Hundreds celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day at Maple Ridge school

Hundreds of students at a Maple Ridge elementary school celebrated Indigenous Peoples Day by learning the traditional games and dances.

Katrina Haintz, an Aboriginal support worker at Eric Langton elementary, organized the Indigenous Fun Day at the school, where more than 450 students took part.

There were 16 stations with games like: double ball; ring on a string; bison run – which used to be a spear throwing game to practise for bison hunting – but students on Tuesday threw sticks through hoops; rock toss; lacrosse; wrestling; hoop jump; and Slahal.

Inside Chief Rock and Darryl Bolton introduced students to traditional dances like: Smoke Signal dance, The Crocodile Dance, and Social Dance.

Leadership students from Maple Ridge secondary were on hand to help run the games.

“I think it’s so meaningful to be able to do an event like this because not only are we teaching children the ways of the people who have lived on this land since time immemorial but we’re also giving them a new way of thinking – bringing us back to nature, back outside, and the school community has embraced this in such a beautiful way,” said Haintz.

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Both the Indigenous and non-Indigenous leaders wanted to take part in the games and bear witness, noted Haintz. In addition, some of her students said the reason they wanted to be part of the games was because of reconciliation.

“They really want to help kids learn truth,” she said.

Mostly, though, the day held special meaning for Haintz.

“My entire childhood I didn’t share I was Indigenous because it wasn’t something to be proud of. In my opinion., when I was growing up, I felt too many people looked at us in negative ways,” explained Haintz.

Change, she noted, will ultimately start with the youth. The exciting part for her is that students who participated in the Indigenous games at Eric Langton will go home and share some of the knowlege they learned with their friends and families.

“The youth of today are going to be the ones who are going to make this generation a generation of acceptance with diversity of all cultures.”

“So for me to be able to come here today and share culture through such an authentic lens and have people embrace it with smiles, it’s amazing,” Haintz added.