Supplied: Peace Wapiti Public School Division

By Abby Zieverink

Beaverlodge Regional High School

Beaverlodge students to create mural representing Indigenous groups of Canada

Mar 3, 2022 | 5:00 AM

The Indigenous Student Council at Beaverlodge Regional High School (BRHS) has finalized plans for a mural that will represent various different Indigenous groups in Canada.

Amy Dzus Clarke a teacher at BRHS says the idea to create a mural came up roughly two years ago and is set to be painted in the Link Centre.

“We started the Link Centre here at the high school kind of as an Indigenous safe space,” she explained. “We were filling a need in our community for Indigenous students to hang out, catch up on stuff and just sort of a quiet space to collect themselves.”

“We really want this to be an Indigenous hub within the school and it’s really focusing on not only giving Indigenous students a space but a voice within the school.”

With that, she says BRHS Indigenous students met with Natascha Okimaw from the Grande Prairie Friendship Centre who designed the mural.

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Students learned about the cultural connections to the different parts of the design such as the medicine wheel, the seasons, colour choices, the different Indigenous groups of Canada, and the symbols traditionally associated with them.

Dzus Clarke explains that the general theme for the mural is the medicine wheel, including spiritual, emotional, physical, and mental cultural connections.

“The students really wanted there to be a reflection of all First Nations groups across Canada so Natasha really worked to put the Northern Inuit people, a representation of that will be the Aurora Borealis and traditional symbols associated with that,” Clarke said.

“We have the seeds and the rising sun for people on the east coast and we have southern groups with teepees and planes people represented there and the west coast people represented with a totem pole. We also have Inukshuks and Metis representation with the beadwork and the Metis symbol as well.”

Now with the mural designed, Dzus Clarke says there have been several teachers and students who have reached out to her wanting to help paint the mural.

“It’s a totally open, collaborative, project between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students so it really opens up a lot of conversations, which are great.”

The future hope for the Link Centre is to have traditional activities such as beadwork, drum making, and dream catcher making, says Dzus Clarke.

“We are working with some local community members to get some Indigenous Regalia and students are always invited to take ceiling tiles and paint them and kids come in and ask questions,” Dzus Clarke explained.

“It really is working towards being a place of learning about the importance of not only past Indigenous issues in Canada but also moving forward in reconciliation through education.”