The University of Winnipeg participated in the Spur Festival this past week by providing grade 11 and 12 students with an opportunity to participate in the Spur Young Scholars Winnipeg event. I have to admit, I didn’t know much about Spur but I agreed to participate by teaching a class  on Friday afternoon titled Introduction to Urban and Inner City Studies. 

In preparation for the class I tried to think of what might interest a group of students that I didn’t know anything about except that they would likely be 16-17 years old. Students tend to like visual presentations and I wanted to present them with something that they could relate to, so I decided to show a film produced by Carole O’Brien that captures a project that I worked on a few years ago through the CCPA Manitoba and the Manitoba Research Alliance. It remains one of the more memorable education projects that I have worked on for a variety of reasons.

It was a particularly challenging project. It involved bringing high school students from suburban schools together with students from the North End based CEDA Pathways to Education Program and Aboriginal Elders, to discuss some challenging social issues in our city. Without getting into the details, it was a complicated project that came to a surprisingly successful end with the gathering of students. teachers  and Elders at the Circle of Life Thunderbird House and the making of a fabulous film that captures as best as was possible, the power of the day.  The story is written up in the 2012 State of the Inner City Report titled Breaking Barriers – Building Bridges but the film that was produced really shows what is possible when we bring young people from diverse backgrounds and experiences together.

Tragically, months after the day at Thunderbird House one of the students actively involved in the project took his life. Shaun was bright and kind – a young person seen as a leader among his peers. This is pertinent to the story that follows because a few of his friends happened to attend my Spur class.  As the saying goes, Winnipeg is indeed a ‘very small town’.

We began the class with introductions. It was a small group. All but one student was from the inner city.  Interesting I thought.  Some of the students were from the North End and It immediately occurred to me that they may have known Shaun, so I made a mental note to deal with that after showing the film.  But first, we talked about perceptions of the inner city.  We talked about racism, poverty and the realities that our city is very much a ‘divided’ city.  They were a very perceptive and engaged group of students.

Then we viewed the film.  When Shaun appeared in the film I heard a few whispers.

Otherwise there was silence.

So, “what do you think” i asked when the film credits rolled.

“I like that idea of bringing students from different places together with elders”  said one of the students. Others nodded. “I would really like to do something like that” said another.

Then I confronted the elephant in the room.  “I am wondering if some of you might have known Shaun” I asked. Three of the students immediately said “yes” and they shared with the others that Shaun was a wonderful person and they were very sad that he had died. But they said that they were happy to see him in the film – a reminder of what a great person he was. We talked about that for awhile and one of the students asked if she could show a film that she made about suicide.  We watched it together and chatted a bit more about suicide, the inner city and other issues. I talked a bit about the Urban and Inner City Studies program on Selkirk Avenue. and before we knew it our hour was up.

As I packed up to leave one of the students approached me and asked me where she you could find “Shaun’s film”.  I gave her the link.  She went on to talk about what a wonderful person he was and how kind he had been to her. She said that seeing him in the film made her very happy because she wanted to remember him that way. She thanked me for showing it.

It was a powerful Friday afternoon. Thanks to all of the Spur students who attended my class. I enjoyed spending the hour with you.