 My name is Demi Mathias. I'm from Tuangui First Nation or Bear Island. I'm part of the Loon Clan. I'm here at Trent University doing my master's in Canadian and Indigenous studies. I'm studying the Birch Bark canoe and its contribution to cultural resurgence specifically within my community. I also sit on the Trent University Native Association which is why I'm here today to talk about it. The Trent University Native Association or what we call TUNA is a program that is run by Indigenous students for Indigenous and non-Indigenous students just creating like a safe cultural space, community-based kind of organization and program for students to be involved and get to know other Indigenous students and non-Indigenous students at Trent University. It acts like a home away from home and you get to make new friends through this organization and lifelong friends because we all come from somewhere and the TUNA being kind of that home base or that place to kind of be yourself and express your Indigenous culture. We host a lot of events. We also act as like a connection but also communication line between different programs at the university kind of in collaboration with the First People's House of Learning but yeah so we host a lot of events. Some of the events we hosted last year were we had a like a panel speaking on Two-Spirited. We had like a Halloween night. We just have events where students can come out and just kind of relax, enjoy the company of everyone and just you know sit down eat maybe have some good conversation and dialogue between people but yeah so it's really just safe spaces for people to come out and just kind of relax and kind of like de-stress from whatever is going on in their lives or whatever is going on in their schoolwork or whatever it might be. It's a good way just to make new friends and talk about experiences and just kind of have that community within Trent University that you may not find otherwise. So I think it's it really helps create those relationships and the community if you're you know missing home or missing family or something. I guess the success rate would all depend on the amount of students that come out to the events we host as well and the success of how well the events go. I know in that Two-Spirited event we had there in I believe it was late November. It was a great turnout. A lot of people enjoyed it. We had good reviews of like people saying oh this was great like like good job and so I guess it's just how we reach out to people and how they like reach back basically and if they come out to events or like every student group has trouble getting people out but those that do come out if they enjoy it and if if they continue coming to events I feel that that could measure the success of how well we are doing. Right now we're in the process of planning a 50th anniversary of Tuna and also our powwow which will be held in March. So to measure the success of that I guess it'll be how organized and easily the planning goes but also how many people show up and how how much are interested and and yeah just the amount and population we get out to those which I'm hoping it will be lots. We're just in the early planning stages still but we're looking to advertise and get it out there and then hopefully run a successful gala and powwow. There's always challenges yes. Some challenges like I said in past events it's always the matter of trying to advertise enough to get people out that's one thing that that we're really struggling with just because we advertise it and we get it out there but we still aren't getting enough people or those that a larger population of what we'd hoped we'd get so hopefully with like the powwow and gala because there will be so much going on like performances with the gala and dinner with the gala and then the powwow inviting in the drum groups of neighboring communities hopefully with that we'll get more of an attendance and that people will just really enjoy that day but yeah there's always challenges with reaching out to people just because I don't still know what it is why I think that a lot of organizations struggle with that because they just like they advertise and they put it on their social media platforms or they'll send an email out or word of mouth but it's still a matter of getting people out after doing all that so that's one challenge. The planning because this is my first year sitting on the association I like I contributed to my community's powwow what I've never actually planned events or planned a powwow so it's all new to me so it's also a learning experience which challenges obviously arise with that you know with the people you're working with or the venues you're trying to secure or anything right there's always challenges in that so it's a good learning experience you learn from the challenges that you're faced with so I'm hopeful that the events coming up this year will be great and that and they will be successful and hopefully we sail through the challenges in terms of feedback I guess it would just be more of like people commenting on our social media posts saying like oh this event was great or like oh we should host this event because it's been done in the past and and it was it was good feedback and a lot of people enjoyed it so I guess it's we don't really have like a survey or anything or or any kind of concrete feedback thing for lack of a better word but but in terms of like the social media platform and the commenting on post and such that really create provides feedback for us who are on the association which is which is helpful because then you know if if this event wasn't as popular well we probably won't host that again but people were mentioning doing something different and oh like maybe they'll be more people that want to be involved in this event so it's just a matter of getting feedback and posts and comments on on the post that we have on our social media platforms that I think would be the best way that we have gotten feedback and continue to get feedback so to me um it's it's really I think focusing on building those relationships between the academy and indigenous people collaborating between the two but also respecting one another and in a way that I think comes through the relationships that have been built I did my undergrad at a different university and it's it's amazing to see what different institutions are doing and how inclusive or not inclusive they are of indigenous presence within the academy I think that indigenous education needs to start at like a community base or within like the institution at like a smaller level I guess so like with tuna you know you have your associations and then you have the fph on then you have the indigenous studies program or faculty and like it's kind of like moving out right so it's the inclusivity but also the relationships between like each level within the institution and then it's also um I think at least bringing in like knowledge holders and bringing in that land-based or indigenous knowledge because that is very important to building those relationships as well I always talk about relationships because I think that that's like at the basis of everything and and building those relationships and moving forward is very important especially if indigenous education is going to continue and going to thrive within this western society I also think that with with these relationships we build on like like a curriculum almost of like of including the ways of knowing and being of indigenous people but also of you know land-based initiatives and like I said indigenous knowledge also with my research of the Birchbark canoe I think it would be this is like I don't know this is a plan I'm thinking about but implementing a curriculum or a course that is based on the land but like done through the canoe so it's using this like cultural aspect but also teaching and and kind of going back to what we knew um like and using the land and through the land right because the canoe can teach you so much it can teach you all about the math and science and and language it has so much knowledge so I think that building those relationships having those respectful relationships and then um and then moving forward from that is is um is really important within an indigenous education um and is something that I think would be very important to continue building what indigenous education means and is to people and everyone I guess this summer when I was building the Birchbark canoe um we had like a language component where we had community members come in from Wannapete First Nation which is very close to us and they were sharing about language and language revitalization through the canoe so that could be another avenue of indigenous education of um you know building that relationship with the canoe and building a canoe or just sharing language revitalization through the canoe and and how important that is um to learning our language and learning um learning the connections you make through the language it's because there are a lot um there there has been so much that has gone on in our communities um let bringing back the language would would help revitalize our connection to the land connection to elders and it just it just I think it would help um it would help you know continue um like just like oh there's just so much within it that I think it would help continue that connection and help help youth today learn more about their culture because it's you know there's so much that has been impacted and we are a generation that needs to um continue to learn and and have those traditions and um those oral traditions shared and that could be done through the language because or else it will be lost right because there are a lot of um community members and elders at least in my community there are probably only two fluent speakers left and so of my dialect of Ojibwe so it's it's it's a matter of you know reaching out building those relationships and and wanting and that want that want to learn and to share so that the next generation after me or the generation after that can continue the culture and continue the traditions so that's kind of what I think about it but I think it is important that language revitalization and like even cultural resurgence and um and everything it is all linked together and it it's all one especially in terms of um indigenous education in the next 10 years well um it is my hope that um so within my community we have a school that goes from um jk to grade 8 and then once they finish that they have to leave the community and either go to nulisk or to north bay to um do their post-secondary or no secondary story um and so it is my hope that within the 10 within 10 years or within the future that that uh because we have a native studies or language program at our school um it is my hope that that continues and then at the community base and then you know branches out further to um high school age or the post-second or the secondary and then post-secondary as well here at Trent there are um you know language is spoken and there are also um there are also programs and classes offered like there's an ishnabe moment or there's mohawk or you know continuing having those um traditions and culture within the um institution as well to then further that education and continue building those relationships i can't stress enough how important relationships are and the importance of building and respecting those relationships once they once they are built um because that is so important respecting the views and the and the culture and and those of of different groups and um through that the relationships within um within the education system um i think that that is really important um with over over the next 10 years building and continuing to build those relationships i also think that like maybe having more on-the-land initiatives or or like uh on-the-land based learning would be beneficial as well um i always go back to the canoe but i think that um there's so much within the birch bark canoe there's so much you can learn and there's so much to tell that i think that implementing more um learning experiences or lived experiences through cultural traditions cultural objects um like and cultural resurgence within that also would be very helpful and would be amazing to see within the next um 10 years just because um of how important it is to remember where you come from but also um continue to pass that on to generations of um indigenous people throughout canada i would like to see better relationships achieved um um and just oh i don't know that's such a hard question just because of because of where we are now um and in 10 years so in 10 years i'll be 34 so i don't know know like what what that will be then but in in my perspective having at least like what i would like to see implemented is a curriculum that is like land-based learning or like a land-based education system that completely um like starts at the community level and like helps um like those youth and children in communities learn from the land and and be out on the land rather than you know sitting at a desk or sitting um listening to someone lecture you it's you know it's about um going out on the land and going out on the traditional hunting territories and then maybe going for um a canoe uh a paddle or or building a canoe or it's becoming um you know one with your culture knowing where your roots are from and then building that relationship with that with the land and um i think that would be really cool to see um that land-based more land-based education and for me through the canoe and using the canoe as a tool to teach um to teach students and to to teach everyone really to to teach that that the canoe has so much to tell and and while you're building it you're building that relationship with the land and with community members and with the ancestors so um again yeah just building that relationship and moving forward from that and seeing seeing the land as more than just a resource or more than just an object seeing it as a living being and building that relationship with the land