Cort Dogniez, Métis education program leader for the Greater Saskatoon Catholic School division says he hopes that the students at St. Michael Community School in Saskatoon will become fluent in Michif.
The school’s core Michif language program was launched this school year.
“I hope that we will have a program that supports all our students with our core Michif language program,” Dogniez said. “The dream is to become a bilingual school so that it isn’t just a core thing that they’re getting for 45 minutes a day, but that it’s in every classroom all of the time and language of instruction will happen in this building and it will be in Michif. Our dream is to get to that point where our students can be fluent in the language.”
Dogniez says St. Michael Community School principal Cristin Dorgan Lee is making sure Métis content is an integral part of the curriculum at the school.
“Our partnerships, our board and our division have really worked together to make this school have a Métis focus and have students feel comfortable sharing their language, sharing our culture and building up a sense of belonging here at the school so they can go out to the world and share that with others,” Dorgan Lee said.
(Photo: Métis education program leader Cort Dogniez in the Métis education culture centre at St. Michael Community School in Saskatoon. Photo by Brendan Mayer.)