Over 200 classes worldwide participate in Junior Water Walkers initiative inspired by Late Josephine Mandamin
By Rick Garrick
THUNDER BAY — The elementary school teacher whose students developed the Junior Water Walkers initiative after meeting with the later Water Walker Josephine Mandamin spoke about the use of technology during Lakehead University’s Report to the Community.
“We, as teachers, need to be really thoughtful of how we are using technology and how we can use it as a powerful tool for learning,” says Peter Cameron, a Lakehead University alumnus and Grade 5/6 teacher at St. Elizabeth’s School in Thunder Bay. “Technology is what led me and my students two years ago to meet Nokomis Josephine Mandamin and invite her to my classroom.”
Cameron says he invited Mandamin and Joanne Robertson, author of Nibi Emosaawdang/The Water Walker, to his classroom after he and his son saw Mandamin while walking around Boulevard Lake in Thunder Bay.
“I was actually working on a virtual Google Earth story that took kids on a virtual field trip around the five Great Lakes,” Cameron says. “So it was incredible that I could have Josephine come to speak to my students — my kids took Josephine on a virtual field trip and Josephine then told my students about her walk to bring awareness on the need to protect water. My students told Josephine they would do their part to carry on her legacy and her walk and become Junior Water Walkers.”
Cameron says there are now about 200 classes around the world who are participating in the Junior Water Walkers initiative, which encourages students to learn about, adopt and help protect a body of water in their area.
“It’s been incredibly powerful and impactful because what I’ve been encouraging all of the classes as well to do is to connect with their Indigenous community and their knowledge leaders,” Cameron says. “And so I’m proud to have this project be called a reconcili-action project.”
Cameron spoke about his trip with National Geographic to the Arctic this past year during the Report to the Community, which was held on Nov. 27 at the Valhalla Inn in Thunder Bay. He was selected as a National Geographic Grosvenor Teacher Fellow, along with 44 other highly respected educators, in recognition of his commitment to geographic education.
“It’s just been incredible to be part of Lakehead University’s Report to the Community and share some of the work that we can do as educators,” Cameron says. “Education is different than it was 25 years ago — we’re no longer confined to the walls of our classroom, and I think it is really important when we put our heads together just what we can do with students to be change-makers.”
Cameron says his students told Mandamin that she was a “Canadian hero.”
“Josephine wasn’t doing her work for publicity or the media attention, she was doing it for water,” Cameron says. “She believes, as do the Anishinaabe people, that water has a soul and that is incredibly powerful and impactful for me and my students. And it’s really water that Josephine says connects us all, so water connected my students to Josephine and now to the Junior Water Walkers.”
The Report to the Community also featured presentations on the drone challenge in the Thunder Bay episode of The Amazing Race Canada and research into post-traumatic stress in Thunder Bay firefighters.
“Today was an opportunity to meet some of the people who learn, teach and advance research, scholarly and creative work at Lakehead — each empowering themselves and our learners to become the next generation of leaders,” says Moira McPherson, president and vice-chancellor at Lakehead University.