A New Heart Connection

I (Joanne) feel compelled to write and share with our group a little bit about our day today. Firstly, I felt today was truly beautiful. And not to be too corny, but I feel there was some magic in the air.

Tina

First, many thanks to Ina Timmer, whose encouragement and connecting made this day possible. Two homeschooling families from Saanich came to visit us on Pender on Tuesday, November 19, 2014. Lillian Underwood (from Burwash Landing in the Yukon) came with her daughters, Sene and Asheya. The Underwood family is from the Tsawout First Nation.  (Tsawout is one of five bands that constitute the Saanich Nation. The other bands of the Saanich Nation are Tsartlip, Tseycum, Malahat and Pauquachin.) Tina Savea (from Saskatoon) came with her children, Joshua, Hope and Benjamin. We could tell that Lillian and Tina are very good friends!

A fire-cracked rock at the midden

After an opening sharing circle with our visiting First Nations families, we played a few ice-breaker games, then we walked to the midden at the bridge. Here I gave a short talk about the area's archaeological significance and we looked at the midden.  Our Spring Leaves children brought up things we talked about last year at the site. It made me feel good that they remembered so much! :) 

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Scavenger hunt at the midden beach
under the bridge that separates
North and South Pender

We talked a bit about why First Nations lived in the Gulf Islands in the summer, but not the winter. Julie discovered this explanation online: "Saanichton Bay has historically been, and continues to be significant to the Saanich peoples of Tsawout. The bay provides shelter from the prevailing southeast gales of winter, a year-round source of food, and plays an integral role in the Tsawout economic, societal, social, and spiritual life. Because of these reasons, Saanichton Bay was one of the main winter village sites of the Saanich peoples, and that is why Tsawout First Nation is located there today." 

As we were finishing up on the beach, we ran into a Parks Canada officer who just happened to be doing a midden erosion analysis. Serendipitous timing! David (Sume'lh) Dick (from the Songhees First Nation) is a Cultural Program Assistant who monitors parks' heritage sites. He was as pleased as we were for this meeting!! Julie then invited him back to the school for lunch, where Dave told us about his job and the sites he monitors, and shared some delicious homemade smoked salmon! 

(While at the beach, the wind picked up, and it was very cold. We decided at that point NOT to hike up Mt. Norman and so we headed back to the school.)

Our Spring Leaves children gave the visiting kids a tour of the school and garden and after lunch they played in the playground together, like they've known each other for longer than a few hours. It was beautiful to witness. Meanwhile the adults got to chat over tea. The conversation was heart-opening and touching. 

Lillian frying bannock

After lunch, Cameron led activities in the gym where I saw, once again, the children working together. And next? Bannock making in the kitchen led by Lillian and Tina. The children gobbled down a pile of warm bannock with jam. We all decided to have a winter bonfire and roast bannock on sticks! 

Then Lillian read a touching children's story (yes, I cried) about residential schools while the kids coloured paper canoes. If your children have questions about residential schools, I won't be surprised. Many listened to the story, wide-eyed.

Spring Leaves and our visitors
loving the bannock with jam!

Finally, Cameron led some more activities while Julie and I took our visitors back to the ferry. The visiting moms and I talked about how we can keep our connections growing. They (and their children) were excited to learn that many of us swim on Fridays and want to join us in the pool after our swim club ends. They live on the reserve near Panorama Rec Centre. (Tina has already sent me a friend request on Facebook so that we may stay in touch and we've already chatted.)

I should also mention what a joy it was to have Ina join us for part of the day and Monica Petrie (from South Pender) join us for the entire day. 

I may have forgotten something we did today, If so, my apologies. It was a full day! But I want to wrap up by saying that today I couldn't be more proud of our Spring Leaves children. They were wonderful hosts. And today was a day I was so proud to be a Spring Leaves mom. I want to thank Julie for bringing this day together and for whomever else had a role to play. I missed all of the children who weren't there and secretly wished more of you were there to simply enjoy the day and our children. :) 

My kids had a blast today. Hopefully your kids did too. From my perspective anyways, it was a deep and meaningful day on many levels. Culturally and on a heart level. Spiritually, too.

So much gratitude,

Jo

Mixing the ingredients to make the bannock

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Ina's reponse: I'm so sorry I couldn't stay for the entire day. It's wonderful to read all the emails and even better to hear that the day was such a success! Thanks to everyone for being there. This is the start of an important and heartfelt connection. With love, Ina

Monica's response: It was my pleasure to join the Spring Leaves today. I enjoyed the trip to the midden and your comments about how to "read" what we saw there. I appreciated your respect for this historic place on our island. I was also moved by the conversation that we had with Lillian and Tina. It felt like the beginning of an ongoing connection. But most of all I really enjoyed the children. It was awesome to hear them articulate their ideas, to see them hosting the visitors. They are very open and trusting young people. Thanks to Julie and Cameron for including me in the day. Cheers, Monica

And from Jane McIntosh, who headed up Pender Island's reconciliation initiative this year: "From my humble perspective, this is what reconciliation looks like in action." 

Benjamin and Joshua hamming it up!