About

Dr. Anne Anderson High School, in Heritage Valley, will accommodate grades 10, 11, and 12 for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years.

Dr. Anne Anderson School offers regular and Advanced Placement programming within a 21st century learning environment. Our goal is to help our students achieve their dreams as they interact  in our academic setting structured around rigour and high expectations. In keeping with Dr. Anne Anderson’s legacy of respect and compassion for all, the engagement of students, parents, faculty and community in learning and all aspects of school life will always be encouraged and valued here.

Our Namesake

Dr. Anne Anderson (1906–1997)

Anne Anderson was an author and teacher who was instrumental in preserving the cree language and promoting Métis heritage in Alberta and Canada.

Anderson was in her 60s when she started writing more than 90 books about the cree language and Métis history, traditions, herbal remedies and recipes.

Anderson was one of 10 children who grew up on a farm near St. Albert with a cree mother and Métis-Scottish father. She was forced to speak English in school, but her mother taught her about cree culture and urged her to speak the language at home.

After Anderson’s father died when she was a teenager, she went to work to help support her family. She eventually moved to Edmonton during the 1940s to work as a nurse’s aide.

Anderson has said during media interviews that a deathbed request from her mother prompted her to start writing about her culture and language. Before Anderson’s mother died, she urged Anderson to preserve the cree language, which was threatened with extinction by the history of residential schools and policies that promoted assimilation.

After Anderson left nursing, she began writing books, including a cree dictionary she worked on with help from her niece. She also recorded cree language tapes to preserve the sounds of the language.

In the early 1980s, she established the Dr. Anne Anderson Native Heritage and Cultural Centre, which offered cree language courses for children and adults as well as a library and other resources. Anderson’s extensive collection of artifacts and books was later preserved by the Métis Nation of Alberta.

Anderson helped introduce cree classes to schools in Alberta and across Canada, and taught at many post-secondary schools, including the University of Alberta. Her work has been recognized with numerous awards including an Alberta Achievement Award, the Order of Canada and an honorary doctorate from the University of Alberta. She was also named one of the 100 Edmontonians of the Century.

Treaty Land Acknowledgement

As members of the Dr. Anne Anderson community, we deeply respect the enduring legacy of Dr. Anne Anderson, a luminary figure whose life was devoted to safeguarding Indigenous cultural heritage and languages within the intricate fabric of Canadian history. Inspired by her example, we endeavour to follow her lead in advocating for the rights and well-being of all Indigenous people, and for the preservation of their cultures and traditions. We believe that by honouring her legacy, we can create a legacy of our own that is reflective of her values and ideals.

We acknowledge that we are on the Treaty Six territory, a land that numerous Indigenous people have called home for generations. We acknowledge the rich history, cultural heritage, and valuable contributions of the Cree, Saulteaux, Blackfoot, Métis, Dene, and Nakota Sioux nations that have marked these lands for centuries. We are grateful and honoured to have the opportunity to live, learn, and work on this territory, and we pay our respects to all Indigenous people past, present, and emerging.

Ultimately, as members of this community, we hope to foster an environment of respect, empathy, and learning to allow Indigenous voices to be heard within the Dr. Anne Anderson community. We are dedicated to recognizing the wrongs of the past, understanding the present, and working collaboratively towards a better future for all.

Ratish Rajagopal (Dr. Anne Anderson High School Student)