love to each other as friends and as family and especially to the Land. We also learned to say nehgǫnıètǫ (I love you). We also welcomed Elder Edna Paul to Bushkids today! We are so grateful to have her working with us. And of course Noni who brought us two beautiful white fish today. Edna made us bannock and brought gifts of homemade jam and valentines chocolates. One Bushkid made us a full scavenger hunt which could become a tradition! We hiked across the lake and visited Ferry Fortress. 

Why was this important? 

Many Bushkids went to school today so we had a small group of 6 which was so special – we saw that new connections and friendships were made. We find that we don’t talk about love enough at Bushkids. It was a gift to be there on Valentine’s Day and to really focus on the Dene Law “love eachother as much as possible”. We need not just each other but the plants and the animals too. We spoke about Tudze again, the waterheart of Great Bear Lake. It takes care of all living things on the Land and in the water. We are told that Tudze is getting weak because of climate change. We hope that at Bushkids, by guarding time and space for children to be connected to Land in a way that honours Indigenous knowledges, worldviews and languages the best that we can, that they will become stewards of the Land and support a way of life that supports Tudze.

What does this mean for next week? 

We ate lunch today all together and we’d like to try that again next week so that we can talk about feast, its significance and ways to show love to each other. We will extend the play that came from the scavenger hunt and create a “plant puzzle” for the Bushkids so that we are even more connected to the Land where we live and play.