To mark its 40th year serving students in communities around Eeyou/Eenou Istchee, the Cree School Board launched a new logo featuring some of the key elements it considers crucial to its future.
Following a communications review in 2015, the school board created a Communications Department that would become responsible for communicating the strategies and messages necessary going forward. Building a strong core message and brand became a priority, and ensuring the tools - such as the logo - were well suited to 21st-century technology and uses was imperative. Using a team approach, the Board developed a historically meaningful logo that has relevance going forward.
"We are very excited to start using our new logo," said Director General Abraham Jolly, from Eastmain, QC where the Cree School Board is hosting its biennial Regional General Assembly June 5-6, 2018.
"There is much hope for the Cree School Board as we enter into the next decade," Jolly added. "We have built a strong foundation upon which to base a uniquely Cree Education Act with a new Cree component that will propel our students forward."
The new logo features some of the old, and some of the new: the geese flying together in formation with a leader, a leader who can share responsibility with the others; the beaver pelt represents heritage and also traditional Cree economy; the trees tie us to the land, and Cree syllabics, of course, represent language.
"An anniversary year is a good time to look back, take stock, and reflect," Jolly said. "In our reflections, we find much to be proud of, and also, looking forward, we see much promise and hope, and really the necessity and demand for us to make the future about student success. We are instrumental in the future of the Cree Nation."
