In the month of November, the OLR school community’s focus now shifts to the virtue of “Justice” and treating others with open minds and without the spectres of bias and inequity. Many of the school’s learning opportunities and initiatives have been intentionally planned with the idea of removing these barriers in mind.
We look forward to our Remembrance Day service on November 11th at 10:30 am and our intermediate classes’ involvement in the Dufferin Clark Public Library and Historica Canada’s virtual Remembrance with the Memory Project, as we make a humble attempt to learn more about the First Nations, Metis, and Inuit communities’ participation in Canada’s military efforts throughout the years, as noted in the First World War with many indigenous soldiers from the Cree Nation serving as “code talkers” and in World War II as an example. It is important to not only remember but also to acknowledge the tremendous sacrifices that many members of the indigenous communities made to serve in a Canadian uniform, considering the challenges of learning a new language, adapting to new cultural differences, and contributing finances, resources and land to support the building of Canadian instalments, all in service to Canada.
I also look forward to further engaging the students in Grades 2-5 during my scheduled “Virtual Principal’s Read-Aloud” with the powerful story of “Chester Nez and the Unbreakable Code: A Navajo Code Talker’s Story.” This beautiful story chronicles the story of Chester Nez who “was taught that his native language and culture were useless,” only to later be “called on to use his Navajo language to help create an unbreakable military code during WWII.”
Please join us for our Remembrance Day Service on. Thursday, November 11 at 10:30 am by live stream.
https://stream.meet.google.com/stream/7f20d526-b4e5-4052-a1ae-4e4a7c854a4d