The Okotoks Public Library is bringing the First Nations Storytime to the community next week, teaching children ages 5 to 12 about the Blackfoot culture.
Facilitated by the Marigold Library System and led by Siksika Nation summer students, the storytime will be coming to the library on Friday, Aug. 2 from 1:30-2:30p.m.
This year’s students are Sage Running Rabbit and Sadie Yellow Old Woman.
“It’s about 45 minutes to an hour,” said Kristine den Boon, library services consultant with Marigold. “They have a story that they will be reading—it’s called The Storm Maker’s Tipi (by Paul Goble)—and it describes the Blackfoot culture behind teepees.”
After the story, Sage and Sadie will have a discussion about their culture, teepees, and what they mean, before the children will be making their own model teepees and decorating them.
“The indigenous population makes up a large portion of our population, both in terms of working out on the reserves as well as within the communities,” said den Boon. “With the awareness of the truth and reconciliation, we want to make sure we’re doing our part as well to build those bridges.”
The program got its start after Marigold began receiving a grant from the Alberta Government’s public library services branch that is aimed at programs that employ and raise awareness of indigenous people and their cultures.
For the past three summers, Marigold has hired Siksika Nation students for five to six weeks, said den Boon, who then run programming out on Siksika Nation and at public libraries each week.
“We also wanted to share that with the libraries (in Alberta) as well, and share their culture, the Blackfoot culture, with people in this area,” said den Boon.
The Aug. 2 event will be Okotoks Public Library’s first time hosting the program.
“It is one of our mandates to try to encourage different story times and programs and all different cultures,” said Sarah Gillie, youth services manager at the Okotoks’ library. “So when this opportunity came up we wanted to jump right on that and bring them in, which is great.”
Gillie said it was important to bring the program to Okotoks.
“Okotoks is such a wonderful community with people from all nations and different cultures,” she said. “We just think it’s important to share those cultures with our community members, including First Nations.”
The program comes on the heels of May’s Reading with Royalty program held in partnership with Calgary Pride. Gillie said the First Nations Storytime is in line with the library’s goal to do more of those types of diverse and educational events and storytimes in order to foster discussions with other communities and cultures.
“In the fall we will be starting an Around the World Storytime, where once a month we are going to be having community members come in and share their stories, songs, and their culture with children and the community,” she said.
The Around the World Family Storytime will be starting on Tuesday, Sept. 3 from 2-3p.m., and is held in partnership with the Foothills Community Immigration Services.
For more information about the Library’s programs or services, go to www.okotokslibrary.ca.
