Members of the F.P. Walshe school Class of 2024 with elders who performed the traditional blessing ceremony.
A traditional First Nations blessing ceremony paid tribute Thursday to the Class of 2024 at F.P. Walshe school.
Elders Peter Strikes With A Gun and Jeannie Provost carried out the ceremony before an audience of about 75 family members, friends and school staff members in the gymnasium.
Strikes With A Gun used an eagle feather to carry out the blessings on First Nations and Metis students.
The eagle feather, Strikes With A Gun explained, is the most significant symbol in First Nations culture.
Strikes With A Gun said the eagle will help the student soar above the storms they may encounter in life.
“The eagle is one of the animals that guide us,” Strikes With A Gun said.
The ceremony began with an honour song and a land acknowledgement, with each First Nations grad called to kneel before the elders as the ceremony was carried out.
Guest speaker Beth Grier shared an encouraging story of perseverance with the grads that began with her own time as a student at F.P. Walshe school.
Grier said she enjoyed much of her time in the high school, playing rugby, participating in band, attending FACES, going on the Gulf Islands trip and receiving guidance and encouragement from some staff members.
High school also presented challenges, including a particularly discouraging teacher who ended Grier’s hopes of becoming a marine biologist.
After graduating with her friends Grier took a gap year and then enrolled in general studies at Lethbridge College with the goal of becoming a teacher.
“That year of college was a shock for me,” Grier told the grads. “It was the first time I had been away from my family for more than two weeks.”
Loneliness, a run-in with a difficult instructor and ensuing anxiety led to depression and cutting classes. At the encouragement of her parents Grier finished the semester.
“I move home, back to where I was loved and could breathe,” Grier said. “I had felt like I was suffocating, and I could finally breathe being home.”
While working as a receptionist Grier took a math course and surprised herself by getting marks in the 90s.
Inspired by the loving care she witnessed nurses at the Children’s Hospital give her little sister, Grier completed high school upgrading, enrolled in the University of Lethbridge — serving two years as the Indigenous chair on the Nursing Student Association for two years.
After she experienced a diminished COVID-19 pandemic graduation, Grier worked as a nurse in the emergency department at Fort Macleod Health Centre and as a home care and community health nurse on the Piikani Nation.
Grier is now employed as the University of Lethbridge Indigenous recruiter.
“I am able to be the person I didn’t have to help students understand the U of L,” Grier said. “I am so blessed to have my parents help me with every step but not everyone has that, so I am able to be that person for other students. I’ve come to learn it’s the helping people I take the most joy in.”
Grier told the grads to remember a Blackfoot word she hears often from her parents: “Likaklimaat.”
“It means to try hard,” Grier said.
“Life is a journey of trying. Succeeding and failing are all milestones that everyone goes through in some way.”
Grier encouraged the grads not to be afraid to fail, take opportunities, and to take chances.
“If it is something you really want, try your best, Grier said. “That is all that anyone can ever ask for. You’ll never know the outcome unless you try.”
The celebration closed with a round dance and a meal.
