 Good afternoon. My name is Donna L. LaRau. I work at the Colossus Daycare out on Colesus First Nation, our target group. We work with children from infants to 12 years old. What I'm trying to implement is bringing back the language and some understanding for our cultural protocols on the reserve. Meaning I will be trying to implement the language through audio. There is not too many fluent Cree solo speakers in our community. Not enough, not comfortable enough to teach our children. So I've opted out to order CDs with our language, pow out, and those that are what they'll be listening to throughout the day. So basically it's going to be almost six hours of language to two hours of pow out music, flute music, all that we could. Songs, Cree songs sung by differently, either children or adults, counting your basic words is what we're going to be teaching these little ones. And because ourselves as educators here at the daycare, we are not fluent either. So I take this as going to be also a learning opportunity for us to learn alongside our children. So what are the program's learning objectives? Like as of right now or? While you just identified earlier and you said you'll be learning alongside the children. We'll be learning all just your basic words, your numbers, months, animals, just to start the learning process of our language. I find that it is, it's lost, it's almost lost, it's almost gone. And I'm trying to get the little ones really target from the infants right to age five because we all know that the little ones learn so and catch on so easy with something different at that time. And if we could get them to understand the basics of the Cree language, I think they could continue on. Once it's introduced into the school system, they'll have a better understanding of it, of some of the words. What in your opinion makes it an example of excellence in Indigenous education? We need to get our language back. And the only way we could do it is by teaching our little ones. We don't need it lost, we don't need it to be become obsolete. Nowadays all you see is the English language. That's the majority of the children, that's all they talk. There's no, there's no Cree in it. There's no any other language. It's not spoken at home, it's not spoken in schools. And I find that introducing this, it needs to be done. So it's not a lost language. Whether it's going to be Cree, Dakota, you know, Soto, we need to bring something back in. And because we live in a majority of a Cree community, that's the language I'm opting to teach these children. And I'm hoping that the children will get excited enough, the ones that are verbal enough to take it home with them and teach their parents, you know, or is there enough interest to maybe put on something for the parents also, you know, invite them out into the daycare to show them what we're teaching the little ones, what we're teaching their children, the Cree language. You know, you speak about it to the parents, they're all excited about it, and I think there'll be enough interest in it once we get this off the ground and going that they would want to participate in it. We touch down on some of the cultural ways, the understanding of cultural ways, ceremonies, the protocols of different, and the ways we do certain things. But the language is something that we don't see. We don't hear it. So I'd like to, that's part of my goal is to bring that back so the kids could hear it. They don't hear it at home. They don't hear it out in the community. So if they could hear it here, daycare. And then just spark that interest to get that language going. I'm hoping that the kids would spark the interest and also in their parents, and then the parents would come out and say, hey, you know, I'd like to be part of this. They have, I know in the community, they have different, they put on different cultural programs and stuff like that, but, and that's, that's great, but we don't see language, you know, that's, I think language is a big part of it. I'd like to see our children speaking it fluently with the understanding of where they come from, who they are. It's an identity that they need to know. They're not, sometimes you ask the children, like, who are they? They don't know. And I'd like to see the parents to do that too, like identifying with their culture, with their language, and helping their children identify who they are. It's, it's, it's all about identity, I think. How do you measure the success of your program? Like I said, we're just starting out, and I'd like to see within at least a year that these kids, our kids, or our educators, ourselves, our parents, all speaking. I would like to say, greeting those parents in the morning in the Cree language. The children saying their numbers in Cree, children singing a song in Cree. The kids will ask for something, and if it's there in the Cree language, they will, you know, well, it's just a basic word they want to eat, or they want water. Say it in Cree, not English. That's what my long-term goal is, is for them to, like in a year's time, they're going to say words instead of good morning. I want them to say it in Cree language. Instead of thank you, I want them to say it in Cree. Hello in Cree. How are you in Cree? You know, I don't see any huge, them being fluent in it, but as long as they have their basics, and then once it comes into the school, they would understand more. And like, we got the babies, if they hear it, the time they get school age. I'm hoping they could speak it, and if we could carry it on. And I know there's going to be some people, we could tap into some elders that will come in and teach it, but that's finding them that are willing to do it. And that's some of the hard parts. I'm hoping the parents too would come in and say, hey, I want to learn this. Let's go for it. They get excited. They're initially excited right now. I want to see how it plays out through the year. And then from there on, we'll keep moving forward and see what changes we could make, or are we going to keep it the same, or are we going to go bigger? In one year, that's what I'll see. I'll measure our success of this program in one year. See where we're at with these little ones. From your perspective, what is indigenous education? Indigenous education is language, culture, teaching us who we are as people, where we belong in this world, as a better understanding of where we are, who we are. I really truly believe that we're almost lost. We're lost people. We don't have an identity. We know we're Cree. We know we're Dakota. We're nowhere solo. But we don't have that understanding to back it up. We don't have a full cultural understanding of our protocols, of our ceremonies, and especially our language. It's almost gone. We don't have one child here, or one educator in this daycare that speaks it. We understand that a little bit. Yeah, we understand what powwows are, but we don't understand some of the ceremonies. We don't understand the smudging. Some of us do, not all. The little ones stay smudged, but sometimes they see their parents doing it. They will do it, but there's no understanding of it. They do it because they see some males doing it. And I'd like to see a better understanding of our cultural ways implemented into our programs. What is your vision for indigenous education over the next 10 years? I'd like to see the indigenous education implemented in the schools, in the daycares, in our programming in the community on an everyday and everything that we do. I'd like to see the kids that are going now graduating, speaking fluently in their language, in Cree language, because we're a Cree community, Cree slash solo community. I'd like to see that language speaking in 10 years. I'd say the graduates, the ones that are starting out in grade one, speaking fluently in 10 years and ready and fully understanding their cultural, their identity of who they are. What information, materials, resources do you need to achieve that vision aside from funding? Materials, resources, we need to tap into people. I'm thinking whether it's in the community, regardless of how little bit they speak, I'd still like to bring them in. They know a little bit. You know a little bit of the language I want to bring them in, regardless of how little bit they know. Materials, I tap into that, what is that, SICC? They have our resources. That's where basically I'm getting my materials from. Resources, putting in cultural camps. There's people in this area that do cultural camps, sending our children to them, anybody who is willing to teach in different ways in the community, whether it's just teaching them how to make manic, whether it teaches them what sweet grass looks like, what sage looks like, you know, just a little bit of all that. People who do smudging come in, show us how to do it the proper way. Make us explain to us why we do this. Explain to the little ones why we do it. Bringing people in. That will be my resources. Materials will come from someplace else where it's going to be just your CDs, videos, probably some YouTube, or taking them out. If there's going to be a cultural camp, take them out to it. If there's going to be anything that's out in the community, participate in it. That's kind of about where we're going to be at. According to daycare, we can't go very far. So we do know there's going to be some cultural happenings in the summertime. So we'll probably tap into that a bit and just inviting our elders in as often and as much as we can. So that's pretty much where I'd be trying to achieve my vision is from that.