 So my name is Brittany Bertrand. I'm the Youth and Community Project Assistant at Métis Nation, BC. I work in the Ministry of Youth and the program that I'm in charge of is the Rock Forum or Revitalizing Our Culture Youth Forum. So Rock Forum is a youth program for Métis youth across the province between the ages of 15 and 30. They come together, we for the past few years have done it at Strathcona Park Lodge which is just outside Campbell River. They have a beautiful venue there which is very supportive of living off the land. Even their meal plans are very much no waste so which is amazing that's something that we really promote. So when we bring the youth together we bring really amazing elders together and knowledge keepers and facilitators to come in and do workshops with us. So in this program youth have an opportunity to connect with other youth from across the province that are Métis that are learning about their culture. Some of them already know their culture and have been raised in it so it's a really good mix and a really good opportunity for some of those youth that are more experienced to be more of a mentor to these youth. When we do we bring them in and we do canoe journey, we do various hikes, plant identification with the youth. Some of the elders take it upon themselves to teach about spoons and how to play that and make it really fun and engaging. We teach about medicines that they can use to help with mental health as well as various different ailments. Depending on the time of the year it can be really amazing where you get the summer perspective on medicines growing but also when we've done it in the later part of the year when it gets a little bit of cold it's really cool that some of the elders are like hey this is how you can kind of survive in the winter months and what the winter provides for us. So there's amazing opportunities there when we get these youth out and we try to make it as fun as possible as engaging as possible and not intimidating because we want to make sure that we're meeting these youth at where they're at whether that's brand new and just discovering their culture and that reclaim piece to youth that are well experienced and ready to go to learn more and they're wanting to even move into those leadership roles. So we have our MIBC committee attend. They are youth from across the province that represent each region so we have region one which is the Vancouver Island, region two which is the lower mainland, region three is Thompson, Okanagan, region four is the Kootenai, region five is the it's like Prince George area so the center, region six and region sevens are east and west and they represent those youth so they come and educate youth on how they can come out and learn how to be engaged, get active in their communities and be in those leadership roles. So Rock Forum is offered annually so I believe this is either the fourth or fifth year that we've had it. It's usually offered we try to make it in the summer sometimes it's offered a little bit more of like a September, October depending on what venues are available. We've been really lucky with Strathcona Park Lodge that they've been really opening and accommodating to us but yeah so it's where this year will be in the summer we haven't announced dates yet so that's very secretive but it will be at the same location and and very very amazing. The forum is about four days so the the first day and the last day are travel days but we try to incorporate as much culture and support in those first two days as well but it's more of a get to know you when you arrive and then those final goodbyes so the the meat and potatoes comes in the middle the Saturday and Sunday and it's usually a Friday through Monday event. A lot of our a lot of our connection to youth this is of course social media so it's on the website through our Facebook pages and the Facebook group but also within our communities a lot of the youth here voted at community events whether they attended or their parents we try to promote that engagement for the youth that go out to these board meetings and community meetings and see what's going on because that's where you learn about the most stuff that happens. A lot of it's word of mouth too youth that experience the program they go and tell their friends in the community that they also know that are Métis and say hey this is what I experienced this is what I learned you should check it out and I feel that word of mouth is even more influential for these youth because a lot of them are trying to find out am I indigenous enough I'm Métis but I'm fair as as you can see I'm blonde hair blue eyed so when they they meet me they're like oh my gosh we're the same so it's amazing because we have very fair skinned Métis youth we have very dark skinned very Métis youth so I feel word of mouth when they talk to each other and share hey this is what I experienced that's probably one of the most powerful returns that we receive but community is very huge too when they're telling us hey we're getting a couple youth together and we're going to come out so yeah it's amazing we also reach out to the school system and and network through them as well as well as the Aboriginal support workers we have a good relationship with the ones in BC and send out all that information out to them as well to get out to the youth what I would like to share is mainly to the youth to just get out and be a part of your community reach out to your regional youth rep they're very approachable you can send them an email and kind of see hey how can I get involved if you don't know who your Métis chartered community is which I believe we have 39 across the province reaching out to us to say hey I want to get involved maybe not necessarily at the provincial level but at the community level how can I get involved and we can connect them to the right channels that's the same with any support workers or people that have youth in their care or in their presence that they know are Métis and and want to get involved is reach out to us reach out to me send me an email and say hey how can I get involved where can you lead me to because I definitely can connect them with the right people to get involved and following social media following our website it's got most up to date information on what's happening within the nation whether that's programs we're offering we also share various grant opportunities for youth and things like that where they can learn more about their culture so when we get youth coming into the program a lot of youth probably the vast majority don't know anything about their culture they were told by a grandparent told by a parent or somebody else in their family that hey we're Métis and it's youth coming in they're like I don't know what this means for me so they're very much uh in that reclaim situation where it's like I need to learn about this I need my identity and uh yeah it's an amazing experience watching them walk in they're a little scared they don't want to get to know anybody yet they're they're like hey do I fit in am I indigenous enough it's a constant question am I indigenous enough they come in uh they see other youth that are also in that same place so it very much provides that community peace right off the bat of hey this is what everybody else is experiencing too and then when we have the youth who are more experienced share their story and their journey from when they were learning about it really helps the youth to gain perspective on it so at the start they're like I have no idea what's going on and by the end they're like oh my gosh I need to learn more I need to get involved be a part of my community and it's the uh the aha moment for them that hey I fit in um it's not wrong of me to be learning at a later age if they're 15 if they're 30 and just learning it's like hey I can learn at any age I mean we have community members who are 60 years old just learning and they're getting involved so um I I know majority of them are like hey I wish I had a forum for my age to get involved and learn too so um it's just it's crazy seeing them come in and they're like oh I don't want to and then when we're trying to get them to go they're like no I don't want to leave take me with you so um the turnaround is amazing and to see them come back out to various events and get involved with like regional youth events and wanting to volunteer wanting to get involved wanting to get to know their elders and find out how they can get support there and how they can support our elders is huge too so it's a big turnaround and it's amazing to see so yeah I think in indigenous perspectives is brought in um by bringing youth back onto the land getting to know our elders and traditional knowledge keeper having that perspective of um like throwing the western view out and learning right off our land is huge for us I mean who knew that certain plans can help you cure different ailments who knew that you could use this so that way when you get a mosquito bite it will um not itch so much um rose hip tea what that does for your body and things like that so it's very much uh getting back to grassroots knowledge and learning directly from what our land is providing to us is is very big for us um elders are always going to be a huge part in these youth's life because they've been around for a long time they have a lot to share that we don't necessarily know about now and never experience so it's gaining that perspective from them it's also learning about um why we are the way we are why a lot of Métis people are now reclaiming their heritage learning about things like residential schools 60 scoops um what our people had to do back in the day because they were fair to to avoid going to residential school and um why our families are so secretive about what's happened in in our generations right um a lot of youth are like I don't understand why we have this beautiful culture and my family didn't share it with me until now and um explaining to the youth and having elders share like this is why my family did it yours might not be exactly the same but very similar so it's uh aha moments like all the time for these youth that oh wow now I know why this has happened or why this has happened and we always have a counselor available as well because we recognize that when we're bringing youth away from their communities and throwing them into the culture that it's not necessarily um understood understood that hey our western views have that value too counseling is very westernized so having a counselor there to support to make sure that hey you have what you need here if you want to seek out an elder for support or go to a counselor for support we have both available and just uh having youth around to create that identity and community for them is huge too so it's a beautiful thing