Session 2 - Thursday

B: Conservation, Language and Cultural Renewal

Presenter: Hutch Sitting Eagle, Millie Coleing, Ryan Nielson, Katherine Varze

Description: This presentation explores the developing partnership between the Siksika Board of Education (SBE) and the Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo through a conservation lens. The focus is on how language and culture guide collaborative projects involving both plant and animal life. Beginning with plant restoration, the initiative envisions reintroducing traditional plant species into Siksika territory, starting in greenhouses and eventually returning them to the land. From the Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo perspective, this partnership is designed to create educational pipelines—introducing students to ecology, veterinary sciences, and environmental fields. Together, these projects demonstrate how Indigenous knowledge and western science work alongside each other, ensuring that conservation efforts honour both ecological sustainability and cultural renewal.

Session 2, McKnight West

C: Natosapi Book Club

Presenter: Christie Owl Child

Learn about an engaging book club at SBE’s Chief Old Sun School. This club is celebrating its 10th year. In this session, you will learn about some of the ways reading has been made fun and engaging for kids over the past decade. Christie always tells kids in this club “one of my dreams is one day I will walk into a book store and I’ll see a book written by one of you kids! Or I’ll go into a movie and see it is written and directed by one of you!” The notion that writing can be healing is also addressed. Writing is viewed as a method for handling the struggles students face by allowing them to be storytellers!  Visit this session to learn about the Natosapi book club and how it engages kids in reading and writing.

Session 2, Horizon Room

F: How Money Works

Presenter: Michelle Eagle Tail Feathers

The presentation teaches niitsitapiksi an understanding on how money works by teaching them the magic of compound interest, pension plans, the impact on 9+% on RRSP/TFSA's, how to get the same coverage of life and/or mortgage insurance but pay 30-70% less, than take the difference and invest it. The presentation also touches on how niitsitapiksi can pay off debts 4-5 years sooner, with no new money from their pockets, get more back on their taxes, and how the average person can become financially independent and debt free. The knowledge of "How Money Works" can be passed down from generation to generation.

Session 2, Barlow

L: Classroom Champions Circle program Empowers Blackfoot Educators

Presenter: Andrea Dion

Classroom Champions Circle is based on Indigenous engagement and culturally specific programming as developed in collaboration with our community partners.  Funded by the Energizing Communities Collective and the Calgary Foundation, Classroom Champions has partnered with the Siksika Nation to produce digital assets that include 'Star Stories' and messages of hope and resilience from Elders and Knowledge Keepers.  This presentation will also grant access to a virtual Classroom Champions Social Emotional Learning curriculum.  Additional contributors to this Blackfoot content include Elders, Knowledge Keepers and Powwow Athletes as Mentors.  This presentation ensures that participants experience the Classroom Champions Circle platform and access to the Blackfoot content in the form of videos and animation.  

Session 2, Macleod Room

N: Blackfoot Youth Water Council

Presenter: Disa Crow Chief, Alayiah Wolf Child, Tyra Cross Child 

This workshop introduces participants to the transformative work of the Blackfoot Youth Water Council, a grassroots initiative reimagining education and training for Indigenous community members through Blackfoot ways of knowing. Participants will learn how the Youth Council has fostered meaningful engagement, both within their communities and with external partners, by centering Indigenous knowledge systems, relational approaches, and intergenerational learning, beyond traditional technically-focused pedagogies. Disa Crow Chief has brought her Blackfoot teachings around the world to various conferences in Mexico, USA, England, Sweden, Brazil, and across Canada. The session will highlight how the Council’s activities have created spaces for youth-led innovation, cultural revitalization, and water stewardship. Through storytelling and shared experiences, participants will gain insight into how these young leaders are reshaping educational paradigms to reflect Indigenous values and priorities. A key component of the workshop will be a guided “dreaming and importance planning” exercise through artistic expression. Drawing inspiration from the Youth Council’s methods, participants will explore their own work and aspirations through a Blackfoot lens - reflecting on how Indigenous frameworks can inform planning, collaboration, mindset framing and community impact. This interactive session invites participants to envision new possibilities for education, research, and engagement rooted in respect, reciprocity, and relationality, building collective understanding on how to engage respectfully with communities, understand the cultural and historical contexts, and work collaboratively across disciplines and worldviews.

Session 2, Canadian

R: Ani to Pisi Human Spider Web

Presenters: Roy Bear Chief, Therese Wiart Jenkinson, Tia Santana, Michelle Bamford, Jadyn James, Jolene Popadynetz, Lexi Hahn

This session explores Ani to Pisi (the spider web), a traditional Blackfoot creation story told by the late Clement Bear Chief and shared by Espoom tah Roy Bear Chief. The story carries powerful teachings of connection, care, and community, and comes to life through a land-based, interactive enactment. Building on the work of MRU graduate Tia Santana, a toolkit has been developed to support educators in facilitating Ani to Pisi in schools. Participants will view highlights from Human Spider Web Enactments at Chief Crowfoot School (Siksika) and Calgary Board of Education schools and will learn how to access free teaching resources. Fourth-year MRU students will also be available to support schools interested in bringing this story to life with their learners during the following year until April 2026.

Session 2, McKnight East

U: Siksika Traditional Games

Presenters: Darren Weasel Child, Gaylene Weasel Child

Participants will learn about various traditional games that can be taught within the classroom and encompasses Alberta Education curriculum.  This hands-on workshop will allow participants to practice the games and learn how to make the games.   

Session 2, Theatre

,