SCHOOL, WITH A DIFFERENCE
New First Nations academy offers mix of academics, fitness, training
Kendra Weenie didn’t have much while growing up.
She did possess talent, but the pursuit was difficult. She knows all about barriers and walls. And now that she’s a school teacher, with a brand new project in the works, she feels a great deal of hope.
“I grew up with a lot of economic disadvantages,” says Weenie, a former college volleyball player who has been brought in to teach through a new program — geared toward First Nations fitness and wellness — at Saskatoon’s E.D. Feehan High School.
“I grew up on Sweetgrass First Nation; for about 10 years, our family didn’t have a vehicle, so I didn’t have access to after-school programming or school activities. To be able to give back to the program, provide free opportunity for these kids, possibly free transportation ... it’s like a dream job.”
The miyo machihowin Academy kicks off this fall at E.D. Feehan, opening its doors to a Grade 9 cohort.
A large gift from an anonymous donor provided the needed cash to kick-start the $200,000 development fund, which is being used to renovate the smaller gym at the school, to purchase equipment and to launch programming.
The idea is to mix academics with fitness and training.
Organizers expect a blend of students to come through the program, including both casual and elite athletes, and kids who might use it as a springboard to other things.
“Our biggest component here is the sporting program, but we want to find the gift in that child,” says Saskatoon Tribal Council Chief Mark Arcand, who worked on the academy’s formation with Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools.
“If somebody doesn’t want to do sports, as long as they’re being healthy (and) being active, knocking down their diabetes, getting rid of the smoking habits, doing all that stuff ... (it’s) pushing them forward into something different. If they don’t want to do sports, this school has everything in regards to band, dance, drama, fine arts, the shop, the woodworking.
“Everybody has a gift, so we’re trying to keep people healthy, and get them to be comfortable with what they’re doing. And it also includes their culture. They’ll have it here — their Cree language, their identity, their ceremonies. It’s a win-win for everybody.”
Arcand has talked often in the past about barriers — including financial and cultural — that keep many promising First Nations youth at arm’s length from elitelevel athletics. That, he says, will be a component of the new program.
Students who register for the academy join a cohort that takes classes together for part of the day, and with the broader student population for the rest. Weenie will teach phys-ed, cultural arts and English, while incorporating First Nations culture into her courses.
“I lived through a lot of the same challenges they’re going through currently,” she says of her future students. “On a personal level, it’s still really unbelievable that I’m able to give back on such a large scale. But I have really high hopes and goals for the students, and I hope that from this program, years down the road, we’ll have students competing at the university level, international level, and even at the Olympics.”
Eugene Arcand, a member of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Indian Residential School Survivor Committee, was on hand for the Wednesday announcement at E.D. Feehan. Arcand is a longtime advocate for Indigenous sports participation, and is a Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame inductee.
“I hope for greater things for our young people,” Arcand said. “By planting the seed ... I’m so envious of Kendra. I wish what you’re going to be doing, is what I had a chance to do — to build from the bottom up, to solidify our base.
“Instead of building more correctional facilities for young offenders, we build facilities like this; we enhance facilities like this. And we welcome all people to facilities like this, because we’re not the only ones. There are newcomers right now that are lost out there. We have a lot in common, in regards to trying to find our space, our space of comfort.”
The smaller gym, once renovated, will be what organizers call “a cutting-edge functional fitness space.”
They recently ran an afterschool program for 22 Grade 8 students, showing them what the academy is all about. They’ll do more programming over the summer for interested youths, and they welcome all incoming Grade 9 students from rural and First Nations communities as well as from across the city.
They hope to eventually make the fitness centre available afterhours. Mark Arcand says he has a vision: First Nations kids training at the facility year-round, rural kids coming in on weekends and accessing what they need.
“Sometimes, elite training costs a lot of money for a student and for a family,” says Scott Gay, a superintendent of education for Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools. “This takes that barrier out and opens it up to everyone.”