Client: Continue Media Inc.
Distributed by: The Walrus
Paid Post: The Rideau Hall Foundation
Jessie Boulard, Illustrator
Cara McKenna, Author
The illustrations will be featured in The Walrus Magazine as well as online.
ARTICLE EXCERPT:
Finding the Knowledge Keepers: The Indigenous Teacher Shortage
A new initiative from the Rideau Hall Foundation aims to bolster existing work and make connections across the country in order to help address the Indigenous teacher shortage.
EDUCATION IS KEY TO RECONCILIATION
Like the rivers that cross provinces, the shortage of Indigenous teachers is something that resonates across the country as school districts and groups in every corner of Canada have identified a similar issue—one that undoubtedly results from ongoing trauma connected to education that stems from residential schools, as well as colonial curriculums and a general lack of cultural safety in public education.
In the Anishinaabe culture, there is a legend about a boy on the moon. An elderly woman conceived a son from a stranger. They lived in a wigwam. As the boy grew, the woman had strange dreams about her son and the light emanating from the moon. One evening in the wintertime, when the moon was full, the woman became very sick and developed a fever. The woman noticed that they were out of water and asked her son to fetch the water from the lake. As the boy prepared to go she told him not to stare at the moon. The boy
questioned this. The mother told him that if he did, he would be dragged to the moon by its rays. He left to fetch the water with his pail and ladle, promising that he would not stare at the moon.
As he was making a hole in the ice for water, he couldn’t resist taking quick and frequent glances at the moon out of the corner of his eye, to see what would happen. Eventually, when he noticed that nothing was happening to him, he decided to stare at the moon for a long time.
Time passed and the boy did not return so the mother decided to search for him. She could see her son’s footprints leading to the lake and around the ice hole. The boy had simply disappeared. The mother looked at the moon and there she could see a figure of a boy standing on the moon holding a pail and a ladle.
The Anishinaabe people see the boy holding his pail and ladle at every full moon. The boy on the moon, in the painting, is a reminder that all must respect the Anishinaabe teachings with complete honesty and truth. We must practice these teachings with honesty and truth for a balanced and healthy lifestyle.
