Education News Featuring Sandy Pinay Schindler

Check out the article in the University of Regina's Education News, featuring Sandy Pinay Schindler, one of my education heroes. Sandy is the First Nations/Metis Education Coordinator for our Prairie Valley School Division. She leads with heart, mind, body and spirit, always remembering that it's all about what's best for kids.

http://education.uregina.ca/assets/documents/News%20and%20Events/2012Summer-EducationNews.pdf

Stay tuned to Treaty Walks because Sandy has given me permission to publish excerpts from her Master's thesis, Echoes of Voices from a Long Time Ago: A Self-Reflexive Journey of Understanding Leadership from a Personal and Indigenous Perspective, which was nominated for the Governor General's Award for Graduate Students in 2012.

Here's a brief taste:

"Opening Narrative" from Echoes of Voices from a Long Time Ago: A Self-Reflexive Journey of Understanding Leadership from a Personal and Indigenous Perspective, by Sandy Pinay Schindler.

In the dry hills of Piapot First Nation, my Cree ancestors rest in the beautiful hillside cemetery. My memories of Piapot are few, and have dimmed over the years. How far back do memories go? What is the earliest memory a child can have? I remember the touch of my Grandma Crowe's hands on my face. I remember seeing her face and wondering how a person could have so many soft wrinkles and such bright eyes. I clearly see her little gray house nestled in a coulee on the south side of the valley and I recall climbing the front steps to visit her. The rolling, velvety hills of the beautiful Qu'Appelle valley were "Grandma's Hills." They were hers, I was sure, because she lived there and they were part of her. They were mystical and magical and the hills were connected to her. The feelings and memories she evokes today are inherently good. My mother said that my grandmother would give anyone the shirt off her back. She was a true helper of people and her generosity was endless...