b"Class isin Session forLRSD LeadershipReflections from Christian Michalik, SuperintendentThe Circle and the Box Starting in the spring of 2021, when we initiated a changeto the role and responsibilities of high school ECHO teachers,Again, the team reimagined and personalized an experiential the Indigenous Education Team began work on creating alearning activity to share the historic and contemporary curriculum for divisional and school leaders in the Louis Rielrelationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peopleSchool Division (LRSD). Inspired by the medicine bundlesin Canada. We were invited to step into the box of hierarchycarried by some on the team, they refer to this curriculum to unpack issues of systemic inequities and positional as a teaching and learning bundle.power. We were then invited to step into the circle to better Im so grateful to my colleagues on the Indigenous understand lived experiences, worldviews, and histories by Education Team for accepting to be my teachers in learning experientially what it must have felt like (and feels like) 2021-2022. They took me and my classmates (divisionalto live in a Cree community during colonization, residential and school leaders) on an incredible ten-month journey ofschools, the Sixties' Scoop, and present day. Again, the teams learning. My teachers were brave; my classmates and I werepersonal accounts of suffering compelled us to heed their confronted by discomforting truths, and yet, our learningpowerful provocations: Do we value community overjourney was also illuminating and inspiring. power? How do our schools today perpetuate the box?The bundle included the following learning opportunities: The Mtis Walking Tour The Blanket ExerciseOver the course of a half-day walking tour, we learned about the tragedy and heroism of the Mtis Nation at the heart of the Red River settlement as we walked through The Forks The team designed a personalized learning experience thatNational Historic Site, some of St. Boniface's historic sites, and led participants through an impactful history lesson from theUpper Fort Garry Heritage Park. The lesson offered a poignant perspective of Indigenous People. Beginning in the pre-contactcounter-narrative to the history curriculum taught in our era, participants stood on various blankets representing theschools and connected that retelling of history to the ongoing lands of the First Nations, Inuit and Mtis. As the narratorsimpacts of dispossession in our present reality.moved through history, the blankets were folded up, removed or moved to illustrate the destructive and enduring impacts of colonialism. The teams focus for this learning experienceUnpacking Land Acknowledgements, was to have us confront historic truths, the impacts of targeted laws and policies, and systemic inequity today. The experientialTruth, and Treaty Relationshipsnature of the session and personal accounts from colleagues created a poignant learning opportunity and a deeply humanThe team facilitated a dialogue on the importance of language, connection to our shared history. Although I had previouslyintent, and action when developing a land acknowledgement. experienced a blanket exercise, this one was especiallyThe conversations touched on the journey, relationships, powerful because it was developed by and for our community.and voices that are at the heart of the LRSDs land It persuaded me to encourage everyone in LRSD to engage acknowledgement and the many land acknowledgements in and reengage with this exercise as we continue on this journeyour schools. Our learning also focused on the origin and intent to seek truth and work toward reconciliation.of treaties, the significance of Wahkotowin (relationship), and using ones positionality for good. 26"