2019 Woodland Cree Youth Symposium

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  My name is Hannah Bird, I am from George Gordon First Nation, but was raised in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. I am currently working as the Programs Summer student while pursuing a sociology degree at the University of Saskatchewan. I have a strong interest in human rights and justice, and during my stay at the Saskatchewan First Nation Family and Community Institute have had the opportunity to witness and take part in events and projects directly relating to First Nation issues. Rachel Melymick, an SDM consultant at the institute invited me to accompany her to the very first Woodland Cree Youth Symposium and showcase the It’s My Life resources.  After a bustle of preparations, the two of us were on our way Monday afternoon.

Montreal Lake Cree Nation hosted the Youth Symposium and invited 9 surrounding communities to attend the five-day, holistic youth camp from July 8 – 12. The camp was set up near the lake, past the school and Child and Family Services building on Montreal Lake. The Youth Symposium’s goal is “to empower the youth through various holistic activities as to broaden their horizons and plant a seed of hope for our future leaders”. The youth camp had many interactive, educational, cultural and language activities and events, keynote speakers and sports workshops.

Youth participants were divided up into four teams, each team representing a color on the medicine wheel. The kids had to collect signatures from people hosting workshops/booths. Each signature equaled one point, and the team with the most points at the end of the week won $100 for each member of their team. The coordinators of the symposium also prepared many give-aways consisting of sports equipment, name-brand swag, and gift cards, to be announced randomly throughout the week.

The Saskatchewan First Nations Family and Community Institute attended the symposium on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We had a table set up with multiple tablets and were sharing an app developed by SFNFCI called “It’s My Life”—an informative app created to help youth transition into adulthood by providing Saskatchewan-based information on housing, financial literacy, employment, transportation, education, relationships & communication, legal rights, wellness, and community. We had the youth look through the app and then asked the kids to answer a 3-question feedback form for an entry to win one of three Samsung tablets. For an extra entry, we asked the kids to find and show us something specific on the app. We did a draw each of the 3 days SFNFCI was at the Youth Symposium. We had 96 feedback forms filled out and 111 entries for the draws. We would like to congratulate Olin Bird, Peyton Bird, and Taylor Naytowhow as our give-away recipients. Out of the 88 answers to the question “What section of ‘It’s My Life’ interests you the most?” the areas identified to be of most interest to the youth were:

1. Housing—with 28 comments

2. Education—10 comments

3. Wellness—9

4. Money/money counts—9

5. Relationships & communication—7

6. Employment—5

7. Know your rights & the law—4

8. Community—3

9. Other comments—13

Camp festivities started each day with optional yoga on the beach, followed by breakfast which could be eaten either in the gym at the school, or outside by the beach. Following breakfast were the opening ceremonies and keynote speakers. Montreal Lake had arranged for Olympic Gold Medalist Bridgette Lacquette, Team Canada Basketball player Michael Linklater, motivational speaker Tala Tootoosis, Olympic athlete Waneek Horn-Miller, former NHL player Theo Fleury, and Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal recipient Marcia Mirasty to speak on topics ranging from empowering youth to mental health and community wellness. Lunch consisted of two options, one option was a modern lunch being served in the gym, the second option was traditional—smoked moose and fried whitefish prepared outdoors. After lunch was a flute demonstration by Jason Chamakese, traditional powwow performances ranging from jingle dress to men’s chicken, as well as a flag performance and hoop dancing by Marika Sila and James Jones of RedPath Talent. Around 4:30-5pm was supper, again consisting of a choice between a modern and traditional meal. After supper the youth were then directed to choose and rotate through the following breakout sessions:

1. Beading, headdresses, dream catchers, lanyards

2. Traditional medicine picking—Florence Allan and Violet Naytowhow

3. Tipi Teaching station with Marcel Bird

4. Moose meat smoking, fish cleaning, smoking, frying station

5. Hide tanning station

6. Ribbon skirt making station

7. Bannock making with Elders

8. Treaty Rights and Ceremonies with Aj Felix

9. Grief & Loss with BURN Youth

10. Gang Awareness with BURN Youth

11. Suicide and self-worth with BURN Youth

12. Manhood—BURN Youth

13. Womanhood—BURN Youth & Marcia Mirasty

14. Relationships Vs. Unhealthy Relationships—Kendra Weenie

15. CPR Station

16. Dry Land hockey session

17. Basketball camp

18. Mini soccer camp

  The evenings were concluded with a variety of activities including boat rides, canoeing, volleyball, bonfires, team relay races, a talent show, a dance, fireworks, and a lantern release ceremony. It was a very fun and inspiring event to be invited to. The organizers of the Woodland Cree Youth Symposium hope to have a youth gathering every year, sharing the responsibility of hosting the event with surrounding communities. We would like to thank the organizers for putting the event together, and thank Montreal Lake Cree Nation for hosting and inviting SFNFCI to participate.