Students at Jasper Jr./Sr. High School took in a Medicine Wheel workshop on Feb. 28, where they learned about the circle of life. 

Jodie Thompson, First Nations, Metis and Inuit facilitator for Jasper and Hinton, braved a fierce winter storm to bring her presentation from Hinton for the day. Thompson began her presentation by telling the students that First Nations people believe all things on earth are connected. She showed the students an image of Turtle Island; North America inside of a turtle, surrounded by four different colours; yellow, red, black and white represent the four races in the world. First Nations people knew that all four races would end up living together on one continent well before it happened, Thompson said. 

The medicine wheel represents four quadrants. Thompson told the students how many things in life fit into each of the four sections of the wheel. The students fit the four seasons, four directions, four elements, four races and four stages of life around the wheel.

Once the wheel was full, the first one contained spring, air, yellow and sunrise to represent new beginnings. The last section on the wheel held white, winter, north, elder and earth, to signify life coming full circle. 

Thompson then asked the students to write their own life story, beginning with infants in their family, then children (themselves), adults including their parents and older siblings, and finally their grandparents. She asked the students if they had any grandparents in senior lodges such as the Alpine Summit Seniors Lodge. Thompson told the students about her own great-grandmother, who at the end of her life went back to being taken care of by the rest of her family, completing the cycle of life. 

Thompson urged the students to talk to their parents when they went home to learn about their family stories, and to continue them. 

“It’s really important to keep the story going,” she said. 

Thompson is based out of Crescent Valley School in Hinton.