Students from Barrhead Composite High School recently took part in a teepee raising ceremony led by Robin Berard, who is originally from Bigstone Cree Nation. At the event, students worked together to put up a teepee and learned about the sacred teachings that are represented by components of the teepee. “They really did a good job, for their first time putting up a teepee,” said Berard. Among the lessons she shared, Berard explained how the teepee gets its strength from the three poles that form the structure’s frame—which represent the grandfathers, the grandmothers, and the child—and compared the strength of women need in the family unit to the teepee’s ability to continue standing in inclement weather. “You stand strong,” Berard said to the women who helped raise the teepee. “Don’t let anyone take that power away from you.”
