 My name is Sarah Leah Hindi. I work as community development officer at Hallaboo First Nation. First program I'd like to speak a little bit about is the Outdoor Education Program. The Outdoor Education Program is offered to grade five students in the western region of the Newfoundland Labrador English School District. So during this program grade five students are invited to Grossmore National Park at a location called Killdouble Camp and Conference Center where they learn subject matter material but in a very unique way because for the duration of their learning at Killdouble Camp and Conference Center in Grossmore they are outdoors. So it's a unique experience for students to have land-based learning and outdoor education in this beautiful location where they can be immersed in the great outdoors and still get curriculum outcomes that they would normally be delivered in a classroom environment but in this beautiful outdoor space. And the benefits of having children immersed in the outdoor environment for their education has so many different benefits to them. The first thing is that they learn education in a really special and unique way through hands-on experiential learning. They are learning not only from the content that's being delivered but they're actually learning from the setting and the environment that they're immersed in because Mother Earth is one of the greatest teachers and so by just being immersed in that environment they are drawing all kinds of connections between the subject matter that's being delivered by the teachers and the environment itself. Another really important component of that program is a socialization aspect. So kids are given the opportunity to learn and laugh and play and interact with each other in an unplugged outdoor setting and that's so good for their self-esteem, their interaction, cooperation and socialization in general. So there's more than just book learning that takes place. It's the hands-on socialization, cooperation, collaborative learning that can occur in that outdoor setting. Connection to land is a really important and valuable thing that comes out of the outdoor education program as well. Children when they're immersed in the outdoors they, you can you can quickly see how they are connecting with that space and respecting that outdoor space. So they are very cautious over the wildlife and the plant life and everything in that space and the way that they are learning interacting with it within that environment is just so beautiful because in an indoor environment those interactions do not take place but in this outdoor setting the learning comes together. So things that are subject matter based come together with the environment in which kids are immersed in and so it draws lots of connections between real world, the environment that we are codependent on and interactive with, with studies that naturally would occur in the classroom environment. So it all kind of draws this, the life of the child and the learning of the child together in a really beautiful way. There are a lot of activities that take place at Kill Devil during the outdoor education program. There are subject-based lessons that occur so English language arts and social studies and science and physical education. All of the core subject matter is delivered through very unique and diverse lessons but in addition to that the program is infused with indigenous world view knowledge cultural practices and traditions. So children participate in learning that furthers their understanding and knowledge of the history and cultural traditions that are rooted in this land and the MiGMA people that inhabit this land. A large portion of our population here is of MiGMA ancestry, has MiGMA ancestry and is of MiGMA descent. So for students to connect with that heritage and the history that is so rich and vibrant in this area that's really valuable and so one of the ways in which we provide that opportunity is through a lesson, a cultural lesson that we teach the kids and it is a MiGMA lesson focused on the oral stories, the history, the traditions and the cultural practices and teachings of our people. Language is one element of that lesson as well as history, oral traditions, cultural practices. We drum and we sing MiGMA songs at camp and we include all the children in that and so we invite them to sing along with us and come up and help us with the drumming. We also have a sharing circle among all the students that come to the outdoor education program so they can share something about themselves and we can have a really beautiful connection to each and every child there and get to know a little bit more about them on a personal level. There are many ways in which we measure the success of the program. We do have the follow-up evaluations that are done by anyone who has participated in the program such as teachers, chaperones, people that are involved in the organization and coordination of the program. However, I think the greatest measure of our success is actually in the messages that the children leave us and we have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of messages that we have collected. I wish I brought some here today to share with you but we have hundreds of messages that we have collected from children that have left just a little a few lines about what camp brought to their lives and why it was special to them. It's incredible the feedback that children give us. We just know that by the smiles on their faces and the changes and the wonderful things that we see happening at camp that although it is only a two and a half day program that kids participate in, we do really feel from those messages that it will have lasting effects on the way that they view Mother Earth, the way that they are now building this connection with each other with the history of this place and so their words are a measure of success. Absolutely there are challenges in trying to coordinate and deliver a program of this caliber. As I said previously, it is a program that is offered to all grade five students in the western region of the Newfoundland Labrador English School District and so we see hundreds of students in the fall season and hundreds of students in the spring season of this program. We offer it twice every year so that we are able to give all grade five students the opportunity to participate in this and so with the program of that caliber there comes challenges in terms of communications and logistics but we have a very strong partnership that makes this program possible and makes this program run quite smoothly given the the large program that it is and so I should mention that this program is a function of a partnership that exists between the Newfoundland Labrador English School District, the Hallaboo First Nation, Parks Canada and Kill Devil Camp and Conference Center. So all of us together have built a really strong partnership and relationship to make this program possible and to make this program not just possible but also grow and become I think greater in its offering to our students. To me, Indigenous education is providing children with the opportunity to understand, to understand each other, to understand the history and the stories and the traditions of the Indigenous people of this place as well as to draw a connection between their own personal life and the content that they are receiving through their public education so our students actually attend schools within the Newfoundland Labrador English School District and so within that school system it is really valuable and vital for students to be able to draw a connection to who they are with what content they are learning and so Indigenous education is really providing ways in which children can draw that connection and I think it's valuable to be able to connect their communities and the things that shape them as humans with the school community because too often there's a disconnect between the two and I think Indigenous education for me is providing an opportunity for our MiGMA students to have that connection built provide opportunities to build that connection and for them in turn to have a better understanding of themselves and grow as people. I think it's really important that we start on the path to language revitalization and we have started on the path to language revitalization but continuing that journey because within a language comes a set of values and unfortunately we do not have a strong base of MiGMA language speakers here in Newfoundland Labrador and so by providing opportunities to create a revitalization for our students for our younger generation to be able to bring back that language and I have two children a two-year-old and a four-year-old and to me the opportunity for them to be able to speak MiGMA and having that opportunity built into the education that they receive is just something that I'm so passionate about and I think is so vital to their education so language is one piece of that and it is connected to cultural revitalization as well so when we speak about language revitalization we're also speaking about cultural revitalization and so there are many different aspects of cultural revitalization that come in with that as well so the traditions, the oral stories, the histories of our MiGMA people in this area are all vital to that. I would love to see there be more of an opportunity for us to be able to provide an indigenous lens on what is the education system that largely stems from a Eurocentric perspective and that does not currently really encapsulate the indigenous perspective but providing opportunities for that perspective and that lens to be available to students and to connect with. I think that in five or ten years from now as I mentioned previously there will be more opportunities for language learning. Students will have access to opportunities within their school system to receive some measure of language learning in the MiGMA language. I would love to also see more of a concerted effort among all invested parties in indigenous education and education of our students that attend our public schools to be able to come together and really look at truth and reconciliation and the need for indigenous education and work together to make their focus one that is reflective of the need of our indigenous population. One might think if you're learning entirely in an outdoor setting and you're traveling like large distances throughout the course of a day to like go through the trails and learn different lessons throughout that program there may be limitations but I think the thing that sticks with me most as a story about the outdoor education program is that barriers are actually broken down there. There are opportunities for every single child to learn in that setting and really grow and have a wonderful positive experience. This past year we had a child attend the program that was in a wheelchair and so mobility was of course a concern as well as accessibility to the facilities there and we did the necessary work to make sure that this child had a wonderful experience and she came to camp and was able to get through all of the trails and learn all of the lessons and the power of seeing the students come together to ensure that every single child including this little girl in the wheelchair had the most wonderful experience was magical and I could never replicate that because just the power of seeing them work together and making sure that everyone had such a wonderful experience out of that is just yeah I can't explain it because you would have to have gone there and witnessed it yourself to really understand the gravity of it. One of our lessons is called estuary and it's when children go down to Lomond and it's a place where the salt and freshwater meet and so it's a really unique habitat for living organisms and so we wait until low tide and we have the children go down and explore the low tide the creatures that live there and their habitats and we make sure that they're cautious over how they look at the different living things and how they put them back in place and make sure that nothing is being disturbed but it's a really neat activity and this child the one that I've been speaking about earlier in the wheelchair her peers helped her in her wheelchair out through the low tide it's very muck it's almost like like it's a very difficult terrain to get through it's very muddy I don't know if you can remember Joanie your rubber boots getting stuck in it and so they wheeled her out and made sure that they were collecting not just for themselves the different things that were there the shells and the snails and the crabs but for her and then they had that wonderful experience together and then wheeled her back into shore and it was beautiful to watch another program that we partner with I should mention it because it goes hand in hand with the outdoor education program is a school outreach program it's indigenous school outreach that is a combination of going into the schools but also bring the children out of the schools and it's a cultural programming that consists of oral stories and history teachings as well as a sharing circle rattle making traditional singing and drumming of migmasongs as well and it is a collaboration between the Newfoundland Labrador English School District and Halibut First Nation as well as community groups that are very culturally active so we incorporate whichever community groups are able and willing to participate in this program with us as well as knowledge keepers and elders to bring cultural practices and traditions and history into classrooms but then at the end of it it culminates in what we call mini pow wow events where we bring the children out of their classroom setting into a larger location where they can all gather and celebrate the things that they have learned and and build on that with more teachings from elders and knowledge keepers and dancers and drummers from our communities in this wonderful event and so children as a follow-up to their killed-able experience in if they have attended in the fall they will get to participate in this mini pow wow event and the school outreach most of the schools not all the schools but most of the schools in the corn rook area would get to participate in that as well