BIIGTIGONG NISHNAABEG — After a lengthy, six-year development and construction phase, elementary school students and teachers in Biigtigong Nishnaabeg First Nation have finally moved into their new school, Biigtigong Nishnaabeg Endzhi-gkinoohmaading.
Community members celebrated with a parade down Access Road, led with a traditional drum and followed by lunch with students, families, and others in attendance who showed their support.
Biigtigong’s education director, Lisa Michano-Courchene, said she has gotten emotional seeing the responses from teachers and students.
“Staff cried, community members cried – because community members lined the roads on both sides during the parade. A lot of them were taking pictures, filming and doing their thing,” Michano-Courchene said.
“A lot of the social media posts after said it brought tears to their eyes.”
Principal Amy Michano provided a tour of the brand new facility to Dougall Media on Feb. 12.
The new school features up-to-date amenities and areas dedicated to cultural enrichment, such as the land-based learning room – which Dougall Media were initially given a preview of in October – and the Anishinaabemowin room for language studies.
A brand new gym is also a major highlight for students and staff.
Previously, students and staff would have to leave the old school site and walk to the community centre for gym class – which meant going to the gym took more time out of the day and could be impeded by weather conditions.
Michano-Courchene said it was hard to find the words to describe how excited students were to learn that they had their own gym now and that it’s inside the building.
“They were like, ‘we have our own gym?’ They see it outside but they were never in it during the construction phase,” she said.
While there are still some areas that need a touch-up and landscaping work set for spring, community members are relieved to move on from the past – and from a school that not only was built as a colonial institution but had also grown unsafe.
As for why this moment in time has been so emotional – especially for the adults in Biigtigong Nishnaabeg – Michano-Courchene said there are a couple of reasons and that a lot of it has to do with history.
“Our philosophy here is that ‘children are always at the centre’ - when they're in a building receiving education and the building isn't adequate for them, it really touches everyone's heart. And, historically, with any First Nation community when there's been a history of day school abuses, residential school abuse, anything like that, it brings up trauma.
"And I think transitioning from an old school trying to close that chapter, leave those things behind and transition into a new school where we're no longer under the same people who put our people through some very horrific traumas in the guise of education – it's a new world, it's a new change, it's a new chapter,” she said.
Michano-Courchene said she has been teaching at the school for 23 years and she was a student at the old school.
She said seeing the new school open and in-use during her career is something she is proud to be a part of. Every First Nation should have the opportunity to provide something like Biigtigong’s new school for their own children.
“It’s a long time coming. We've worked really hard – leadership, workers, the community – to really push a new school for our children and to see it finally come true, that’s a big accomplishment,” she said.
With landscaping and a few extra structures – such as a playground, baseball and soccer fields – left to finish, the community is eyeing a late summer/early fall grand opening for Biigtigong Nishnaabeg Endzhi-gkinoohmaading once all the extra work to be done around the grounds is completed.
