Aazhwewebinesiik,
N’ame (sturgeon) niin doodem
As a resilient Anishinaabe kwe, Rhonda has spent most of her career learning the Western ways and is currently committed to learning the history, culture, and traditions of the Anishinaabek. She is professional trained in Indigenous education as a teacher and as a program administrator. She has experience as an elementary and high school teacher with Indigenous communities in Northern Ontario, as well as twenty years education administration experience with Biigtigong Nishnaabeg. She graduated from Lakehead University with a Master of Education that examined the impact of using Anishinaabemowin in a natural environment. The findings from her research resulted in the document, “Anishinaabemowin Immersion Camp: A Guide for Successful Planning.” Recently, she completed her Principal’s qualification course and now is serving her community as principal.
The transmission of traditional knowledge was interrupted by the Residential School system. Determined to learn the ways of her family’s tradition, she picked up the pieces left behind and gained the knowledge from family and Elders to harvest manoomin (wild rice) traditionally. She learned how to collect manoomin in a canoe, parch it over an open fire, and process it with traditional and contemporary methods. Through harvesting, she has learned to respect this sacred gift of the land, and develop a relationship with herself, the land and water. Committed to passing on this traditional way of life, she has helped students connect to manoomin by providing opportunities for them to learn for the past eight years. It is the goal that students develop an interest in learning more about this gift and begin to research areas in the traditional territory of Biigtigong and reseed those lakes that once had manoomin growing there.
