Students from the Sweetgrass Circle and the Environment Club at Kingston Collegiate & Vocational Institute (KCVI) collaborated on personal Indigenous feast bundles in the autumn of 2018.
Personal Indigenous feast bundles are used in any setting to reduce landfill items of single-use plastics like plastic cutlery and waste from disposable plates and serviettes. This unique sustainability project required students to learn a lot of new skills including how to thread a machine, fill bobbins, make seams and thread drawstrings. Their efforts resulted in beautifully-lined feast bundle bags.
The bags were filled with previously enjoyed plates, bowls, cutlery, napkins assembled from donations and local thrift shops. The feast bundles were then gifted to 30 Grade 11 First Nations, Métis and Inuit Contemporary Voices English class teachers in April in order to encourage them to engage in an Indigenous sustainable practice to look after Mother Earth, and to commit to having them with them to use on professional development days.
Indigenous knowledge, new skills, recycling and reusing, all driven by student energy and a desire to affect change – in a feast bundle. Thanks to staff facilitators Joanne Whitfield, Matt Saunders and Bonnie Beals who supported students to navigate the creative process.