 Carlitos de Mera, principal of the Denetha Community School within the Denetha First Nation. There are lots of programs that we're offering in our school. So I think just to support the indigenous education, we have what we call survival camp, that's cultural camp, one in the fall and one in the winter. So what we're going to do in that is like our students go out to a camp in Sulphur Lake, that is five days camp, but there are different kinds of activities in there. These hunters teaching our young students to hunt, especially those boys. And then these elders also like women teaching our girls to do the dried meat cutting, something like that. And in between those cultural practices and activities, we have also sessions like storytelling. Elders talk about the cultural practices as they grow up like that. We let the kids play sports also like traditional games, the hunt games, the denay pool, stick pool, something like that. Other cultural activities when we have that camp is like deer picking, looking for like that willow making a stick. They go out to the lake and fish, something like that. And in the school we have our head start to grade 12, but using this camp, bringing kids outside, we have at least grade 4, that is 10 years old, up to grade 12. And again, we have two, as I said, fall in winter. The other one is in Beach Lake where it is isolated area. You can only go there if, how can I say that? Fly in community, but now it's winter, so trucks can go in there. We bring our students. We have at least five cabins in there. And then we bring our students in the middle of the very wide Beach Lake. They do ice fishing, especially net fishing and kids like that. And at the same time they do moose hunting also. Our school is very supportive with the culture. So we're trying to make our education as a land-based curriculum education. So, for example, our high school kids, we have different kinds of Alberta outcomes that we can associate with what they're doing outside the camp. We give credits for that. Say for example, if our kids spend 125 hours in the bush for our land-based curriculum, that is equivalent also to five credits. And there are lots of survival skills that they can learn from here, aside from just learning the academic. There are lots of academic outcomes that you can attach to this kind of survival camps. Evidently, it's actually our language and culture coordinators always saying, like, how can we encourage more our students to attend with the camps? How can we make it more exciting? So what we did was we invited an actor. He's actually a Dine from Navajo Nation and he would like to learn the actual hunting. This is an actor from the Revenant. And kids went there and this guy talked with these kids how to, like some life skills, like life lesson, right? And when we evaluate that, we gather feedback from the kids. They have fun. What are the things that we learn? So journal writing, something like that. Our language and cultural program is very strong. Our coordinator is very strong, like cultural base. Sometimes you are not going to change whatever course that they put in, right? They will check on you if you are doing something else. It's supposed to be like just the culture. And sometimes you can see, I think some community people will say, the same people are facilitating these camps and everything. It's just family. But we're saying like, yes, of course, you can invite your family. You can bring your kids because this is family oriented. And sometimes, how can I say that? The challenge is also, there are kids who are more on technology sometimes. So what you need to do is encourage them more, something like that. So no technology there, no signals. But what you need to do is just be patient. This is our culture to learn about. And actually, the attendance has been up just for these camps. You see, another way to monitor that is, once our kids are in the camp, they took pictures, right? And then you can see when they post it in social media, their comments has been great this weekend. We hunt moose. We spend our time in the booths. We connected with our culture. This is who we are, something like that. Again, our language and cultural program is in progress. So we're trying to devise such kind of evaluation so that it will become evidence-based. But the thing that I can assure of is that it's yearly and you can actually see that kids would like to always go to the camp. Say, for example, when I work in the three communities, right? So we usually have the Chate and we're extending it to the Meander River or to the Boucher River. But when we invited those kids from Meander, the same kids come in before they're four and then it becomes five and becomes six. Like, because these kids who experience that cultural comes experience, they will tell their friends that it's actually fun in there. Like, you learn a lot about our culture. And I think the reward also is, like the parents when these kids go home, they have a piece of meat or dried meat for their families. I'm actually aware of what indigenous education is. But me, like, looking inside, so the way I understand it, it should come from the community. Like, how do you want us to educate your children? This is not the set formula that we're trying to let them do it, but you are the one who's going to suggest, and we will try to, how can I say that, policy, say, for example, this boy likes hunting. How can we integrate that hunting thing into his learning? Sometimes these kids were just giving them, like, say, for example, worksheet, right? What kind of worksheet is that? What kind of problem is that? But what if you modify that into kind of indigenous perspective, like, you hunt a moose, okay? This is how much you got. How many mooses left? Use all those vocabulary that is familiar to them. It's a land-based curriculum. Let's go out in the bush, say, for example, science. There's lots of science outside. You are not just bringing these kids inside the classroom and talk about something else, they cannot even touch. It's supposed to always be experiential learning, cultural-based learning, because when a dad or grandpa said, my son is a great hunter, but if the teacher is saying that this kid cannot learn, it's wrong, so the objective is not meeting its other. So indigenous education should come from the community. There should be input of the grandma and the grandpa. To tell you frankly, there is a grandma, I said. I counted the grandchildren in the school. And these are the kids always coming out from the classroom. I said, I will get your grandma inside. The teacher said, Mr. Sumira, even the grandma is not saying anything. My students work really hard in the classroom. And I said, that is the grandma mother. Grandma power. I am well connected with the elders. So I always observe protocol. When you talk to the elder, you need to give this one. You know all those protocols. And the way I see it, there's so much wisdom that these elders can pass to the young generation. The storytelling, their experience, how they grow up, the values, the teaching. And actually they're doing it. And what you need to do is just work it. What are the seven teachings? What are the four? That's the wheel, right? The four wheels and everything. I would like them to continue doing that. Because these are, I think, the basic foundation of a character of each indigenous people. The spiritual side. One time I get in touch with an elder and this elder artist said, do you know Mr. Simera? The wind is whispering to me. These trees is talking to me. I believe them. Because they're talking about the spiritual level. If you heard about what Miss Alicia shared, it's supposed to come from the spiritual base first before you can engage other kids into getting the other needs. I passed 10 years in my 12, but still every day I have the passion to continue servicing this youth. I would like to see success in every in the First Nation community. That they can adapt in the mainstream. The word is the same. That they need to be proud of their identity where they're coming from. But of course, that identity is, you cannot actually see that kind of characteristic in the mainstream community. I told them in the public education, they don't have anything like this. But as we're so creative, we learn much. So, if we have 20 grade one, I would like to see 20 grade two, 20 grade three, until I can see 20 senior high graduating in the community and they go all to college. But at the same time, they're getting this modern education, but the culture is intact. I would like to see them that I'm proud. I'm Dene. I am educated in this school and I will quit building myself and my community. So, when we're supporting these children in youth with their education, I would like them to have, you know, like that passion to get back and I will go back to the community and serve my community so that, you know, everyone will be successful.