Our school use to have another name when it was a middle school. But about six years ago our district reconfigured and removed middle schools sending the grade 8 & 9 students to high school and the sevens back to elementary. Our old school became too small so we moved into the vacant middle school.
The middle school was given an Aboriginal name and during the opening it also received a totem pole made by a local carver.
Part of our re-dedication ceremony, that will be held at the beginning of May, is to learn about the Aboriginal name and the pole. Every student in the school has drawn a picture of the pole either from memory or looking at it.
This morning was our turn to sit in the foyer, look, talk and draw the totem pole. We talked about the shapes and lines we could see. We guessed what the pole looked like. Here are a few drawings.
We also did a survey.
The majority of the families didn't know that our school had an Aboriginal name.
It’s Dux'solas meaning a place to look from.
The pole is Kulus, little brother of Thunderbird. In the next couple of weeks the carver will be visiting a couple of the older classes telling the story of the pole. Then a few of those students will share the story with us.