Visit from Joanne Robertson

On February 5th the junior students at A.A. Wright were so lucky to have Joanne Robertson visit us.  Joanne is AnishinaabeKwe and a member of Atikameksheng Anishnawbek.  She is the founder of the Empty Glass for Water campaign to bring attention to the drinking water crisis in Indigenous communities across Canada.  Joanne is also the author of the book "The Water Walker".

This is a fantastic true story about an Ojibwe grandmother (nokomis) named Josephine Mandamin and her love for water (nibi) and the need to protect it for our future generations.

Joanne spoke with us about the importance of fresh water and the water walks that she has been on in an effort to raise awareness of this cause.  Our students were so taken by the distance that Joanne, Josephine, and the other Water Walkers walked in an effort to spread their message.  They were also excited to learn that the Water Walker's visited Walpole Island and prayed for the St. Clair River a couple of years ago.  To learn more about the Mother Earth Water Walk you can visit their website HERE.

Not only was Joanne a fantastic presenter with a great message for us she also was gracious enough to help us out with our Words of the Week videos for February.  Our team decided to pull words from Joanne's book to focus on.  To access these videos and PDF word wall cards click HERE.

Also, as we know water is a theme that weaves its way through each grade of the Ontario science curriculum.  To learn more about how to incorporate this learning into your lessons, as well as watch a fantastic book review of "The Water Walker", please check out Gretchen's blog post HERE.