Trustees discussed the connection between Catholic education and Indigenous spirituality during the Prince Albert Catholic School Division board of education’s regular meeting on May 25.
The Inspiring Success Journey explored Truth and Reconciliation with the Catholic faith. Superintendent Wade Mourot discussed what has been done in the division to connect the two subjects.
“When we take a moment and reflect on the work that we do within our goals for inspiring success, clearly it’s part of our mandate and our mission,” Education Director Lorel Trumier said. “To see how we do it in so many different ways, I think it proves to be a very important element of the work that we do in our school division.”
The division’s three-year Strategic Plan outlines both Inspiring Success and Catholic Faith as priorities.
Inspiring Success is a Ministry of Education policy that has the intent to support First Nations students in a way that supports their knowledge.
The school division goal is to provide educational opportunities to further the knowledge of Indigenous ways and understanding of Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action with guidance by the Inspiring Success framework.
It also connects to the faith-based aspect of Catholic education by creating opportunities to make connections to the Catholic faith. The two work hand-in-hand to create opportunities for students and staff to learn about both of the priority areas.
The Inspiring Success journey answers two Calls to Action: Call 63 on Indigenous Education and Call 14 on Aboriginal Languages.
The Division began the year with guest speaker Stacey MacNeil-Ayeh who spoke about the Catholic Teacher and Culture. The presentation allowed teachers to reflect on the distinct and essential vocation of a Catholic teacher. They also reflected on the roles of the Catholic school in the mission of the church.
Trumier said that what was learned this year can help plan for the future.
“There may be some new ideas or new places that we want to refine some of our work or expand some of our work,” Trumier said. “It’s important to take that reflection at this time of the year (and) share the information with the board so that they’re aware and continue to grow in areas such as Truth and reconciliation and Treaty acknowledgement and Indigenous ways of knowing and how that impacts our education process of our children.”
In 2026, the 150th anniversary of Treaty 6 is being commemorated across Saskatchewan. Signed in 1876 between First Nations and the Crown, the historic agreement covers central Saskatchewan and Alberta, including the Prince Albert area. Trumier said that this connects to an upcoming anniversary for Prince Albert Catholic.
“In March of 2027 we will be celebrating 140 years, so we’ve been on the journey for a long time,” Trumier said. “It’s important that we continue to grow and understand how we’ve been beneficiaries of these treaties and able to continue to grow our relationship with our Indigenous families and Metis families.”
This Year’s spiritual theme was Celebrating Christ’s Presence which connected to the four tipi teachings for the year on Faith, Kinship, Cleanliness and Thankfulness. The four seasons were used to promote tipi teachings.
PowerPoints were developed that included a specific tipi pole teaching, classroom lessons and activities were shared with schools to support their Inspiring Success journey. The remaining tipi teaching will be the focus this year.
The presentation was also done after Catholic Education Week, which ran from May 10 to May 17.
During that week the Saskatchewan Catholic School Boards Association (SCSBA) shared a video entitled “Pilgrims of Hope; On the Path to Holiness.” According to Mourot the video was another way to support Prince Albert Catholic’s theme of Celebrating Christ’s Presence.
