 I'm Kevin Lewis and I'm from Minnestikwin Lake Cree Nation. So the resource that we're developing is, one is a case study, and it's a case study of the Cree Immersion School and then also the Ghaniazic culture camps and how they work together. But the focus was based on what the parents are wanting and also what the students want. So there's always this focus of what do we want as adults and parents and teachers. But this specific one was one that was done by a Mari scholar that had come and visited here that came here. And we were kind of discussing it for a couple of years now and then she finally came here and took part in all the activities that we have here. And then she interviewed the children and all the students that wanted to be interviewed. She collected data that way and then she talked to a couple of the parents as well. And then she also talked to the elder and then also the principal and then also myself. And her name is Dr. Melanie Rue Couch. So she's from Christchurch originally from the Naitahu tribe. And she came here and spent, you know, a little bit of time twice actually she came to Canada and shared what they were doing over there and then hosted us over there four times. So there was a little relationship building there that we are doing from our nation to what are the amazing things that they're doing. And then we kept on asking her to see, okay, well, would you be kind of like an external reviewer? And then we kept on asking about like, okay, what type of assessments do you guys do to mark your progress in terms of the Māori language? And then she was at the time, she was a principal of a Māori school that we went to go see a multiple times and her children are fluent in Māori. So it was like kind of like somebody that walks to talk, you know? And then that's exactly who we wanted to do the case study on our school. So it's kind of like a case study slash assessment on the entire program. And the way she wrote it was beautiful. So it's in draft mode right now, but we're so close to having it available for everybody to see. And it'll be available through our website and then maybe link it to, you know, this project. See that the external review on the federal schools, like a federal meaning First Nations schools, the reserve schools, every five years there's somebody that'll come there. And what they'll do is they'll check, you know, how the kids are doing with their math. They'll check how they're doing and they're reading and writing the literacy rates, right? And not everybody's checked, but it's kind of like certain grades. And that's what we were after, but we didn't want to wait five years. We were kind of like, okay, we're in this now. We have one year under our belts. Let's hire somebody to come help us out right away. And then at least we have that marker that we can say, okay, this is where we are now. And then, you know, maybe a couple of years down the line, we'll do even a different type of assessment, right? And then something that we're kind of working on congruently right now with the case study. So I think the case study was sort of like that, the snapshot. And the snapshot is coming from not my perspective, but it's important to see the work that she has done over there and with her people in their country. And then for her to come sort of look at what, you know, and then look at us and sort of empower us as well because she really liked what she saw. And the way she wrote it was also very intelligent because like I said, it came from the children and then it didn't come from the administration, it didn't come from the teachers, it didn't come from the school board, it came from the elders and then also the parents what they wanted and wished and then also assessing the kids on what, you know, how does Cree make you feel, you know? And those type of reflections in that context is in the writing there. I think the main points was actually, I wanted to see what the parents want, like their head space or their hearts or where they were at. But also more importantly, I was so curious to see what those kids are saying, you know? Last year we did this exercise and I think we took this from like a Montessori type of exercise where they assess kids but it was different from the way, you know, the regular schools assess kids. Regular school assess kids is, they would say, oh, this is Kim and Kim, this is her problem and this is also her problem and this is her problem and then, you know, that type of assessment and, you know, this is what we should do. It's really good to do that but what I wanted to do and we wanted to do was I was curious on what their strengths were because they all, there's these multiple intelligences and it was a small enough group that you could do individualized education programs but based on their strengths. Like if they loved singing, well, get them singing, you know? Or if they were artists, well, let's build, you know, the artist and design side of them. So I think that's what my curiosity was as a researcher, an indigenous researcher but also a parent, you know, a parent that has my kids are in there. So in a way I'm invested in there wholeheartedly from that side but also what I saw in Europe, yeah, actually Europe, in Sweden, what I saw in Hawaii, in Peru and also in Australia and New Zealand. I saw that, you know, and I thought, well, jeez, you know, they're doing it. Let's do it here, you know? And we've tried it a couple times in the bigger school as well. This is not, this was not an overnight thing. This took us probably about 10 years to sort of really develop it. Actually a lot longer but I'm just going to say 10 years. I think the resource is how I see it and read it so far because it's in draft mode right now is the, like it's an indigenous scholar that wrote it and it was an indigenous scholar that has experience in that area so she was very knowledgeable in policy development, dealing with provinces or the federal government and dealing with the Language Act and dealing with all these different similar strategies, you know, these methodologies that are working there, they could work here as well. So I think that's the benefit. Okay, so the resource is called Structured Assessments Framework for Land-Based Learning at Garnese Culture Camps. So this document is, what we're looking at is there are ways that are developed in western framework, you know, a western lens, but what we're trying to do is because we see the benefits of taking students or anybody out outdoors, we see the benefits of them working with canine or equine therapy, we see the benefits of them hanging out with the elders and reconnecting with them. This structured language assessment, we want to link language learning and the way I can explain it is just like we're going on a journey or let's say a paddling journey and we're paddling and then we get to a certain point and we put a marker down and then we just keep on paddling and once in a while we can kind of look back and we also always can paddle back to that first marker if we get kind of lost, but it's always constantly marking along this journey. So that's basically the framework of this model and it's indigenous in nature, and I don't want to always say like we made this here, it's like the Navajo have a lot to do with it. So I work with Michelle Whitstone who is a PhD, who's just about finishing her PhD and then just like Belinda's work as well, she's just about finished her PhD. So you have all these very intelligent indigenous ladies or scholars that are published already that I've co-presented with or presented at the same conferences and I know their work. Those type of people are changing, they're changing policy, they're changing the way we do things, developing assessment tools that work for us because we know our kids and we know where the issues are, we know where they come from, we know the language, we can communicate with them. So it makes like all those make it so much more easier. So you're not forcing an assessment or a program on somebody when it's developed from the community like that. But again, we had to go through the university to understand these assessments or to understand these frameworks. So it's helpful to go that route so you know and you understand how to communicate in that academic world but then also to know those pipe teachings, to know those medicines, to know how those protocols that you saw even this morning to understand why the woman's pipe and the man's pipe were taught but then to flip on this side to say, oh, okay, let's talk about mental health because there's this Gabor Matei that's saying something really interesting about mental health and the trauma that if not dealt with eventually it'll lead to addictions or Dr. Bruce Perry and they're both doctors talking about mass trauma, what suicide does to communities and then how to heal communities. So these type of people and their research and their resources that they develop, I'm hoping this is what this is because this is all locally developed but with the help of us learning how to do that type of research and also to connect those important people that are doing that work right now. The resource development, we needed a resource that would keep us sort of in line to keep with a mandate from the elders. We needed a place where we not to veer too far into that academia side but also just the two-eyed seeing I guess is how I would say it and also the parents wanted their kids just to be as literate but they also saw the benefit of keeping the language and culture within the programming so we needed to find ways to assess that development on both sides because if you go to the school you'll see SRO which is Standard Roman Orthography but you also see Syllabics and then there's a little bit of English here and there but you still see Roman which is a Standard Roman Orthography both are beneficial because you can teach literacy. We spent a lot of time researching balanced literacy as well so that's another thing there too that I want to stress and also having culturally relevant curricula is another buzzword to understand the effects of decolonization or colonization and to understand what decolonization also is and then also when you first walk into the school you'll see also the treaty flag there and so we do a lot of treaty teachings as well to understand the relationship to the lands to all the relatives that I was saying and then also there was another chapter that's going to be a part of this assessment and it has to deal heavily with mental health. Mental health is on our eyes right now and a lot of the teachers that are coming out need a place to learn about that especially how to take students out in a safe manner and let's say if they need alone time even how do you meditate or how do you have that solo time and how do you do it in a safe manner so there's all these different certificates like Outdoor Council of Canada that we've worked with Paddle Canada that we work with Red Cross with Wilderness First Aid Outward Bound Canada that we've worked with so it's like all these different guides and all their models Trappers education food handling courses there's all these different things that you can implement in there and we've taken good pieces that would fit sort of what we want and also stayed true to what they wanted as organizations as well because it's just good work that all of them have done and I think by adding the First Nation perspective improves them as well. It helped us shape and it's helping us shape the curriculum because we're in year two and then what's different about the school here is we've opened the summer up to be part of the school so which means we take a little longer breaks here and there but also let's say if there's a pow-wow or a ceremony on the weekend we'll take that pow-wow and we'll take our students there to go dance and then that's visit that's native studies that's history so those components are part of that so that's a huge difference and then also we like to travel we like to move we like to create those to visit other places like our First Nations I think in the future here we'll be going out straight down to Chapways to go visit them and take part in their hockey academy and they have an amazing hockey academy down there but also give them a little bit of what we're doing up here in terms of language and culture and then share things that have been working with us it might not work for them who knows but at least they maybe they can try some things and then just keep the ones that work same thing with Honey and Lake Immersion School that you watched they are so giving and they are so open to working with us and sort of being the big brothers and sisters any question that we had we would go over there and then vice versa when they want to take their kids out like dog sledding nobody does the dog sledding down there or snowshoeing some of the odd little things that we do they'll bring their kids here so that relationship is still ongoing another thing that this document will help you do is also give you the take that responsibility back but also take that pride back to say as a parent what is important for me to pass on what type of legacy do I want to pass on or leave to my grandchildren so it gives that light or that time to be listened to finally as elders you saw them sitting there every single one of them has like when I went in there and like when are you going to come visit where have you been so I tease back you guys are never home you guys are so busy that type of thing they want to visit and a lot of them they're ready to share their life experiences so I think that's what this document will do it'll give you it'll give you a way to do that a way to localize the curriculum treaty we work with the office of a treaty commissioner in teaching treaties because they've been mandated by the province to teach in every school in the province it helps us because we really respect the treaty and we try to share that in like we teach out of the kit you know they develop an amazing kit from kindergarten to grade 12 and with all the resources that are in there it's really well done and I think that's what those two documents that we've developed here that we're going through like our hands right now and our minds and our hearts is that those two together will give the possibility of other camps or other schools or communities if they want to do that as well try it out and I still don't know like I know they're going to be tools at the end but how much impact would they have to somebody that's kind of like starting where we're just starting those assessment tools they have to look a little different as well because of the complexity like mental health is really really big and then also poverty is a really big one as well so how do you stretch something that's stretched already in a positive way or in a way where it'll work and function so it's complex like that but that's kind of like going back to the Wisagi check in the wolf it's like an adventure right these are things we've tried we're not perfect, we've failed and then we'll write about it and then we'll write a different way because we know that's what happened so we'll try something else there was a new one that just came out and it was just published by springer and it was it had to do with teacher education programs and I think it was geared towards indigenous teachers around the world and Onoamagaiver and her husband and then there was another one that put out the call and they have everything in there curriculum to teacher education programs to camps like this so we actually got published in there and I think I'm sure Belinda's got her chapter in there as well and Heather Blair out of Syldi has a chapter in there with her team as well so there's a lot of different language scholars that have been in a game just not in Canada but in the states and then also internationally it's really nice to that that's what I like like indigenous researchers we came up with a word and we've always had researchers and we've always had storytellers so that's the thing that I want to tell indigenous scholars right now is like just take it back that's all you're doing and it'll benefit so many generations if you take that model as well some of the elders if they say well this isn't my knowledge this is actually communally ours but we're playing it forward you know I think that's key as well there's some wisdom to that but we need more we need more scholars and we need more publications and I'm being how would you say like selfish here indigenous languages we need people more people to write about that because I want to hear you know hockey I want to hear boxing I want to hear football in Cree I want to hear movies in Cree and if we can develop speakers at the elementary age they'll possibly be our next Brad Pitt or you know an amazing pop artist that might come out so and singing in one of our indigenous languages so that's the key is to develop them and then when they're older who knows what they can become you know now they're speaking in Ottawa I've heard Cree I've translated in Cree I've heard Denny I've heard Migma I've heard all these different languages beautiful translating the debate this last debate was all done in all those different languages and it was just beautiful to hear that