Heart Garden

We are planting a permanent Heart Garden in our school yard. As a school, we were inspired by the Heart Garden that was planted in Ottawa at the closing ceremonies of the Truth and Reconciliation. We want to create a living monument that will be a visible and ever-present reminder of Canada’s residential school legacy and our on-going work towards reconciliation. All classes at our school have been learning about traditional tipi teachings as well as the history of residential schools. Every student will plant a heart in the garden amongst the flowers and vegetable beds. We are also planning to incorporate Project of Heart tiles. We will have a ribbon-cutting ceremony on June 3rd, National Heart Garden Day, where the whole community will be invited to join us. We have produced a video about this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VP8FlMf0oXA (Heart Garden Project at Palliser Heights School)

Update (June 11, 2016)

On Friday June 3, Palliser Heights hosted the official opening ceremonies for our Heart Garden. We had an assembly with all 600 of our students, classes from William Grayson, residential school survivors, members of the Wakamow Aboriginal Community Association and local dignitaries. One grade 6 student presented the history of residential schools.

We then showed a video explaining the creation of our garden.

After the assembly, we all followed the pathway of hearts to the garden accompanied by the Empire School’s drum group.

The Moose Jaw Times Herald covered the event.

On June 7th, MLA Warren Michelson congratulated Palliser Heights on the opening of the Heart Garden in the Saskatchewan Legislature.