Happy Indigenous Heritage Month!

And now message from HARC… 

As we did for Black History Month, the PAC’s Hastings Anti-Racism Committee (HARC) will be sending out a series of emails to celebrate Indigenous Heritage Month. We encourage you, as parents, to bring some or all of these stories to your kids. Without further ado, let’s get to it!

1. Haida artist, Tamara Bell, started the growing memorial on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery – placing 215 pairs of childrens’ shoes, in tribute to the remains found by the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation at the residential school there. Above the memorial, a sign reads,

‘Know more than the names of the land. We are past the point of gratitude. It’s time to commit to more than live, work and play.’

A land acknowledgement rolls easily off most people’s tongues but how much do you know about the people you are thanking?
Learn more about the…

Musqueam Nation 
Tsleil Waututh Nation – People of the Inlet
Squamish Nation

2. Abigail Echo-Hawk, of the Pawnee Nation, and the chief research officer at the Seattle Indian Health Board, asked for PPE to help protect the community from Covid-19. She received something very different and turned it into an act of resistance and resilience.

Read the Story

3. Speaking of fashion, Supernaturals Modelling, is the first Indigenous Modelling Agency.

Learn More

4. Let’s stay in the fashion category…Christian Allaire, member of the Ojibwe Nation and a writer for Vogue magazine, has just released his first book – “The Power of Style – How Fashion and Beauty Are Being Used to Reclaim Cultures.”

Learn More

5. Kaniehti:io Horn, member of the Mohawk Nation, hosts a new podcast – ‘Telling Our Twisted Histories,’ in which Indigenous stories are decolonized and retold.

Learn More

6. A month-long gathering and showcase of Indigenous Performing Arts and Indigenous artists has already begun as the Talking Stick Festival (TSF) continues its 20th Anniversary celebrations!

Did you know June is also Filipino Heritage Month AND Pride Month?! SO many people and stories to celebrate!! 

Lost & Found Trolley is out!

Our Vice Principal Susan would like to remind families that the Lost & Found Trolley is out!

On most mornings as school commences (unless it’s raining), the trolley is wheeled out to the sidewalk in front of the main entrance on Franklin. Parents are welcome to come take a look and hopefully retrieve those lost items!

Susan says the best way to keep your kids stuff out of the lost & found is to LABEL YOUR CHILD’S BELONGINGS. It’s as easy as using a permanent marker in the neck label. While staff make every effort to unite lost items with their owners, they can only do that if the item is labelled.

An alternative to marker, are stickers with your child’s name. If you plan to label your child’s items before the start of September, please consider ordering Mabel’s Label’s and supporting the Hastings PAC’s ongoing fundraiser! 20% of every order goes to the PAC’s operating account, and is used for many important initiatives at our school. With the lack of fundraising events due to COVID this year, such as Spring Fair, Burger & Bevvie, and Bingo Night, small fundraisers like Mabel’s Labels help a lot!

Click above and look for ‘Hastings PAC (Vancouver)’. Thank you in advance for your support!

The Walking School Bus is doing a call out for committee members!

It's cool to walk to school

The super popular Walking School Bus (WSB) was suspended due to COVID, but we are hopeful that we can get it up and running again soon!

The WSB not only helps parents get their kids safely to school, it also provides leadership opportunities for senior students and for students to form connections between different grades and programs. It also provides a fun way for students to have additional physical activity on a daily basis, and to decrease the level of vehicle congestion around school. In an era of growing awareness around climate change, every participant in the WSB is taking steps forward to the planet we want to have in the future.

An initiative like this take organizing and planning, so if you are interested in being involved in the restart, please email the PAC at info@hastingspac.ca and we can connect you with other parents.

Let’s come together

It is with heavy hearts that we open this email with the tragic news of a terrorist attack in London, Ontario killing four members of a Muslim family and leaving a 9 year old boy orphaned.

As Yusuf Siraj with the Islam Unravelled Anti-Racism Initiative said this week:

“If you feel attacked, or targeted, and no one stands up for you – no one’s there to say that’s wrong, we don’t approve that, we don’t accept that – then people might start think that this belief is mainstream when it is not.”  

With this in mind, here are three ways you can stand in solidarity with the Muslim community and support anti-racism:

    •    Attend the second Vancouver vigil to remember the victims and challenge extremist ideologies TONIGHT – Thursday, June 10 at 7pm at the Vancouver Art Gallery.
    •    Tell your political representatives to support the National Council of Canadian Muslims’ calls for an immediate National Action Summit on Islamophobia, to dismantle systemic and violent forms of Islamophobia.
    •    Share or donate to the fundraiser set up by extended family for the Muslim community through the Salman Family Sadaqa Jariya Fund.

Next week we will begin sharing a series of emails celebrating Indigenous Heritage month. We encourage you, as parents, to bring some or all of these stories to your kids. And we hope you find these resources and suggestions for action are helpful as we each find our own ways to understand, honour and build a safer, more inclusive and equitable school and community.  

The next Hastings Anti-racism Committee (HARC) meeting will be held next Monday, June 14th from 7-8pm on Zoom. All Hastings parents and guardians are welcome to attend every meeting. Zoom link here: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83701847394?pwd=aWhXMXA4S0kzbFlJaGEvN2lwMWRrUT09.