First Nation in northwestern Ontario celebrates new school and Oji-Cree immersion program
CBC
It's not just a new school year for students in Wunnumin Lake First Nation — it's also their first semester in their new school.
Students and teachers were joined by community members and dignitaries at the grand opening Friday of John George Martin Memorial School, and there was plenty to celebrate, with a tour, speeches, gifts and a grand feast.
Wunnumin Lake is about 500 kilometres north of Thunder Bay in northwestern Ontario. It's only accessible by plane or winter road, and is home to about 600 people.
The former school, Lydia Lois Beardy Memorial School, opened more than 30 years ago when the community took local control of its education system from the federal government. For the past several years, work has been underway to build a bigger school that could accommodate more students and programs.
With bright, colourful hallways, traditional artwork and Oji-Cree syllabics above the coat hooks and cubbies, the new building aims to provide a welcoming environment for just under 150 students from junior kindergarten (known as K4) to Grade 10.
"It's nice and spacious," said Grade 5 student Emery Dolph. "The first school was a lot smaller."
It's among a few exciting projects that have come to fruition in the community, which will soon be connected to Wataynikaneyap Power's transmission grid later this month.
John George Martin Memorial's opening also marks the start of a new Oji-Cree language immersion program, where K4 to Grade 2 students are taught entirely in Oji-Cree.
The school was named after the late elder John George Martin. Community members have described Martin as an influential leader who championed language revitalization and land-based learning.
Strengthening Oji-Cree in the community is one of the school's key mandates, said Tommy Sainnawap, the school's education director. He said the community's youth were still speaking the language regularly about 10 years ago, but things have slipped.
"That's one of the main goals that I have — to start encouraging the parents to speak the language to their grandkids and kids instead of English. It starts at home."
Once their Oji-Cree immersion ends, students will continue to take Oji-Cree as a separate class.
Viola Roundhead, the school's senior native language teacher, said speaking Oji-Cree is a fundamental way for the new generation to reconnect to their roots.
"It's very important to learn [Oji-Cree] because of our identity, our culture and everything," Roundhead said.
This story is a collaboration between the Investigative Journalism Foundation and CBC Saskatchewan.
More than 300 patients without housing have gone from Edmonton emergency rooms directly into transitional accommodation since the launch of a unique program in March 2023.
B.C. Ferries says it is replacing its principle model of community feedback, the ferry advisory committee (FAC), which has been the main way the ferry corporation has kept in touch with ferry-reliant communities for over three decades.
The inquest for six inmates at the Hamilton-Wentworth Detention Centre heard Tuesday that five of the men died overnight, one of several commonalities noted in testimony by a corrections consultant.
"Our bodies lie, but still we roam" is written on a wooden cross paying tribute to Paul Gilbert and Donna Whyte — the Windsor couple who were fatally hit by a vehicle on Walker Road last week.
In three years, the number of people who are homeless in Waterloo region has doubled a new report says.
P.E.I.'s minister of fisheries says the Maritime oyster industry has sustained another blow after evidence of a new disease was recently found in oysters from Spence Cove, about five kilometres west of the Confederation Bridge in New Brunswick.
WARNING: This story contains distressing details.
Canadian political leaders can't control the fact that Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States. Neither can they stop him from threatening to take illogical steps that could hurt American businesses and consumers almost as much as they would hurt Canadians.
A First Nation in southern Alberta is suing the federal government for $1 billion, the latest in a series of lawsuits which argue that annual payments promised in treaties should have been adjusted for inflation.
The oilpatch is reacting to Donald Trump's threats to impose a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian goods with a mix of concern and skepticism.