Louis Stringer is one of the foremost authorities on the history of Gravelbourg. He opens the doors of the town museum and takes me on a journey from prehistoric times to the present. There is no mistaking Louis passion for this area.
As a university instructor, it’s nice to switch things up and work with kids in elementary school. In Moose Jaw, I had a wonderful time getting to know a group of enthusiastic Grade 6 and 7 students at King George School.
One of my favourite sayings is “the shortest distance between two people is a story” and it proved to be true, yet again, as we got to know one another through our stories. I stood back and watched as kids discovered details about their classmates’ lives and saw one another from new perspectives. They demonstrated empathy and were able to recognize similarities in their shared experiences.
One girl, new to the school, spent some time in a foster home and did her story on singing as her hobby, which she says has helped her through tough times. She narrates, “When I’m singing, I feel something that I’ve never felt before… Even though I have really low self-esteem, my voice has always been something I love about myself.” Another girl did her story on moving to Canada from Ireland and included the detail of how funny she thought the name Moose Jaw was when she and her family first heard it. One boy did his story on building a garden in his backyard with his mother. He discovered his love for assembling wooden garden beds and growing vegetables. There were stories about BFFs, siblings and parents.
I tell the students in my workshops that good non-fiction stories almost always touch on a universal experience — one that the listener can relate to, or that incites the listener to look at their own experiences differently. These stories did just that.
(photo credits: Kim Wilchynski)
Once the pallets were set in place, the Grade 1 & 2 classes of JH Moore set about planting the seeds they had sprouted the previous month, as well as new seeds from packets.
Low laying plants or ‘greens’ (such as lettuce, swiss char, spinach, beets, etc.) were planted in the horizontal pallets. Trailing or ‘vine’ plants (such as peas and beans) were planted in the vertical pallet planters.
A digital story that our animateur Evie Ruddy made while attending a workshop at the Centre for Digital Storytelling in California.
The pallet garden at JH Moore School in Lashburn is coming together. Despite the weather, we carried on in our endeavour June 6, 9, & 10.
First, we laid out the pallets on the front lawn and organized them according to colour, shape, and wood type. Then, after watching a demonstration on how to turn the pallet into a planter the students broke off into groups of four or five and began to emulate the demonstration they just witnessed. The lessons learned in this simple demonstration and reenactment were many–simple things like how to lift, how to hammer, how to measure, how to cooperate, and so on.
I’m guessing the students would say the highlight of this phase of the garden was hammering. They were thrilled to learn and ‘be allowed to’ use this hand tool. So enthralled were they with this aspect of the project that the slight hail storm went virtually unnoticed.
In terms of intangible culture, I underestimated the significance of things like hammering. A few of the students had held a hammer before, had struck a nail. Most, however, had never done such things. In terms of heritage, where would we be without ‘hammering’? Many, if not all, of the heritage buildings on our prairies (old barns and farm houses) were constructed by hand. And the early fences that shape and define this province, they too were constructed with hammer in hand.
Bearing this in mind, it gave me a strange feeling of nostalgia to watch these youth eagerly learn to hammer. To try and try again without frustration, to strike that tiny spoke of metal.
My hosts, Jan Johnston and Neil Jones join me after a fantastic home cooked breakfast and share their stories of how they came to Rockglen and their passion for presenting live music and exhibiting original art. Swift Current painter/musician Ken Christopher joins us, and Brenda Feuerstein is back!
When I tell people about the Lashburn School Garden, many ask “What does that have to do with art?” And while I do think there is an art to gardening, I divert the question to “intangible culture”.
During our Animateur Orientation, it was put forth that this year we might turn our focus to Intangible Culture — the invisible ‘stuff’ that makes up the visible, touchable ‘stuff’ of culture.
So, now the dialogue with students looks something like this:
I ask “What is Culture?”
They answer by giving me every example under the sun, but never actually define it.
I tell them they are all correct and that “Everything is Culture.”
I add the metaphor of a fish swimming in water. “Does it know it’s swimming in water? No. Just like you don’t know you are swimming in your own Culture.”
And now I further add “And how do the examples of Culture you provided come to be?” … “Who braided your hair this morning? How do they know how to braid?” … “Those home made cookies you have in your lunchbox? Who made them? Where did they get that recipe?” … “Who here knows how to ride a horse, or take care of a horse? Now how did you learn that?”
… And this is my segue into gardening. “How many of you have a garden at home?” 90% of the class raise their hands. “Who tends the garden?” They tell me. “Do they take an instruction manual?” A resounding “No.” “Well, then how do they know what they are doing? How do they walk out to garden patch and know what they are doing?”
And the light bulbs go off. I see a glimmer of understanding in their eyes…. That! is Intangible Culture.
I further this discussion with the students by telling them that for the duration of this project (and hopefully henceforth) they are going to start collecting Gardening Wisdom. They are going to start talking to the gardeners in their family and ask them for any ‘tips” that will help with the success of our garden.
I then supply a few examples from my (albeit limited) experience with gardening. I tell them about a second cousin (who is an incredible farmer) who only seeds by the moon. He suggests planting seeds on full moon, not because of the light (as most presume) but because of the full moon’s potential for drawing water to the surface of the earth. I tell them about the little old lady who took one look at my garden and asked “Where are the flowers? You need flowers so the pollinators come.” I tell them about the ‘three sisters’: how the First Nation people of Southern States have always grown corn, beans, and squash together. They do this because as the corn grows the beans wrap themselves around the stalk and flourish from the corn’s strength, and the squash spreads at the ground’s surface to protect the soil and plants from dehydration. I reiterate that certain plants like growing together and others do not. And we need to know this kind of information. So they need to ask the gardeners in their families.
We’ve started to collect these pearls wisdom on recipe cards, and I imagine that with time we will have quite the arsenal of Gardening Wisdom.
I end this conversation with the students of Lashburn by reiterating that we really are a Gardening Culture. “If I was in downtown Toronto,” I query, “how many kids would put up their hands when I ask who has a garden?” Not very many I suspect.
Although I think it is a right to be able to grow one’s own food, to have access to fresh, untampered pesticide-herbicide free food, it is fast becoming a privilege more than a right in this world. So I remind the students how important this is, that we preserve the Intangible Culture of Gardening.
Rockglen residents Jan Johnston and painter/musician Neil Jones open their home to me and invite over a dozen of their local musician friends for evening house party jam session. Share in the stories of some warm hearted folks and some great live music too!
Brenda Feuerstein is a writer, yoga practitioner, and practicing Buddhist who shares a personal journey of travel, love of Saskatchewan, artistic inspiration and loss. Brenda traveled from Eastend to join me in Rockglen.
Dr. Dick Oakes grew up in Rockglen and has since returned to a very different town than when he left. But Rockglen’s history can be relived within the walls of the small train station museum and on the open trails of the Effie Mattson Nature Walk.