 My background is teaching. I'm a teacher. I'm a high school history and geography teacher by trade. I have my master's in curriculum and instruction as well. So my entire teaching career was on the Apasco Act Cree Nation, which is a First Nations community in Central Manitoba. I live in the PAW, which is adjacent to it. So my career, I fell into that career really by accident. You finish your degree, your first degree when you're 23 years old and you go where you get a job. And I was absolutely blessed to be immersed in Cree culture and Cree traditions in a Cree community for 20-some years and learned as I went. That forade into different work with the Department of Education and Curriculum Development, textbook writing and this, and about a decade ago I came to the Treaty Commission and was one of the co-writers of their education initiative and via the Treaty Commission came to this table and co-developed today's workshop and associated learning materials. In Curriculum Development, and whether you're writing for an audience that's teaching kindergarten or whether you're writing for an audience that's teaching newcomers or adults or whatever, you're really designing a recipe card is the analogy I always use. You're designing a simple set of steps and that's what the Indigenous Toolkit has, a simple set of steps to engage people in knowledge, attitudes and skills. So imagine writing a recipe card and you're going to throw some ingredients in. So the ingredients might be historical backgrounders, it might be websites for people to research, it might be maps, it might be physical activities. And then you hand the recipe card really to a chef. And the goal is for the chef, whomever he or she is, is to take it and make it their own. I mean, and literally like a cook does, and take into account who your audience is, who you're cooking for, what do they know, that's the art of facilitation. So when you create a guide, you're really writing a recipe and you're empowering the person to take it and put their own experience, their own perspectives into it and bring it to life. So that's the way I see this guide as 10 recipe cards in a cookbook handed with love onto somebody else for them to make it better, better than we had ever imagined. Nikki and I are going to spend the next two days with you as a pilot. So a pilot obviously is taking something that we've developed as a team, much of what you do as a writer, especially in something like this, is capture the ideas of others, format it and bring it forward. So we're still in that process. We are really relying on you today to give us your ideas. We are relying on you to give us your tips, your ideas, your input, your suggestions. I mean anything committed in paper is always a work in progress, as always. So the benefit for Nikki and I and the rest of the team to be here today is having you here. You know, we've written the recipe. We're kind of cooking it now for you. And we're really, really relying on your expertise. So that's an overarching goal of the next two days. So if I was a First Nations person, I would say a treaty process is my way into this new country. I can see the buffalo disappearing. I can see a railway racing by. I can see cart trails turning into highways and what's going to become Winnipeg. Why do I not get into this? Well, I think it's a very important point in its view. It's a cheap and easy non-war, no-calorie country way to get the west. So part of the story of treaty, and Nikki's doing a great job and the history teacher in me is getting excited because of that. This is all of what's going on at the same time. If I was 1871 and I'm there with the Anishinaabe, I am entering, hopefully, into a new country. We've been hanging out here now for a couple hundred years. The government's coming with sign on the dotted line. We're building cities and towns and advertising in Eastern Europe about the wonderful, beautiful land here with no mosquitoes and snow. Look at the old posters. Propaganda machine is just pumping out of Canada at this time. So years of living together and working together, there's a huge political shift going on. And this is where Canada sits at the beginning of 1871. In curriculum development, we talk lots about knowing something isn't enough. What do you do now? Especially again, I'll go back to a democracy. A democracy again, there's action and it's based on its citizens. Knowing something was a Paulo Freire, the Brazilian educator. Praxis, you know something, now what do you do with it? What do you do with that knowledge now that you know it? Knowing something is just a step. Doing something with the knowledge you have is something else. And that's, I think, our aim, working with our friends in workshops, working with me with teachers, working at the treaty commission. Now that you know something, what do you do with it? You have to remind yourself, you know, my business card might say teacher, but really I'm a learner at the end of the day. That's all I am. Every time I leave here, I realize a little I know. And going to OCN, my community, and learning about Cree culture and being open to explore and learn with the guidance of a community helps you come into a situation like this because I know what it's like to kind of sit in the chairs of the newcomers that were there. Even though I'm Canadian, my family's, I'm Métis. My family, my community's here. I didn't know that much about my own neighbors, my own cousins. So it gives you a bit of empathy knowing what it's like not to know. And it also gives you strength knowing that there are people there to guide you and help you. Because I was very fortunate in that role as a teacher at OCN. I mean, really, I'm a kid not from the community teaching their history to their children. And they trusted me. And my background is in a small Métis community that was not very multicultural. And listening to the stories from people all over the world showed me what a huge learning curve I have. So I'm looking forward to learning more. I've learned, I told the folks in the workshop and Elder told me many years ago, the creator gave you one mouth and two ears for a reason. And I remind myself that lots is a teacher because we think lots of our mouth. Sometimes it's good to sit back and listen. I think the benefit in my whole career was hanging around 17-year-olds. And 17-year-olds have a really wonky brain. They don't see any further ahead than about two weeks. I mean, science actually shows us. Their brains are racing, but they're also super positive. They like to learn about the past, but they're not shackled by it. And they're pointed forward. The teenagers have a wonderful... So these are kids in a Cree community whose parents and grandparents went to residential schools who don't know their language, who were forced onto reservations, but they're still looking forward. So what a wonderful journey as an educator to be able to point them forward and feeling good about themselves as Canadians. So my entire career has just been one of absolute serendipity and fortune to be able to be involved in helping kids become Canadians and build their country. Whether it's their country, whether it's their reservation, whether it's at their kitchen table, what a great way to make kids proud. I mean, these kids... Now, I started teaching when I was 23. Some of these kids are 40 now. Remember, they were 18 when I started. But what a wonderful thing. I mean, think of where these people have come from and what education meant to so many Indigenous peoples during the residential school era. So I think it's very lucky that I was just there at a time in history and been able to share and grow with them is the way I look at it.