Posts

Showing posts from June, 2023

Article in The Tyee about Listen to the Stream/Xwelelam te Stótelō Concert at Imagine High

Image
Voice of the Stream concert at Imagine High on National Indigenous Peoples' Day Here's a wonderful article in The Tyee online magazine. Writer Katie Hyslop has done a great job of weaving together the threads of language revitalization, stream restoration and reconciliation that make up the tapestry of the Voice of the Stream project. The Tyee Article about Voice of the Stream

Listen to the Stream/Xwelelam te Stótelō was birthed on National Indigenous Peoples Day - 2023-06-21

Image
  Listen to the Stream Concert at Imagine High in Chilliwack, 2023-06-21 Promo video for broadcast of Listen to the Stream on Shaw Multicultural on Sun June 25 @ 8:00PM Listen to the Stream/Xwelelam te Stótelō Concert was birthed today at Imagine High. Gratifying and exciting for the student to have the wider world paying attention. Jim Reis came and filmed, and by this afternoon had released this promo video. Thank you!

Multi-modal learning at Imagine High - 2023 06 21

Image
  Transformative education is happening today at Imagine High (Imagine High Integrated Arts and Technology Secondary School, Chilliwack, BC).  Since the beginning of the 2022 - 2023 school year there has been a groundbreaking collaboration for enriched, empowered and enhanced learning at the school. Administrators, teachers and students have been collaborating with knowledge keepers of the Stó:lō Nation, the Artist Response Team (Holly Arntzen and Kevin Wright) and a stream restoration initiative led by S.A.Y. Lands (Skowkale, Aitchelitz, and Yakweakwioose First Nations). The students are having an unprecedented opportunity to learn about Indigenous Knowledge, Ecology Science and Music as active collaborators in their learning. They are writing songs, learning language, restoring a stream, and preparing to perform what they have learned and created for family and community. This initiative is not only providing the community at Imagine High to experience new dimensions of lea...

Imagine High: Listen to the Stream/Xwelelam te Stótelō--the world pays attention 2023-06-20

Image
  Concert Poster: Listen To The Stream/Xwelelam te Stótelō IMAGINE HIGH INTEGRATED ARTS & TECHNOLOGY SECONDARY - Chilliwack, BC Listen to the Stream/Xwelelam te Stótelō - June 21, 2023 The world pays attention Yesterday we had the dress rehearsal in the Imagine High Theatre. As the early morning unfolds, it's like the phoenix rising from the ashes. Figuring out where everything and everyone is going to go--the 60+ students, the drums, the keyboards, the electric guitars, the bass, the djembe, the choral core singers, the introducers, the slide show, the cajons, Good Medicine Songs folks...etc, etc, etc. Everything is being done for the first time. Yet order emerges as the morning goes on. The media world is paying some attention. APTN was there filming the dress rehearsal. Katie Hyslop is publishing an article in The Tyee on Wednesday. Shaw Multicultural will be filming the concert tomorrow. The Chilliwack Progress ran an article. This feels right and good.  This media att...

Connaught Heights - Teddy talks about old growth trees 2023-06-13

Image
  Seed trays prepared by students, for their courtyard garden CONNAUGHT HEIGHTS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL - New Westminster, BC Rock The Salish Sea - May 16, 17, 18, 2023 Teddy talks about old growth trees Teddy and his classmates sang “Mr. Douglas”, our homage to old growth Douglas Fir trees in the Koksilah Ancient Forest on Vancouver Island. Students watched our video, that tells the story of how the song came to be.  Mr Douglas video It was inspired by a visit to the Forestry Centre in Duncan, where there is a cross section of a 1300-year-old tree. Signage points to the historical events that the tree had lived through. We wrote the song in “the first tree”; Mr. Douglas is the tree speaking. There is less than 1% of coastal old growth Douglas Fir forest left. Thank you Teddy, for speaking up for ancient trees…they are so important for biodiversity, and your future, and future generations. You did a wonderful job! “ I’ve been around since before Ghengis Khan, and the first book publ...

Connaught Heights - Ethan is a Voice of Nature - 2023-06-12

Image
  Students farming worms for their courtyard flower and vegetable gardens CONNAUGHT HEIGHTS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL - New Westminster, BC Rock The Salish Sea - May 16, 17, 18, 2023 Blog 3 - Ethan is a voice of nature Solar Angel is our renewable energy song. Ethan talks about the song and climate change. He responded to our invitation to do a “speakers’ corner” type of video. He went to all the trouble to take a media release form home, and returned with it, signed by his parents. His clear, calm, concise, heartfelt communication is an inspiration to me.  This mantra I share with young singers, over and over as I do these programs: “Your voices make a difference. You have a strong and effective influence in your families, schools and communities. You are doing an important job by standing up and singing with all your heart, for the Earth. Thank you for caring, and learning, and thinking, and singing, and speaking out, Ethan.  You are a voice of nature! Ethan speaks out for clim...

CONNAUGHT HEIGHTS - Songs capture the feelings of how we love Earth

Image
 Mason bee homes in Connaught courtyard garden CONNAUGHT – ROCK THE SALISH SEA! Project – May 16, 17, 18, 2023 Blog 2: Songs capture the feelings of how we love Earth We came into Connaught School, and from Day 1 all the students knew the song lyrics, the actions and sang with a particular fervour. That is so wonderful, because then we spend our time with the kids ramping up the performance level of everything we are doing together. When children are motivated, and they sing out, and they feel the power and energy of our collective voices…that’s when their little beings move more and more inside the songs. The music acquires power and they can feel it. Teacher Laurie Wong explains how the messages in the song amplify the experiences children having living around the courtyard garden, and tie it all together. Then the power of our collective voices reaches out to the upturned faces and hearts of family members eagerly receiving the benediction of seeing their children involved in so...

Connaught Heights - Teachers are the front line of change - 2023-06-11

Image
  Connaught students working in their garden courtyard CONNAUGHT - ROCK THE SALISH SEA PROJECT - May 16, 17. 18, 2023 Blog 1: Teachers are the front line of change! From the exterior, Connaught Heights Elementary is a one-story, grey school building. When you enter through the big gate, you come into a beautiful courtyard garden, filled with sunlight (on the days we were there), trees, planters with flowers and vegetables, mason bee homes and many bees buzzing around, birds calling, butterflies fluttering through. And this is a serious garden, the veggies are tended, growing well, healthy; the flowers are gorgeous. The K-5 children are constantly moving through the courtyard, running around, watering planters, or sitting on benches during daily quiet time–reading. It’s so peaceful to watch a child intently reading, outside, absorbed. I was told by many Connaught teachers that the person leading this effort is Laurie Wong. Thank you Laurie, for the love, energy and commitment you br...