 I've taken a number of different programs, both formal and informal. Through university setting, I did Honors Bachelor of Social Sciences, and then I did my JD program, which is Juris Doctorate, which is a law degree, also with the University of Ottawa. But I've also been involved with a lot of sort of non-institutional education programs, so like, even as far as cultural programs, like attending traditional ceremonies, but also training programs with, as part of a youth council, with different Aboriginal organizations, especially First Nations organizations. So I think I would probably kind of keep those three things in mind, sort of like my university education, sort of the leadership, a non-institutional, and then maybe like cultural education. I see those three things as very different, but part of my education. From your perspective, what is Indigenous education? Education is, the way I've learned, it's sort of like two things. One is sort of like the lifelong learning. Education is like constantly learning new skills and gaining new knowledge that you didn't have before. And also, there's an aspect of skill development and training. I'm thinking in the formal, like institutional education, university setting, you're developing a certain skill set and knowledge set that's really unique to whatever program you're taking. So when it was my social sciences, it was within that sphere, you know, public administration and women's studies and those kinds of things. And then in law, you're learning different parts of the law, different types of law, different aspects of law. And I think there's elements that are universal to any type of education, but what I feel like what makes Indigenous education different, one is the content. So you're learning really specific content, you know, specific to a certain nation or community or even teacher. And then two, it's how you're being educated. So, you know, for what I was talking about earlier, with cultural and ceremonial teachings, like you're not sitting in a classroom and you're not, you know, you don't have to do your readings ahead of time. And then you come to class and you discuss them. And the teacher asks you questions. It's very like, interactional, right? Like you're there and you're learning because you're doing and you're asking questions. And sometimes you're not given a straight answer. Like sometimes you have to find your own answer, right? So I feel like that's part of Indigenous education is what you're learning, but also how you're learning it. What would you say is your vision for the future of Indigenous education, either in your community or in Canada as a whole? I think Indigenous education is more crucial now than it's ever been before. I mean, I guess it was always important. It was always crucial. But right now we're sort of in a place where I'm thinking specifically about language, you know, we're in a place that if we don't take the reins back and learn our languages, we're going to be missing out on a lot of education from those languages. Because from the language speakers that I know, a lot is embedded within language. There's a lot of words that carry various meanings. There are stories that go with teachings. There are songs and there are all these kinds of things. And they're drawn or they're sort of brought into our languages, right? So what I would like to see at a community level are communities taking the initiative to do sort of education from the full range from, you know, the little ones, the babies that aren't even speaking yet, taking education from that point all the way to ensuring that, you know, young people and teenagers and young adults, adults and elders are also have access to different levels of education. It seems like a big thing to do, but I think it's important to start with the kids because they're sort of like the catalyst for the others, right? So like you have say a daycare that has language and Indigenous education built into it. Well, parents are encouraged to try to speak more of the language because their babies and their children are learning them, right? And then, you know, you kind of have, well, my kids are getting this language education and now like, where can I get this education? So I feel like you can start with the kids and it'll grow. And that's the same thing, not just with language, but you know, community based on the land education. And I've seen examples where community, like my own community Moose Creek First Nation, our youth center, we have a youth center and the youth center has cultural programming where they bring the kids out on the land and they teach them skills, they teach them how to make fires and how to make lodges and, you know, they take them out for ceremony. And it's like, because the young people have had the education now, you know, on the land education, they're able to teach their parents and the parents are coming back to it, right? So I think that's really good. And then sort of on the other side, parents, adults, and even some of the older generations are going back and getting sort of the institutional education, right? So they're building different skill sets that they can like feed into their communities as well. So I would see from a community perspective, Indigenous education has to sort of be the core education within a community and it can mean different things, right? And then nationally, I think you need to kind of get that political support, certainly like the funding to be able to support those education initiatives on the ground. I don't think it should be a blanket like, here's Indigenous education for everybody across Canada, right? But it's more like the support to keep those community-based education going. And even like some communities are starting their own educational institutions, they're starting to develop their own degrees, their own programs. And so I think, you know, education seems to be like this one thing, but it's sort of morphs and it grows into a lot of different areas. Regarding that vision would be, how could you see us achieving that vision? So besides the funding, right? And I think it kind of almost touched on that a little bit. Right. I think there's so many things that communities can do without funding. It just takes organizing, which is just as challenging sometimes as getting funding to do some of the stuff, right? So there's already language speakers in most communities, right? And it's taking the effort to try to find how to utilize their knowledge in a way that's respectful, not just, you know, exploiting them for what they have. I think there's also what they call like asset mapping involved. So you have, it could be leadership, it could be even just a group of people who want to do something, sort of taking notes of what exists in our community already. Well, we have a parish hall or we have a community center or, you know, there's a boardroom at the band office or there's, you know, and then finding out or like the schools even, elementary or high schools, right? And then you find out who has the keys to get into those spaces and then you find out, you know, okay, well maybe we can access it once a week and we can do something. Maybe it's not going to be everything but we can start somewhere. And then, you know, sort of thinking bigger scale is identifying what is needed in the community and sort of building towards that. So maybe it is like a cultural center or it's an education center or it's building something off of the high school that can be used by the community or it's expanding or renovating the community center to become something else, you know? So I think aside from finding like, you need those planners, the people that are good at organizing other people and planning to just get them together and get some ideas on paper and in terms of not just infrastructure or buildings but who are the people that you can mobilize, you know? I think if community members take these initiatives on themselves it makes it a lot easier for leadership like chief and council or, you know, the people who are working the band office too. It sort of alleviates the burdens from their work too because I know most of the leaders want to be doing this kind of stuff but, you know, their time and energy is so stretched already so, you know, if we can build the sort of, I don't know how else to call it like a civil society where community members are just taking the initiative and doing their own thing I think that will really help a lot. It gets challenging and there's just a few people doing it all the time and they get tired, I've seen that too but it is possible it's just finding a way to start something and build the momentum and keep that going. I think something that we need to be doing better is to share, finding the spaces to share what communities are doing, right? It's my assumption that in every community there's something happening you just have to find out what it is even people say, oh, nothing ever happens around here well, my experience is that it's not always true that there's always something happening but a lot of times those people need help and they don't realize that maybe even neighboring community or maybe nearby that there are people that can help and can give them resources already sort of like that information sharing so it would be good to see what networks already exist becoming better known and then starting new networks to sort of fill in the gaps of maybe where there are gaps so getting people to share and if that momentum is not at the community level then maybe you can start building some momentum with your neighbors or within a region or even a province or even like nationally or internationally sometimes you know it's good it's always so good to make connections with people in different places so well thanks for sharing no problem