at Gowanda Central School District
Repost from Gowanda Central School District FB
WE ARE BROTHERS: The second week of the My Brother’s Keeper – Native American Program summer session at Gowanda Central School District kept its 13 student participants very busy and engaged from July 15-19, 2024.
High on their list of priorities was conceptualizing and completing a meaningful mural under the guidance of high school art teacher Heather Rydzik. The students were tasked with a collaborative project they probably wouldn’t attempt solo. The motto is “We are Brothers” and the group worked on it in shifts every morning.
“I asked them ‘What else do you want to see at the school?’” says Rydzik, noting that all the boys are very interested in lacrosse, considered the creator’s game, so that motif and a snow snake figure prominently in the piece.
The group also incorporated a large orange handprint to represent the Every Child Matters movement, which pays respect to the victims of residential boarding schools. They wanted to do something to honor the children who never got to play the game of lacrosse.
The summer session participants – all entering fifth through ninth grades in September 2024 – enjoyed meals together, cleaned up together and worked together on life skills, fitness and much more over their 10 days together.
Native American professional lacrosse player Zed Williams (pictured above), a graduate of Silver Creek Central School District and an enrolled member of the Seneca Nation who grew up on the Cattaraugus Territory, also worked with the boys for a day during a field trip to the Seneca Nation Native Connections program clubhouse.
The participants and MBK mentors engaged in a few icebreakers and a short presentation on self-esteem. They had a discussion on lacrosse being a medicine game and being respectful of it, and also of wooden sticks. The discussion also included how using mind-changers affects spiritual and athletic performance, and a competition was created using intoxication goggles to simulate how it would feel to play and how it would affect skills under the influence.
Williams talked about setting goals and working hard to fulfill goals and dreams and played a pick-up game, acting as the goalie. Williams is a National Lacrosse League champion with the Colorado Mammoth and Premier Lacrosse League with the Maryland Whipsnakes. They all had lots of fun playing lacrosse together.
Brennan Johns shared what some of the responsibilities of being a singer in our community are, and then sang social dance songs with the group, where a couple of the boys took the lead with the drum. The day ended with pool time in the Saylor building pool.
The boys also enjoyed field trips to take in the movie “A Quiet Place” at the Historic Hollywood Theater in downtown Gowanda, Allegany State Park, the Seneca Nation Gakwi:yo:h Farms, and also had time to do some kayaking at Letchworth State Park.
A trip to Ganondagan, the Seneca historical site, provided the group with a variety of activities including screening an artist film version of the creation story and listening to Seneca history lessons while in the authentic longhouse full of artifacts. The boys enjoyed a good game of longball there and wished they had more time to play.
Thank you also to mentors Steven Clarke and Paul Twoguns III and Amy Mohawk, Intervention Math & Reading teacher and MBK-NAP grant coordinator, for their leadership in facilitating these educational experiences.
