Initially when asked to produce a tip sheet for participants of the gathering at BQU, I thought of putting all the information in a table. My theory being that the participants are all coming from a colonial-style education system, and this would help them understand and feel more comfortable reading the information.

When Susan got the sheet, she asked about some of the highlighting and if that was questions I needed answered. She also made a comment of “is there a way we can make this tip sheet non-linear and non-western”. I will admit that threw me for a loop and I was unsure of what direction to go in at that point.

The ‘ah-ha’ moment was after signing out multiple books from both the MRU library and the public library, I was reading the idea behind the cover art on a book. They said that they chose a motherboard because everything is connected. My mind immediately went to the spiderweb that Elder Roy Bear Chief had introduced to us in our orientation class. So I completely revamped the tip sheet and after Susan reviewing it, I made the relevant changes.

The reason for the third and final design was when Dr Carolyn Bjartveit mentioned that historically Blackfoot and Cree do not get along, and if we use a Blackfoot teaching at a Cree gathering we should make sure that all of the people involved are ok with this.

I met with Roy and he gave me the green light to go ahead with the design, but said I should definitely contact the organizer of the gathering event and get their input. I emailed her and she advised that she would ask if there was any objection, but she didn’t think it was appropriate to use it since historically the two don’t see eye-to-eye.