 was a experiential science and culture camp out at Willow Lake. What is the aim of that program? The students who went out for that program were completing the experiential science 30 course that focuses on fresh water systems. So the point of that course was to do the really experiential part of that of that course. So it was a lot about learning research skills in the field, really learning about the importance of water while being on the land, as well as learning from the cultural educators that we had out there. I'm guessing the students get like a lot more from being out on the land. It's like really like cultural and healing for them as well. Yeah, exactly. It was amazing to see the group's progress over the three weeks that were there. By the end, they seemed so grounded and like sure and who they were. And yeah, they just seemed like they gained a lot of confidence, confidence out there both in their science skills and in their knowledge of their culture and feeling comfortable. It was interesting, like awesome to see them interacting with the cultural educators that we had out there. We had an elder and a few other people from the community. So yeah, watching them form relationships with them and start really helping out in the camp as well. And just taking initiative to do what needed to get done came those responsibilities was really good to see. And there must have been some like the elders and the cultural teachers speaking their language or using certain words and stuff. So they got to learn some DNA, right? For sure. Yeah, we were trying to incorporate as much of the language into the camp as we could. And there were definitely a few phrases that the students really got by the end of the camp and like really, really could own and I've heard them now since we've come back to the camp, they use them all the time, even in the classroom with me, we like joking around all the time with those phrases that they learned. So yeah, for sure, we were really doing our best to try and practice as much in the language as we could, trying to make it fun like through games and a lot of joking around with each other and our elders were really helpful and like trying to teach us as much as they could. In your opinion, what makes it an example of excellence in Indigenous education? I think something that worked really well for that program was the combination of the academic skills and the culture learning. So the students were getting something really concrete out of it. It's a grade 12 level science and they're getting that credit and they were getting those skills that they could there's a lot of careers. We kept on talking about the kinds of careers that they could do that would that they could use those skills in like like monitor monitoring water quality. For example, a lot of them know that community members in their own community who actually have those jobs in the summer where they go out on the river and are monitoring the water. So they're gaining those concrete skills as well as getting the high school credit as well as getting the cultural foundation that just helps them feel strong and who they are. How do you measure the success of your program? A lot of what we do it's a combination of the evaluation of our program is a combination of many different things. One of the things that we do that works well is just giving the students cameras while we're out there. It helps us a lot to just look at their pictures after and see what kinds of things they were noticing. That also helps when we get back to the community. They can reflect on what they were doing out there by looking at the pictures that they took. We also have a lot of sharing circles where the students share their reflections with each other that way. A lot of it just comes out through our conversations that we have out there on a one-to-one basis. And while we're doing the activities just if we see the kids engaged like if look like they want to be there and a lot of the time they really do look like they want to be there when they really like just hands on like making a little beaver dam on the beach like to try and like simulate what would happen if you know like if the beaver dam broke like how is that going to affect the water system and all these kinds of things so when they're really like there and like digging in the mud and you know like catching all the water insects and you can tell they're just like super excited. That's when it's like okay yes they're they're they're getting a lot out of it so. From your perspective what is indigenous education? Although I'm not indigenous myself from what I hear from from community members and people that I have been working with my understanding is that indigenous education is about a kind of education that grounds young people in who they are in the place that they're from gets them to see the strength that they can that they have in in knowing about all of their ancestors and the strength that all of their ancestors had and also knowing how much potential they have in their own lives just to be who they want to be. Yeah. What is your vision for indigenous education over the next 10 years? Over the next 10 years I really hope that there can be even more education happening on the land because that's really where the kids do best. That's where they shine. That's where you see them most engaged. That's where a lot of the students who struggle to even come to school in high school. There are some high school students who really have very low attendance and so are struggle to pass their courses but when they're out on the land you're able to work with them more closely. You can be with them 24 seven so you can help them with their projects even at 11 o'clock at night if you need to and like you can just support them you can be more at their own rhythm and support them in the way that works best for them. So yeah I really hope to see more on the land programs and more flexibility in how students can graduate from high school like more options of different kinds of hands-on experiences that they can have that will count for their for their high school courses so that they can actually graduate through doing those kinds of experiential learning experiences. What information materials or resources do you need to achieve that vision aside from funding? We need a lot of momentum from everyone. I think like a lot of the people who have been working trying to run these kinds of programs are feeling like it's always kind of on the same people to put everything together. Like it needs to come from the community and it needs to be like really everyone wanting to be involved. Yeah there needs to be continued. It would just within the school for example like it really helps to have continuity within the staff but also to like keep the mentality of everyone trying to support each other. What resources do you think would help with that? There's this feeling like that they're that people aren't supported or some people feel like they're not supported. So what resources like what resources would help them feel supported so that they could kind of continue like so that they don't get burned out basically yeah sort of thing. I think it would really help like exactly this kind of project where you're trying to get ideas out there so that people can learn from each other. I think just to feel like we're not alone would be really helpful and to be able to more easily access resources from other communities because there's so many communities that are trying to do land-based education. So being able to access those resources more easily I think would be really helpful.