Posted on March 6, 2019 by Pam Greene
The Principal of the Dene Tha Community School, Carlito Somera, discusses the school’s commitment to holding fall and winter Cultural Camps for students in grades 4-12.
Carlito Somera is the Principal of the Dene Tha Community School located in Treaty 8, in the community of Chateh, Alberta, northwest of High Level. Somera discusses the Dene Tha’s Cultural Camps offered both in the fall and winter. During the fall camp, students from Grades 4-12 attend the Cultural Camp held over a five day period. There are many academic outcomes that are attached to the Cultural Camps. High school students earn and gain credits as part of the curriculum.
This land-based learning portion of the curriculum includes the Dene language and culture. With the leadership and support of local Dene hunters and language specialists, students learn how to prepare, cut, and dry meat. Students also participate in other cultural activities such as berry picking, willow gathering, storytelling, and playing traditional hand games. In the winter, the Cultural Camp is held at Bistcho Lake. Students travel by vehicle on ice roads to the summertime fly-in fishing location and stay in cabins during their visit. Some of the cultural activities taught are how to ice fish.
Posted on March 3, 2019 by Crystal Burnip
Land As Life is a third-year course offered at Vancouver Island University in the Indigenous/Xwulmuxw Studies Program. Land As Life is an introduction to land-based skills and learning from the environment where students will learn and appreciate First Nations perspectives on the cultural significance of the land. Topics may include: genealogy, First nations protocols, sacred […]
Land As Life is a third-year course offered at Vancouver Island University in the Indigenous/Xwulmuxw Studies Program. Land As Life is an introduction to land-based skills and learning from the environment where students will learn and appreciate First Nations perspectives on the cultural significance of the land. Topics may include: genealogy, First nations protocols, sacred places, oral histories, sacred water, and indigenous language. This course validates how the land is a living library and a teacher. It teaches students to be together; to work together, and to share, while developing a community of learners. The Land As Life course demonstrates reciprocity through giving back by sharing history and by allowing the people of the land to share their own stories and history as opposed to the stories being told for them.
Posted on March 1, 2019 by Catherine Charest
Dans la communauté de Nutashkuan, plusieurs activités se déroulent sous un shaputuan. Les activités de dépeçage d’animaux et de préparation de la peau de caribous sont enseignées par les aînés, passeurs des savoirs culturels. Ces activités sont organisées par l’agente culturelle, mais ce sont les aînés qui partagent leurs savoirs. Ces activités s’adressent à toute […]
Dans la communauté de Nutashkuan, plusieurs activités se déroulent sous un shaputuan. Les activités de dépeçage d’animaux et de préparation de la peau de caribous sont enseignées par les aînés, passeurs des savoirs culturels. Ces activités sont organisées par l’agente culturelle, mais ce sont les aînés qui partagent leurs savoirs. Ces activités s’adressent à toute la communauté.
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Posted on by mariajoseathiemartinez
The Math Catcher Outreach program aims to promote mathematics and scholarship in general by encouraging elementary and high school students to recognize how math is used in everyday life and how it forms the basis for many of our daily decisions and life-long choices. The storytelling, pictures, models, problem solving, and hands-on activities encourage young […]
The Math Catcher Outreach program aims to promote mathematics and scholarship in general by encouraging elementary and high school students to recognize how math is used in everyday life and how it forms the basis for many of our daily decisions and life-long choices. The storytelling, pictures, models, problem solving, and hands-on activities encourage young people to enjoy math and help dispel myths that math is boring and abstract. Math Catcher has produced animated films in several First Nations languages (Blackfoot, Cree, Squamish, Heiltsuk, Nisga’a, Sliammon, Halq’em ́eylem, Hul’q’umi’num’, and Huu-ay- aht) as well as bilingual picture books in Blackfoot/English, Cree/English, Squamish/English, Nisga’a/English, and Sliammon/English. For more information: http://www.sfu.ca/mathcatcher.html
Posted on by Charity Gladstone
The SENĆOŦEN Survival School and Language Apprenticeship programs value our history and teach the ways and beliefs of our W̱SÁNEĆ homeland and worldview.
SENĆOŦEN Survival School: This program is a fully SENĆOŦEN immersion experience (EWENE W̱ENITEM ḴEN SḰÁL – no English Language is spoken) for Children 5-6 or at the Kindergarten program level. Our program teachers meet the Ministry Prescribed Learning Outcomes of the Kindergarten Curriculum. Children will spend 3.5 hours in classroom Learning the Kindergarten Provincial Curriculum through a SENĆOŦEN medium. For 2.5 hours per day, children will also learn through engagement with nature in the playgrounds and forests around our school and at beaches and culturally significant places. Children can enter the LE,NOṈET Immersion stream at this level.
SENĆOŦEN Language Apprenticeships: The goal of the Mentor-Apprentice Program is to facilitate the development of fluent speakers of SENĆOŦEN language where fluent speakers are partnered with committed learners in an immersion environment in the home and on the land. This is a one-on-one language immersion program. A “mentor” (a fluent speaker of a language) is paired with an “apprentice” (learner).
