 I've been coordinating the MADCATCHER outreach program for several years now. Everything started in band in 2009 at Warshup First Nations and Mathematics organized by Melania Alvarez. And the idea of the Warshup was really to put a group of academics, a group of elders and a group of teachers, mostly from themselves together, to discuss common ground, how to introduce and teach and present and how to promote mathematics to Indigenous learners. And among other conclusions, something that really resonated with me was that we should introduce mathematics to learners early and that there should be a cultural component in what we do. And that was really the philosophy, it's been philosophy of the program over the last, how many, nine years now. So we started with creating animated films. Our hero is a small number, he's an Indigenous boy who is always in some kind of trouble, but because he knows his mathematics, he gets out of trouble. So we created, so far, we created nine stories and maybe the true legacy of our project is going to be that those stories, they've been told in nine different First Nations languages. And I find this as actually a big compliment to the whole program that our narrators and these nations accepted our stories and they were willing to tell the stories in their languages. But creating these videos and sharing them with the communities is just one part of the program. We do school visits over the last nine years, the program is about 250 schools across BC and Alberta. And of course those schools are not only schools on reserves, or schools for Indigenous learners, but we use really the spirit of story talent, really, to introduce mathematics to everyone who wants to listen. And we meet with students from kindergarten to grade 12. The main idea of those workshops is, or actually there are three main components. One is no fear mathematics, no fear. We would like to show mathematics as a source of joy rather than source of fear. And I think that what I learned from others that I met over the years, the way how they present themselves, helping really to build this story talent component of our workshops in a way that really resonates with young people. Another component of the project is hands-on activity. And that is again something that I really learned from some of my Indigenous collaborators that doing hands-on activities always helps to communicate actually ideas. And so films, school visits, we also organize a year annually, one-day workshop for grade 11, grade 12 students. We invite about 100 students, Indigenous students across BC to come for one day of science here at Simon Fraser. And the idea that really here is to introduce to these students Simon Fraser University as a place that has everything really to support them if they decide to go this way. We do this always in coordination with SFU's Office for Aboriginal Peoples and with SFU's Indigenous Student Center. So it is really our joint effort to promote higher education among Indigenous learners. Another component of this program is organizing summer, we call them academic camp for Indigenous learners. In this part of the program, we invite Aboriginal students from grade 9 to grade 11 to come for a month of mathematics and English in the morning and various activities in the afternoon. This is again done all in coordination with the SFU Office for Aboriginal Peoples and with the SFU Indigenous Center. For this camp, we always have quite a few guest speakers that are coming from various communities, Indigenous communities, mostly from grade 10 to 12. The overall purpose of the project is really to promote mathematics. We started really, we were inspired with this BAM workshop, but I think that now the program is kind of a wider A. We use what we learn really from various Indigenous collaborators to promote mathematics among the general population. Often, that is almost a rule we are invited to visit public schools by Aboriginal resource teachers. In a way, our program is is helping those teachers to be more visible in their schools. There is also one thing that if I may share. During my visits, I like to remind students from kindergarten to grade 12 that if they live in British Columbia at this point, then the Indigenous culture of First Nations here in BC is also part of their culture and better if they are aware of this. The stories are created by my colleague Mark McLean, Professor of Mathematics from UBC and myself. We started really in 2009 at that BAM. Our first story was inspired by a narration of Rina Sinclair, an elder from Sixth Nations. She told us a story about her own childhood and that was really our inspiration for the first adventure of Small Numbers. Our first translation was really in the Blackwood language. Other stories were inspired mostly, I have to say, mostly with my interaction with various Indigenous individuals and communities. Almost everything that is in those stories I've seen or heard in this way or the other way. But we also do our research. We know that we are talking about very sensitive issues. So before going public, we do our research. We find as many sources as possible that would support the story that we would like to tell. But also we run this by the members of Indigenous communities. And so far so good. I mean it seems that our stories have life on their own now. And I know that they've been used across Canada. If I may share with you one anecdote, I had an opportunity a couple years ago to meet a young teacher. And she told me that she was a teacher in a small community, a community in North Quebec. And she said that she showed our films that were in the Cree language to her students. And she was teaching kindergarten grade one. And the feedback was that they liked the movie or the movies that are few of them in the Cree language. But they said, they said, they know it was Cree. But the dialect is different. So that kind of they couldn't understand. And just that image that somewhere in North Quebec, a group of kindergarten kids could connect this little story that was made on this part of the country with their own language and to experience that there is Cree with a different dialect spoken somewhere else. I think that is also a contribution to our society. I would like to think that in our stories, one can see mathematics in every scene, in everything that was said there. The plot is always mathematical. We always finish with an open-ended question. So we really leave a space for the teacher or whoever want to use this to build whatever they need for. I know that a person here at Simon Fraser was doing her master's and her project was really about how she implemented the stories in her class. In this paper, she describes actually how she needed time really to find a way how to use the stories to communicate mathematics with students. So it is not that our stories themselves are enough. They're a resource. And I hope really that we have enough space that we'll leave enough space for a teacher to use these stories in any way. There is also this component. The program has been around for several years. So I get invitations to meet with teachers. I always try to bring some of my former Indigenous students as volunteers to those meetings. So we are really trying to reach out, not just to students. We are trying to reach to wider teaching community with this program. Again, this is a learning experience for everyone. It is not that we have many answers. But we have maybe we have more experience than some others. And what we do really we share our experience with the community. And it seems that that community needs at least this as a conversation. So first, what is success? The fact that we've been around for nine years, is that a success? The fact that our films, they've been used across the country as a resource and they're connected with other, how many schools or school districts or resource sites, is that a success? The fact that our school visits for a year, that for example this year I was completely booked by the middle of August last year, that our volunteers use this experience really to start promoting various Indigenous courses themselves. That's a success. Probably it is. But really, if you ask me personally, what is a success? I was just two weeks ago, I was visiting a small reserve close to Williams, not close, two hours away from Williams. In the middle of nowhere, a small school and the principal asked me to meet with all 50 students in the school. They have something for four years old, heads up or something like this, to grade six. And I met with everyone. And wonderful kids, smart kids, well-behaved, well-capped, beautiful school, welcoming teachers. Obviously it was obvious that the school is also a community center. You could see parents involved, you could see that the school is part of that community and you could see happy kids. So I was asked to meet with a group that was four or five, four-year-olds. And how do you communicate mathematics with four-year-olds? How do you talk mathematics with them? And how do you keep their attention for half an hour? They're teachers right there. In my mind, I have this particular boy showing me on my banner, triangle and rectangle and counting. And I think that was maybe one of the happiest moments in my professional life. Just being in that position to support the obvious intelligence of this young boy. And for me, that is maybe the biggest success really that I've actually been at these nine years. To be there for that kid. The project is based really what I learned about Storytellers. I go to, and if I was better prepared, and my memory is not as good as it was before, Rena Sinclair is one of those storytellers, but there was another lady here from SFU. Her first name was Evelyn, but I cannot recall her last name. She was a black widow also. And the way how they were telling stories, that is really the format that I'm using. I visit a school and there for a day. I visit a class, kids that never seen me before. And that they're not going to see me probably later in life. And just using this what I learned from Rena and Evelyn to build the story about who you are. And it works like a magic. Teachers are always surprised that kids are talking back to me in a few minutes. And I don't know how I can thank Evelyn for sharing really their knowledge with me. There is another elder that influenced me a lot and influenced everything that I do big time. That is Betty Wilson from Claminace. She's been collaborating for several years. She told, I don't know how many of my stories in Siamese language. But also she was she was so kind to share with me her knowledge about basketball. And if you look for mathematics, I call that functional mathematics and art. And all that is a part of what we do. That what we learned, I would like to share with the community. And I have learned, I think I'm still learning, but what I learned was so valuable for myself. So I'm not sure if I'm answering your question, but for sure this program wouldn't be here if there were no elders willing to share their knowledge with me and allow me to use it in the program. So our math camps, our summer camps, they were really introduction to so many, introduction of the post-secondary education for so many of our students. One thing that I'm very proud of, that in five years of running this program, we didn't lose a single student. All students that started the program at the beginning of July, over the last five years, where they will be closing ceremony. And not everyone is going to go to university, but I'm quite sure that we at least open them up for that thought. And also, I mean, and this is, I think, important to say that we do everything together between SFM, DGNC, and SFIO, Office for Aboriginal Students. So we show that these still in high school Aboriginal learners that if they decide to come here, there is support for them. And that is maybe actually the most important message of your time to communicate with those kids. And if something that for sure is going to stay after this project is the fact that we recorded so many of these small number films in First Nation languages, and I think that is going to build legacy of our program. I know that those films, they've been used actually in language classes. One of my collaborators from this commission nation who is actually teaching this commission of group of learners here at SFIO, he told me that these films are great resource because they have an imagery, they have sound, and there is a transcript with all each of these. So I think that is maybe a small but a contribution to Indigenous education, and not just Indigenous education. I would say, I would like to think that by doing this, we are contributing to whole Canadian society. It is at least in my experience, two ways, three. We are building communities. We are building connections between Simon Fraser and various communities. And as an outcome, that is not directly a part of the program, but it wouldn't happen without the program. We had a very recent collaboration with the Tlamination, and they kindly allowed us to make a computer model of their baskets. And this is going to be a great learning tool. At the same time, we are preserving part of this tradition. So this is the latest technology that we can think of, and a group of students led by Professor Cedric Shaw here from my department, they created an app that you can actually build a design of a basket that resembles Tlamin designs. And that is another outcome of this project, but on that side of the project, really, through our collaboration, we've been able to build a trust between Simon Fraser as an institution and various communities.