Métis sashes and First Nations medicine pouches are being worn by graduating Indigenous students at Chinook's Edge schools.
The effort has been expanding over the past five-plus years as the school district's way of showing commitment to the Truth and Reconciliation process.
Meaghan Reist, Principal of Olds High School said, every graduation brings a special memory for students, but recognizing Indigenous students with sashes and medicine pouches also models for everyone in attendance "what small steps in reconciliation look like."
Reist believes it symbolically celebrates "all aspects of a student's educational experience.”
A release from Chinook's Edge states that these protocols are included in graduation events to affirm the division’s commitment to Truth and Reconciliation, and to ensure that Indigenous students "feel welcome, safe and celebrated in their heritage and culture."
Students and families are asked in advance if they would like to be honoured in this way.
Métis sashes are symbols of accomplishment. Medicine pouches, representing wisdom and a connection to the Creator, are filled with white stones to give Indigenous students a feeling of connection and being grounded, and sweet grass, a medicinal plant representing kindness, strength and resilience.
An Indigenous Elder smudges the sashes and pouches before they are worn, with the idea of blessing the students with good thoughts and wishes as they embark on their journey to adulthood.
Student Myra Badger of the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation said her family was pleasantly surprised to see that medicine pouches and a land acknowledgement are part of graduation ceremonies now as they haven't been in generations past.
“We weren’t encouraged to be proud of our background," in the past, Badger said. "But to have it be a part of graduation ceremonies, having a chance to celebrate the new beginning in my life by including my culture was important."
Some special family traditions are also being woven into the Chinook's Edge grad ceremony. Seleah Organ, an Olds high school student, received an eagle feather, presented by her mother. "I felt a sense of pride," Organ said.