When Grade 11 student Summer Sapier watched classmates clap along and lean in with interest as Mi’kmaw drummers and dancers took the floor in the Westisle Composite High School gym, she felt something she doesn’t always experience at school.

“It was really nice to see it kind of try and get normalized,” Sapier told CBC News.

Sapier, who is from Lennox Island, attends Westisle where many students come from her community, but are surrounded by peers who don’t share their culture or background.

She said it makes a difference to see Mi’kmaw culture reflected in her school, and that it’s important to “feel included and accepted for who we are.”

“Because a lot of people aren’t really aware of it at all, and it’s not really known,” she said. “Some people can be kind of rude about it, I guess … That’s frustrating sometimes, because not everyone appreciates it.”

The event, a mawi’omi hosted for the first time at the school last week, aimed to change that.

Nancy Peters-Doyle, a Mi’kmaw language and culture teacher at John J. Sark Memorial School and Hernewood Intermediate, said the purpose was to share Mi’kmaw culture with all students.

“Cultural awareness and the cultural teachings that come with a mawi’omi are for everybody. They’re not just for Indigenous [people],” Peters-Doyle said.

“It’s very important for our own Indigenous people to participate in it when they’re able to, but it’s a really good opportunity for non-Indigenous students and teachers alike to learn a little bit more, see a little bit more about our culture and to see the pride we have in it.”

She said events like this are especially important for students who spent years in school on Lennox Island, where they developed a strong sense of safety and identity, before moving into a larger high school environment.

Without regular Mi’kmaw language and culture classes, those students can feel more vulnerable, which is why bringing cultural learning into spaces like Westisle matters, Peters-Doyle said.

“I hope it acts as an anchor, kind of like a touch point in the culture and in our traditions and the things that we hold important to us, even if they don’t see it in their day-to-day lives here, we can still bring that to them, even if it’s just for an hour or something,” she said.

She added that students at Westisle do have support from staff.

“They’re non-Indigenous, but they’re still very much excellent allies.”

Challenging racism

For organizer Richard Lush, who is from Lennox Island First Nation, the event was also about creating opportunities he didn’t have growing up.

“It was really important for me to figure out the ways to give these opportunities to the youth, to our students, to our future leaders of our communities,” he said.

Lush said the event also helps address what he sees as a gap in the school system, where students can go from years of Mi’kmaw language and cultural education to suddenly having none as they move into higher grades.

That’s why the mawi’omi at Westisle was designed as a teaching powwow, not just a traditional gathering with cultural performances.

As drums echoed through the gym and dancers moved in their regalia, organizers took time to explain elements of the event, helping students better understand what they were seeing.

For Lush, that educational piece is key to challenging racism and building awareness.

“I’m a firm believer that racism is a learned behavior. It’s like ignorance — the uneducated values when it comes to not knowing what the culture is, what the traditions are,” he said.

“So when it comes to having powwows and mawi’omis and celebrations like this, it’s really important that the education becomes priority. Yes, we have the beautiful dancers, beautiful regalias, amazing drummers, but it’s about teaching.”