Paint and Pages

On Monday, we celebrated Indigenous People’s Day by reading, “Berry Song” by Michaela Goade. Michaela Goade is a talented author and illustrator and member of the Tinglit and Haida tribes.

Through Berry Song’s beautiful illustrations and song-like verse, the relationship between the land and life is celebrated. “Gunalcheesh” or “to give thanks” is explored as a young girl and her granddaughter collect every kind of berry and explore their natural surroundings.

My students loved this book. They excitedly pointed out the whales in the ocean and the bear and eagle. We shared our favorite berries and things in our life we were grateful to have: a classroom, teachers, books, art, breakfast, our class pet, an indoor playground, trikes, our families and friends. Gunalcheesh!” We said throughout the day.

I had a sub para in my classroom during free choice. She helped me swap the black light rice out of the rice table and into storage and a few small totes for our black light bathroom. We then put new colorful leaves into the sensory table.

I asked the sub para what kept her busy over the weekend. She told me she attended a reunion in Worthington with her community of Burmese refugees. She said it had been forty years since they came to Worthington, Minnesota from their camp. She told me she was six years old at this time. I asked how many people were at the reunion and she guessed around two hundred. I asked if she had returned to her homeland and she said yes, last year, but it is very dangerous. I asked if she still had family there and she said sadly, her father is still there because he could not obtain the refugee status that the rest of her immediate family obtained. She said the village her dad lived in, and she visited recently, is now no longer safe so now her dad is hiding in the forest. She now has no way to contact her father.

I told her I was very sorry to hear this and asked if I could share her story. She said yes. I told her I wished her father could be here with us and that I’m so thankful she is here in Worthington.

I thought of my own father. I worry about the heart trouble he’s had and how he often eats three times the healthy amount of food. I thought about how lucky I am that I can go see him play events with his band every other weekend. I thought about how I worry when he goes out alone into the woods hunting for just a few hours and how unbearable it is to imagine him hiding and living in the woods.

Gunalcheesh. I am grateful for my father’s safety and our American citizenship. I am grateful for peace.