This year, we have made an intentional effort to connect our school name to Indigenous ways of being and to our place.  We have highlighted Indigenous language and culture as a way to bring our students together to create a shared understanding of our place and to develop a stronger school identity.

In order to do this, staff engaged in a significant amount of professional learning and discussion to build own own knowledge in order to share with students.  Our starting point was to introduce naming vocabulary for the Indigenous people and language group living on this land and their ways of being connected to this place.

Approximately half of our students (representing primary and intermediate students) participated in a classroom-based survey of the following questions:

1. What is the meaning of our school name, “Spul’u’kwuks”?

2. What is the name of the people on whose traditional territory we now live?

3. What did the First Peoples traditionally do on the land and water near Spul’u’kwuks, and still do today?

4. What is the language group of the Indigenous people of this land?

Our purpose was to see what our students know and where we may need to focus teaching as we look to next school year.

1. 70% of students were able to indicate that "Spul'u'kwuks" means, 'place of bubbling water'.

2. 80% of students surveyed know that we live on the traditional territory of the Musqueam people.

3. 49% of students surveyed could name one or more uses of the land and water, such as fishing and living.

4. 53% of students surveyed know that the language group of the Indigenous people of this land is "hən̓ q̓ əmin̓ əm̓".

From these results, we can see that most of the students surveyed know that this land is the traditional territory of the Musqueam people and can define our school name.  Fewer students are aware of the uses of the land and water near our school and the language group of the Indigenous people.

Our next steps will be to reinforce the vocabulary used to define the land and language of this place and focus on the way of life of the Musqueam people.