Honouring the Foundation: The Journey of the Sunrise Waldorf Foundation Stone
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- 2 days ago
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The re-laying of the Foundation Stone, after many years of waiting, became a pivotal moment of connecting with the past while moving into the future. It created opportunities for reflection, collective commitment to purpose, and visioning for our entire school community.
Sunrise Waldorf School came into being in 1980 from an impulse of a small group of families eager to create a values-based school, which, through research and conversation, became a Waldorf school. In just over a decade, the school outgrew two locations and ultimately settled in its current home on Lakeside Road in 1991. With this new beginning, the faculty felt a profound calling to dedicate their work to the current and future students of the school, and to honour the spiritual foundations of Waldorf education by recognizing the important interplay between the physical and spiritual worlds.
In response to this calling, the faculty created the Foundation Stone—a physical and spiritual anchor for the school and inspired by the Foundation Stone created for the first Waldorf school in Germany in 1921. Crafted from copper in the form of a dodecahedron by faculty member Dermond Murray, it contained a clear quartz with a lily-shaped inclusion symbolizing clarity and balance, rose quartz for love and healing, and local rhodonite to represent the will to work consciously within this specific place. A card depicting divine Sophia, signed by all present, was also included. The process of creating and burying this Foundation Stone was infused with ceremony, study, and shared intention, drawing strength from the entire school community.
For many years, the Foundation Stone lay quietly buried at the front of the school, supporting the arc of Sunrise’s growth and development from beneath the earth. Then, in 2017, it was unexpectedly unearthed during drainage renovations. Though there was initiative to rebury it promptly, the right moment never seemed to arrive. For seven years, the Foundation Stone rested above ground, awaiting the time for it to be re-layed.
In the summer of 2024, as Faculty gathered in preparation for the new school year, a renewed determination emerged. A committee of nine Faculty members formed to take up the task, meeting regularly to study the Foundation Stone Verse, engage in meditation, and shape a vision for a new ceremony. This journey created a new opportunity to contemplate the school’s commitment to the spiritual foundations of Waldorf education. The group pondered how our commitment to the foundations of Waldorf education supports the important work of bringing Waldorf education into the future. At the same time, parent education and enrichment enlivened the Sunrise community and sowed the seeds for greater connection and understanding.
During this process, the Foundation Stone slowly wove its way through all the classrooms and meeting spaces, it’s physical presence inspiring reverence and awe among students, Faculty, and community members. While the Foundation Stone was present in each classroom, students learned the history and purpose of this special object while also contributing to the meaning and actualization of this process through their own reflections. The wishes they expressed for the school included: "a safe place for generations", and "laughter and joy in every classroom".
As plans for the re-laying took shape, another event, the long-anticipated unveiling of the gratitude panel created and gifted by Kwakwaka’wakw Elder and carver Rupert Scow, was cancelled last minute. The idea emerged: what if we combined the panel unveiling with the Foundation Stone re-laying? From that moment, the path unfolded smoothly. Elders, including both Indigenous leaders and Sunrise founders, were miraculously available. Last-minute travel plans came together. Invitations were accepted, silks ironed, food prepared, speeches drafted (or not!), and plaques made. Even the stormy March weather held itself in check.
On March 13, 2025, the day of a lunar-eclipse, the whole school, Early Childhood, parents and wider community gathered in celebration. Qwiahwultuhw reminded us of the unseen beings who support life on the land. Ruth Ker shared the story with the children of Sunrise and how the school came into being through the hard work and dedication of each person in the community. Rupert Scow spoke of the Totem Pole that found refuge at Sunrise, and the relationships that blossomed around it and then, with collaborator Lyndon Crossman, unveiled his magnificent carved panel, a community creation and gift to the school.
Sunrise formally introduced an updated Territory Acknowledgement at the ceremony, centring the Hul’q’umi’num-speaking peoples and village sites of Quw’utsun. After the Faculty had brought a song they had prepared, and the whole school joined in speaking the school verse, the ceremony came to a close. In a moment of spontaneity, a group of Sunrise founding members burst into song, compelled by deep connection to the school and the powerful presence of the Foundation Stone. An Elder, moved by the moment, asked to photograph these founders. Laughter and names were exchanged, and in this moment of connection, two eagles were observed circling overhead, offering their silent blessing.
The Gratitude Panel was hung in the entrance of the school, in the place lovingly prepared the year before by the esteemed Anthroposophical artist David Newbatt, holding the panel in an embrace of colour and form. A catered breakfast followed; invited guests warmed over beverages, telling stories and finding meaning, together, in our shared history and vision. Guests learned about the importance of offering gratitude and healing plants any time the land is disturbed. Qwiahwultuhw spoke about the deep relationship between Indigenous language and the land. Elder Philomena taught a song in Hul’quemi’num about love in the heart, and everyone laughed and cried as they tried to wrap their tongues around the consonants and felt the power of the words.
Later that day, the Faculty moved together through each space of the school, guided by candlelight, song, and the cleansing scent of sage. In a moment of reverence, Head of School Rae Calder gently returned the Foundation Stone to the earth, wrapped in soft sheep’s wool and placed in a handcrafted concrete box made by our maintenance manager, Ken Witt. Faculty members then placed the local, Indigenous plant medicine alongside their visions for the future.
As the sun set, and fire was lit, the Faculty sang Yonder Come Day; the strains of this homage to a new dawn, a sunrise, reverberated around the campus. Then each one added a shovel-full of earth to the burial before the stone slab and commemorative plaque were placed on top, sealing the moment. Hugs, tears and celebrations of “Yay us!” connected us all in warmth and hope.
This long-awaited re-laying of the Foundation Stone marked more than just the return of an object to the earth. It was reconnecting to the founding intentions of the school, reaffirming community, a commitment to the future of Sunrise, and to honouring the land and it’s First Peoples. The ceremony wove together the threads of history, culture, and spirit, reminding all present that Sunrise Waldorf School is more than a place of learning; it is a living community grounded in intention, love, and shared purpose. And now, once again, the Foundation Stone rests in its rightful place, quietly anchoring the heart of the school.
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