Traditional indigenous parenting class in Winnipeg helps reclaim identity

Each class starts with a sage smudge, and a check-in with women around the circle.

There are about a dozen women seated around a table in the William Whyte Community School family room.  One woman tells the group she is about to have a baby.  Another is going back to school after 25 years.

These women are not hitting the books in this North End school. They are here to learn how to parent from a traditional indigenous perspective and gain a sense of empowerment.

"We're mothers first and foremost," says facilitator Ko'ona Cochrane. "We know how to parent our children." 

Cochrane has been teaching this weekly class for almost a year to parents at the school.

"We're trying to reclaim our cultural teachings and provide those teachings back to the parents to empower them and let them know that they already know how to be parents," she says.

This day's lesson centres around the seven sacred teachings.  

"So the first teaching we have up here today is love," says Cochrane.  She describes a story about an eagle searching for goodness in people and coming upon a woman praying and offering tobacco.

The women start crafting a wall hanging made of popsicle sticks and beads with the teachings of love, respect, honesty, humility, truth, wisdom and courage while Cochrane sings and drums.

"I really enjoy when we smudge and Ko'ona sings and drums," says Jessica Bird, whose son just turned four, "It seems to calm me down."

Bird started coming to the class last year.

"I wanted to get back into the culture when my grandmother died and my sister passed away. I felt the need to go back to the roots for our family," she said. 

Bird says her son will be a traditional dancer and hopes these teachings keep him on the right path.

"I really do hope that he passes it on or even continues in his teenage years to keep him out of the bad lifestyle that is so common nowadays in young children," said Bird.

Cochrane says the topics in the class are parent-driven - parents tell her what they want to know about. Topics have included medicine picking, smudging, communicating with a talking stick and teepee teachings.

"A lot of the teachings are about learning to find your own voice and to honour yourself," she said.

This hands-on, community approach is something officials in Manitoba's child welfare system support.

"The stronger families are, the fewer children will end up in care," said Bobbi Pompana, CEO of the Southern First Nations Network of Care, ""We know there needs to be more family-based programming." 

"Cultural appropriateness is really important. Family connection is really important, so the spirit of that is the direction we need to go," she said. 

One recommendation in the 2012 interim report of Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission also calls for governments to "develop culturally appropriate early childhood and parenting programs."

Lisa Chatkana recently moved to Winnipeg with her two daughters. She sees the class as a way to meet people but also reflect.

"Growing up I never got taught these teachings," she said, "I was always in different foster homes as I was growing up... I learned them by my grandma when I finally went back home."

She hopes her two daughters have a different experience. 

"I look at my girls...just feeling proud of who I am and where I come from," she said.

Cochrane currently teaches classes in three different locations.  Participants include parents - indigenous and non-indigenous, Child and Family Services workers and even grandparents. 

"It's so exciting to see these older people who have lost out because of residential school and colonialism on these teachings.  They want to learn them so they come to these circles," she said. "They themselves are empowered, because they already know a lot.  They just don't get validated." 

She says people who have not been raised in a traditional way may not recognize the calming effect of smudging or the power of a hand drum.

Cocrhane says she wants class participants to know these tools can help them.

"They're realizing these are tools that are making them feel better and helping them to cope within their homes, the stresses in their home," she said. 

"There's just so many that are learning other ways that aren't healthy," she said, "It's a matter of people standing up and re-learning these teachings."