Sweetgrass will host a sod turning and blessing ceremony on February 15 before the building of their new K to 12 school begins. (Sweetgrass First Nation/Facebook)

By Julia Lovett-Squires

Sweetgrass School

New school for Sweetgrass First Nation

Feb 5, 2024 | 2:19 PM

A historic moment is coming to Sweetgrass First Nation. After nearly 50 years, the community is about to celebrate a new Kindergarten to Grade 12 school.

“It’s been quite a few years. So many obstacles and such to get to where we are now,” said Lamarr Oksasikewiyin, who holds the education portfolio with the First Nation.

To get the process officially underway, there will be a sod turning and grounds blessing on Thursday, Feb. 15 followed by a lunch event at the community centre. After that, construction will consume the area over the next 24 months. The project will cost roughly $39 million and the former school will become the new band office.

Prior to the current school Oksasikewiyin remembers attending an older red brick school before transitioning to the new building around 1977.

“I remember us walking to that school and we’re just amazed because they had nice clean floors that we could just slide on our socks,” he said with a chuckle.

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“I still actually remember that, and I remember the trees in front – they’re Russian Black Poplar – they were just small saplings and they’re huge now.”

According to an infographic on the First Nation’s Twitter feed, the school will have both a daycare and a Head Start attached to the building and each will have their own entrances. It will also feature solar panels on the roof and will count a gymnasium, rooms for Cree language and science classes, an elder’s room among the new amenities.

“We’re K to seven now, so we’ll be K to eight next year and then move our way up,” he said of the future K to 12 school.

“Obviously, we’re going to be focused on the curriculum and the programming to ensure that the students get the education they require.”

Administrators are also in the planning stages of developing land-based programming alongside language and culture education, Oksasikewiyin explained much in the same way the Manifest Academic Growth and Promote Indigenous Excellence (MAGPIE) Initiative is taught at Nutana Collegiate in Saskatoon and the students earn a minimum of four credits.

“We’re going to offer the same thing out here, but we’ll have our own name to it. It’ll be its own unique program, but the high school students will still be able to get at least four credits from there that are recognized by the provincial curriculum,” he said.

“The fact that we could do that program with our resources here in Sweetgrass… it’s a big deal for us.”

This realization comes nearly 52 years after the policy paper titled, “Indian Control of Indian Education” was first presented to the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development by the National Indian Brotherhood – an organizational forerunner to the Assembly of First Nations.

“We’ll still be able to match the provincial curriculum,” he said.

As it will take about two years to build, the administration and staff are using the time to get organized, and everyone is on the same page.

“That’s the advantage that we have here that we all want the same thing and that’s the best education we can give our youth,” Oksasikewiyin said.

The event will kick off at the school site just west of the current school at 10 a.m.

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julia.lovettsquires@pattisonmedia.com

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