CANADA PROJECT

THE

Empowering the children

What's it all about?

Salish Sea Stones project began in 2020, when the Founder, Pete Shepherd, started collecting sea stones from the Salish shore on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. He then hand decorated each one individually and sold them on to raise awareness, money and support for First Nations children.

His long term vision is to empower the local First Nation youth to create their own stone art and take over the project for themselves.

The stones that the children create will be sold by local outlets partnered with the charity. Funds generated would first be used to purchase materials required to create the stones, with all remaining funds donated to our partners in hospitals, paediatric units and local First Nation youth projects.

You can make your donation to our cause today, here:

DONATE NOW

Who's it for?

We are now approaching local schools to bring our vision to life.

Pete Shepherd will train teachers and students the whole process of how to create his unique form of stone art, so that they can produce the stones themselves.

We will then sell the stone art that the children produce by approaching outlets in their local communities. All of the money made will go back to the children or help local children in need.

Most of these schools are a mix of First Nations and non-First Nations students, which allows for collaboration between these groups of students and further understanding of each other’s cultures in a more in depth way. This is all in keeping with the principles of Salish Sea Stones trying to empower First Nations children.

If you would like to get your school involved, please Contact Us

What are the benefits?

This project aims to empower the children, seeing their confidence grow. Each student will have different strengths to bring to the project, so we would like to give them a chance to shine and also encourage them to learn new skills.

There are many parts to the stone art process:

The stone collection
The painting and assembly processes
The intricate, personalisation of the stones
The marketing of the stones to find homes for them

Therefore the students can choose which part of the process they would like to be involved in to nurture their confidence, learn new skills, work as a team and grow business skills.

We will also be encouraging the students to create their own art to put on the stones.

If you would like to get your school involved, please Contact Us

Schools that have shown interest in our project ..

These are the schools that we are in current talks with about onboarding for our project:

Yuthuy'thut School, Cowichan Tribes, Duncan, BC was our first school to embrace the project. This was a fantastic teach the teachers session with Francine The Principal at the school and 6 other teachers. Thank you so much for a fantastic start to the project moving into schools. (Can we add some photos from the instagram page on this school visit?)

Ladysmith Secondary School on Vancouver Island will be starting the project in Jan 2023 as part of the schools Land & Language Program for the year 2023. This is part of the school's ongoing reconciliation programs. Very excited to get the project up and running in Ladysmith.

Penelakut Elementary School hopes to get started also in early 2023 funding permitting. Engaging in Salish Sea Stones project will hopefully help the students to purchase urgently needed materials to make their traditional costumes for the schools Traditional Coast Salish First Nations Dance Group.

Chemainus Secondary School on Vancouver Island hopes to start the project in 2023. Funding permitting.

Duncan Christian School on Vancouver Island hopes to start the project in 2023. Funding permitting.

Randerson Ridge School, Nanaimo, Vancouver Island hopes to start the project in 2023. Funding permitting.

Seaview Elementary School, Nanaimo, Vancouver Island hopes to start the project in 2023. Funding permitting.

All of the schools have expressed a desire to communicate with each other across continents. To share each other's art for their stones, methods, best practice and ideas. This will be hugely empowering for the students from all the schools. It will also allow them to communicate with fellow students not only in different schools but on different continents.