Lakehead Public Schools students learn how to prevent gender-based violence

By Rick Garrick

THUNDER BAY—A prevention of violence against women and girls workshop was held for about 60 Grade 7-10 male students from Lakehead Public Schools on Dec. 4 in Thunder Bay. The White Ribbon Leadership Campaign for Boys workshop was delivered by a group of presenters, including Biigtigong Nishnaabeg’s Nathaniel Moses, as part of the international White Ribbon campaign by men and boys to end violence against women and girls.

“As Anishinaabe people, we are people that are rooted by our mother — we call her Mother Earth,” says Moses, cultural resource coordinator with the Thunder Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre. “The mother heals us and nurtures all of us no matter who we are. One of the lessons I take from our culture is listening to our women, our wives, our mothers, our sisters, our nieces. They are the backbone of our family.”

Moses emphasized the importance of humour during his presentation, including when he had the students singing parts of a song with repeated lines about Sponge Bob Square Pants.

“The presentation went well, only because I kind of put some humour into our songs, and everyone participated as gentle as we were able to do,” Moses says.

Marco Pasinelli, Kizhaay Anishinaabe Niin — I am a Kind Man worker with the Thunder Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre, delivered a presentation on how he works with men who have treated women with violence.

“[These men] come to my program for many reasons,” Pasinelli says. “Number one, many of them have felt bad about what they have done and they want to make a change. Many of them go through the court system and the judge says: ‘You need to do something in order to change your life or else you are going to go down the road that’s going to lead you to prison’.”

Pasinelli says the men are taught about cultural teachings, including the four sacred medicines of sweetgrass, tobacco, sage and cedar and the Seven Grandfather Teachings of wisdom, love, respect, bravery, honesty, humility and truth, during the Kizhaay Anishinaabe Niin program.

The workshop also included a presentation by Mahejabeen Ebrahim, human rights and equity advisor with Lakehead Public Schools.

“I am very encouraged when I see the kind of leadership our students are showing in terms of helping us build a community of respect so that all of our students can do well,” Ebrahim says. “We believe very strongly that all students belong at Lakehead and we want to make sure there is an environment where all students feel respected, welcome, safe and included.”

Jeff Upton, education officer with Lakehead Public Schools and workshop organizer, says it was “wonderful day.”

“I think the big issue is that when people talk about violence against women or gender-based violence, they think of the physical violence,” Upton says. “[The students have] heard of all kinds of things today around the issue of consent, they’ve heard about psychological violence and emotional violence. As the kids are leaving here today, I’m finding that they are excited about taking that knowledge back to their schools, becoming that peer leader in their school and then trying to work in their own communities so that we can all work together and end violence against women.”

A short video of some of the students speaking out about gender-based violence is posted on the City of Thunder Bay’s YouTube page. It was created by the city and partners at the workshop.