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My Upstanders and I met with Gilbert Whiteduck last spring, when our theme was Water, to learn more from him about his work as Co-Founder of Tenàgàdino Alliance, and their efforts to get Personhood for the Gatineau River. During that conversation, he asked us to learn more about UNDRIP and write to our City Officials about it.
I organized a very short, 4 week, “Late Fall” session of Upstanders in November and December 2024 to take this on. The kids and I had three Thursdays, three one hour sessions, to learn as much as we could about UNDRIP and prepare a presentation. One of my favourite moments from this was that I sent two of my most experienced (longest with me) Upstanders into a breakout room on their own, gave them a video to watch and summarize and they wrote the “What is the United Nations” slide all on their own. Another amazing Upstander did all the design work – chose the background, font, colours, etc. My two newest Upstanders also did amazing, fast work. It was all such a beautiful experience.
Then, on our fourth Thursday, we had 30 minutes to rehearse the presentation – which means we didn’t really even get through it all – but these awesome kids were ready to jump right in! Gilbert joined our meeting at the half hour mark and we presented live to him, in one take.
And these kids put their hearts into it. They made some mistakes in their reading or pronunciation – and I love that, I didn’t edit it out, I didn’t ask them to re-record it afterwards. We focus too much on perfectionism in our work and world. We teach our kids that mistakes are something to be afraid of. I am trying to counter that narrative. I want them to know that they tried their best and that is awesome. And I want other kids to watch this and see that they can do something like this too, mistakes and all. I want to show that vulnerability is a good thing, is a super power really. And I want these awesome kids to know how proud I am of them for even being willing to do this at all.
Another one of my favourite moments was that one Upstander said that he didn’t want to be part of the live presentation – which was totally OK, no one was forced to, they all were invited to and able to choose what felt best for them. But then, at the very last minute, he said he wanted to read a little bit – so we gave him a part and he did so well.
Also, the comments and feedback and thoughts from Gilbert after the kids’ presentation are all so powerful and important. I am so grateful to Gilbert for the teachings he shared with us. Teachings of community, gratitude, responsibility, reciprocity, interconnectedness – all the things that we need to build up in our world. And then the questions and comments at the end by my Upstanders, responding to Gilbert, are so beautiful they just fill my heart right up with love.
I truly believe that Indigenous ways of knowing are what is going to save us from the mess that we have created. And I am always honoured to learn more about this.
I hope you enjoy watching this and learning with us as much as we enjoyed creating it!