Head of School’s 2026 Closing Day Address

At the start of this term, we hosted four Tibetan Buddhist monks on campus. The sand mandala, carefully and ritually created by the monks in our library from millions of coloured grains of sand, spoke to beauty in its creation – and the impermanence and transitory nature of life when it was ceremonially dismantled and released into nature (and the pond behind me). Buddhists believe in reincarnation – a form of rebirth as part of an endless cycle – a soul coming again in another life.

 

It is my pleasure to welcome Tsengdok Rinpoche, the master of the Tibetan Buddhist Monastery in Vancouver and the seventh reincarnation of Tsengdok Rinpoche – a recognition bestowed upon him by the 14th Dalai Lama. We also have three Nepalese alumni who have graduated from Shawnigan – TD, Junu and Tenzin – here today to support Dorje and Pemba.

 

In May, many of you helped to move the house posts across campus, a gift from alumnus Brad Assu, Class of 1983 (Lonsdale’s), of Cape Mudge, Quadra Island. With Brad’s permission, we have placed an image of the house posts as the centrefold in your Grad programs today. Co-carved and painted by our students, they now stand proudly in our Shaw Science Centre.

 

On the Assu house post, the top figure is a raven and the bottom figure is a beaver. The human face on the chest area of the raven and on the tail of the beaver signifies supernatural and human attributes.

 

The Assu Family is part of the Eagle clan. For Brad, the sighting of his clan animal is interpreted as a sign of imminent good luck, and he knows that the eagle will guide him in the spirit world. 

 

You may be lucky enough to see an eagle circling above the lake as I speak this afternoon. I had a magical moment on Tuesday when looking out of my office. A juvenile bald eagle was swooping around the amphitheatre, past Lonsdale’s statue and the Head’s Office. I took it as a sign for this speech.

 

I am delighted that Brad and his wife Margot are also with us here for Closing Day.

 

In some cultures, it is believed that animals can transform into humans, and vice versa.

 

In many ways, I too believe in reincarnation or rebirth of one’s soul. After my grad speech at Whistler, you probably think I want to be a coho salmon!

 

When at school, I read an unforgettable short story called “Laura” by Saki, the pen name of the writer H.H. Munro.

 

Saki wrote witty, mischievous, satirical and sometimes macabre short stories in the early 1900s. “Laura” tells the story of the eponymous young woman who dies tragically young but is reincarnated as an otter to plague and terrorize her best friend’s total bore of a husband, the wonderfully named Egbert!

 

Ever since then, drawn to the flow of rivers, I have always wanted to be an otter in another life: mischievous, playful, curious, “shape-shifter,” trout-chaser, “underwater thunderbolt,” as described by Robert Macfarlane.

 

Each of you already has a House spirit animal – and for your Closing Day ceremony, we have built your House spirit animals into the paved base of the amphitheatre, in the order of the original founding of the boarding houses: your eagle, your dove, your griffin, your phoenix, your swan, your lion, your cougar, and your wolf.

 

The call of the wild.

 

Copeman’s cross is the outlier, but there is no doubt of your wildness. 

 

Earlier this year, I finished the book The Rose Field, Phillip Pullman’s final book in a set of trilogies. Some of you might have come across these books or the film The Golden Compass or the HBO Series, His Dark Materials.

 

In all the books, we find the most brilliant imaginative creation of all, the “daemon,” representing the inner self of every character in the form of an animal which sticks closely to its human counterpart. Every person's soul exists as their own animal companion. 

 

A child’s dæmon can change form voluntarily to become any creature, real or imaginary, but by the time of high school graduation, it settles – and permanently and involuntarily assumes the form of the animal which the person most resembles in character, in soul.

 

In addition to your House emblem, you will each have developed, as part of your Shawnigan Journey, your own unique spirit animal – a reflection of your soul, both curious and courageous.

 

Harry Potter discovers his spirit animal; his patronus – fittingly for Shawnigan – is a stag. It takes until book five, The Order of Phoenix, for Harry to cast his first patronus spell – his silver guardian of a stag.

 

Perhaps there is a distinction to be made: what we feel as our genuine spirit animal is different to what our friends see.

 

I asked the Senior Leadership Team earlier this year what their spirit animals were:

 

 

 

 

 

One of my favourite staff member stories is this:

 

Mr. Panga – a proud Māori – some years ago underwent a traditional rite of passage ceremony, not in New Zealand but in Alberta, to reveal his inner spirit animal.

 

Along with his fellow rugby teammates in the aptly named Alberta Wolfpack, they sought to discover the identity of their spirit animals.

 

His teammates ahead of him in the ceremony learnt they were wolf, orca, bear, raven (the trickster), and mountain lion.

 

It came to Clay’s turn – what would be fitting for this spiritual giant of a man and athlete?

 

“Clayton Lindsay James Panga – you will be known from this day forth as… ‘squirrel’”

 

Just imagine Mr. Panga’s crestfallen face and the laughter and teasing of his teammates!

 

Tree-climbing rat with a bushy tail, big front teeth, hoarder of nuts!

 

But embrace your inner self, Clay. Kathini’s trusted Spirit Animal book tells me the mighty squirrel represents a readiness, the alert and the aware, and the agile and the resourceful – the perfect spirit animal for the future House Director of Duxbury and Shawnigan’s wolfpack.

 

Otter-dreamer I may be but others have likened me to the heron – tall, angular, statuesque – standing in a river or in Marion Hall – and, at university, my spirit animal was bewilderingly chosen for me by a Sports Society as the spotted thick-knee – a South African wading bird with long legs that lays its eggs in elephant dung!  

 

But the point of this story is what truly matters is not what others think but what you believe you are in the sorcery and alchemy of your imagination.

 

My speech today is an invitation to the secret commonwealth of the spiritual world. 

 

Take a moment, Grad Class of 2026, to close your eyes and think of your true, authentic spirit animal that reflects your inner strengths. And now turn and share with the co-year next to you. I invite everyone in the amphitheatre to do so. 

Now you understand why I asked for a song from the Lion King to play you into the amphitheatre.

 

Now have a look at the linocut called Voices in the Wilderness in your Graduation program – and spot all the different creatures of campus.

 

Yes, my beloved coho is there!

 

We also have the wicker eagle and wicker stag, remnants of a Disney film set on campus, on either side of the amphitheatre. 

 

Kathini keeps a pack of cards at home – the “Oracle of Spirit Animals” – and every so often asks me to draw a card. If you still can’t think of your spirit animal, find me after you have jumped into the lake and ask to draw a card from this pack on this auspicious day.

 

We have become progressively unnecessary as your teachers here at Shawnigan but your spirit animal will guide you, always. 

 

And when you are lost – a lost boy or girl from Neverland, as captured in last Saturday’s music video – it will come to your rescue. 

 

It will guide you through life.

 

And your house spirit animal will always be waiting here on campus for your coho-esque return: your eagle, your dove, your griffin, your phoenix, your swan, your lion, your cougar, and your wolf.

 

And by extension, for this one occasion, I found in the animal encyclopedia that we can turn Copeman’s cross into the cross-spider or perhaps the cross-fox or perhaps even the cross-donkey.

 

Picking up my Class of 2026 kaleidoscope, there have been moments of playfulness, pure laughter, occasional madness, delight, tears and heartfelt pride when I remember the time we have spent together. 

 

For some of us it has been five years together. Twenty-four of you started bravely in Levien and Stanton in 2021 – when the world (and Shawnigan) was still in the grip of the pandemic – and stepped courageously into a five-year Shawnigan Journey.

 

It is hard to isolate and capture the most memorable moments of this Grade 12 year for me: perhaps it was the extraordinary The Little Mermaid or the silliness of the historical re-enactment of the pancake greaze tradition in the Quad on the School’s 110th birthday. Ms. Gill took a photo and sent it to me, saying it was perhaps the happiest she had seen me in my time as Head of School. 

 

I hope that, during the course of today, you find a moment to think of your loved ones unable to be here whose unstinting support and belief, daily sacrifices, and dreams for your futures have guided you to this point. It is your achievement; it is their achievement.

 

They too are with us in spirit today.

 

They’re “counting the steps to the door of your heart,” to quote the Crowded House song we heard in Chapel earlier, Don’t Dream It’s Over.

 

Some of you stand at this threshold of graduation without direct families at your side.

 

And Macy T. and Simin S. can’t be with us today – we wish you were here.

 

I would now like to invite our students to show their appreciation to their families, to the staff and to the wider Shawnigan community for the unstinting support they have received on their journey so far.

 

At lunchtime, one parent came up to me and told me sending their son to Shawnigan was the best decision the family ever made. Another told me that it has been the best investment they have ever made.

 

Thank you for trusting us with your children.

 

On this note, I would like to turn to our departing staff members, for whom this also is an emotionally charged day – and to take a moment to thank them for their outstanding contributions to Shawnigan. 

 

All our departing staff – however long you have been here – have individually enriched our world, and the School will miss you. We wish you the very best for the adventures ahead.

 

As T.S. Eliot said, “To make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.”

 

And back to our Grads.

 

Your “Grad Packs,” full of letters, photos and cards, stand as testament to the affection and regard you are held in.

 

More than anything, this final address to you all is about discovery, identity, transformation and transition.

 

Shawnigan has, at every turn, sought to develop your human intelligence – it is our superpower and it will serve you well in the years ahead. 

 

You are facing an exciting but daunting world of artificial intelligence, arriving with frightening speed, but it will be your human intelligence, and your inner spirit animal – honed at Shawnigan – that will help you to thrive, and not simply survive, in the landscape ahead.

 

For we are defined by each other and our relationships, our friendships, our nuanced understanding of each other (and that diversity is our strength), and our commitment to making a difference in the lives of others. Humans are notoriously imperfect and messy in our lives, but we are interconnected, and I hope we, at Shawnigan, have guided you as to what is distinctive about being human.

 

The best people I have met over the last half century exhibit human and emotional intelligence and imagination, and an unquestionable loyalty – reflected in their spirit animals. They understand and consistently model friendship, a generosity of spirit, and a deep humility, and they somehow banish narcissism and ego – and they tread softly around other peoples’ dreams.

 

And you understand that Shawnigan is as Shawnigan is, and it always seeks to be a better place. This is a great and unique school; it is not, of course, without its faults and imperfections but it is exhilarating and unstuffy in the way in which it fosters a deep sense of belonging and encourages its students to develop human intelligence.

 

Our hope is that all of you – as the Class of 2026 – have felt that you have belonged here at Shawnigan and that you have found your people, your community – and your sense of identity.

 

And that you have found laughter along the way. 

 

And so the sun sets on the British Columbian flag and now sets on your time at Shawnigan. It’s time for you to go – and today’s ceremonies serve as final celebration of our partnership but also the final act of separation of School and the Class of 2026.

 

This afternoon, there will undoubtedly be tears of sadness, of relief, of exhaustion and of happiness – and you will have that sense of “half turn[ing] to go yet turning stay,” in the words of Christina Rossetti, as you draw strength for the next step on your journey, as you voyage out and seek to discover new frontiers.

 

A new beginning.

 

And as the coach or car, you – and your spirit animal – find yourself in this green day and midsummer’s evening, bumps over the familiar road towards the gates of campus, please take a moment to reflect on the magic of this place, this home away from home.

 

And for you, as you turn out of the gates, in the words of the band Green Day,

 

“Another turning point/
So take the photographs and still frames in your mind/

For what it's worth, it was worth all the while/

I hope you had the time of your life”            

We are going to miss you. 

 

It has been a great privilege to be your Head.

 

Palmam Qui Meruit Ferat.

 

Richard D A Lamont

Head of School

Saturday, June 20, 2026