The Peace River School Division will continue planning flag-raising ceremonies to honour the Treaty 8 flag and the Métis flag.
This comes as a result of flag-raising dates being set in Spring 2023, which were postponed due to the wildfires ravaging much of northwest Alberta. Then in 2024, when the wildfire situation remained “too volatile” to confidently plan a ceremony, the division made the decision to postpone once again.
In 2021, the Board of Trustees passed a motion to raise the Treaty 8 and Métis flags at all PRSD schools and held the division’s first flag-raising ceremony at the Grimshaw Shared Schools Facility on September 23rd of that year.
PRSD Board Chair Crystal Owens says her division remains committed to working with local Indigenous communities, and flag-raisings will commence in the near future to mark this commitment.
“The territory our schools stand on is appropriately recognized as Alberta, as Canada, as Treaty 8 territory, and as the land base of the Métis Nation,” she says. “As a Division, we feel it is important to recognize all four of these designations at the front of all of our schools.”
The hope among division officials is that flag-raising ceremonies will mark a physical reminder of the division’s commitment to Truth and Reconcilliation.
According to the division, the next flag-raising is scheduled for sometime this spring at the Central Operations building in Grimshaw, and at both PRSD schools in Fairview.
