Indigenous Education Week (September 26-30)
During the week of September 26-30, our staff and students will be engaged in a series of learning activities in their classes and devotional times to explore and celebrate Indigenous peoples and their contributions to this land. When we celebrate the perseverance and resilience of others, we build deeper connections and relationships. Staff and students are encouraged to wear orange shirts throughout the week leading up to the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation on September 30.
The First Peoples Principles of Learning are already a part of the BC Education Curriculum. It is our intention to be thoughtful in our discussions about the intersection between Christian and Indigenous perspectives. Our intentional planning for Indigenous education week supplements the work we are doing as a Christian learning community to understand God’s reconciliation in the world.
At LCS, we like to think about faith-formation as a team effort. We are part of God’s family and responsible for building the community that we want to be a part of. This requires a commitment to growing relationships with our neighbors in the community. It involves reaching out and shaping a culture where the wellbeing of others is encouraged as we use our gifts.
This year, our focus is on celebrating Indigenous peoples and honouring their contributions to society. By doing this, we will continue in our learning about who the Langley Christian school community is:
Welcome. We are a Christian teaching and learning community that celebrates the diversity of our students as part of God’s design and intention for the world. We aspire to be a place of belonging and connection, and a people who model our lives on Christ, seeking justice, reconciliation and restoration by learning from and welcoming the vulnerable and marginalized. We strive to be a place that educates and equips ourselves, students and families, to be understanding of difference and embody dignity, respect, grace and God’s unconditional love (Draft Welcome Statement, June 2021).
We believe that the vision for celebrating Indigenous peoples is grounded Biblically in our school theme passage for the year: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength…Love your neighbour as yourself” (Mark 12:30-31).
Here are the links to the resources that our teachers are drawing from:
On September 30, we would encourage families to participate in the short learning activity that we have designed to facilitate some discussion and reflection: Meal Conversation.
If you are interested in some further learning, here is an example of how our team is exploring the relationship between faith, spirituality, and our educational practice:
Randy Woodley, author of “Shalom and the Community of Creation” (2012) and “Indigenous Theology and the Western Worldview” offered 10 Harmony Way Values that offer a compelling vision for the ways of being that we hope to see in our community:
Here are some community events that will be hosted on the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation (Sept. 30).
Thank you for learning along with us!
Sincerely,
LCS K-12 Curriculum Team
WE ACKNOWLEDGE that we are living, working, and learning on the shared traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Kwantlen, Katzie, Matsqui and Semiahmoo people.
