 My name is Lori Ancel Vestert. I work with Mi'kmaq and Amadnawe, M.K. and I am the director for the First Nations School Success Program. And part of our program, it kind of, it's not really part of the program but we made it part of the program and it's called the Red Road Project. And the Red Road Project started in 2012. It started because our chiefs in Nova Scotia wanted to put on a program or have a program for the youth. So the program would be like a substance free program for students or for youth where culture is incorporated into the activities that they do. What makes the program great is that it involves all of our communities. We have 12 out of 13 of our First Nations or Mi'kmaq communities in Nova Scotia that are part of M.K. And with the Red Road Project we have 12 of those communities who have a representative for the Red Road Project. So our Red Road Project coordinator, Jordy Marshall, he's from Unamagi or Cape Breton and then we have one from the mainland of Nova Scotia, it was Tammy Bernard. And the two coordinators will seek out with the help of our Mi'kmaq communities a leader in each community who will lead the youth activities. So they would be the Red Road Project coordinator in their community, so they would be the lead person. But we have those facilitators, the two that I just mentioned. And what they would do is they would work together, they work a lot on their own but they work a lot together in coming up with activities that are cultural based, that incorporate any activities that are not associated with substance or alcohol. And it's more of keeping youth like the cultural path or on the Red Road. The Red meaning referring to culture, First Nations culture. And maybe two or three times a year the youth would come together. So they work individually in their communities to put on or to create projects for the youth. It gives the youth something to do. Kids can have too much time on their hands. And I believe this project helps them build some ideas and come up with creative ways to keep youth busy and to tie in cultural, that cultural component. More so to see who they are, to express their identity as First Nations or Mi'kmaq. The youth have our natural leaders in something. I think people are our natural leaders in something, in general. But youth, as an educator, if you see something in youth that they need to develop, you need to nurture that and allow for that area to grow so that they do become, they're our future and they're going to be our leaders. So we want them to, this project helps develop that leadership. And I think that it's a good investment. The project is a good investment in our youth because it highlights that leadership in the youth. And it's a unique program. And it's not just a substance-free program. It's a program where culture is built into the program. So it makes it even more unique. And I don't know if there's any other project out there that's similar to that. And even though it's been going on for six years, I think there's still room to grow. It's one of those programs that you build as you go. And we've been doing it for six years. And I forgot to mention other activities that they do. They go eel-spearing. And that's part of our culture is fishing. And so we hired some knowledge holders and traditional community leaders who facilitated that whole event of eel-spearing. And the students, a lot of them haven't done that before. And this is something that our ancestors have always done. So we're bringing back activities that they wouldn't normally have a chance to do. And they try to think of other activities that they've done. They do a lot of crafts, you know, doing baskets and drum-making. And they had those experiences when we went to the camp, the leadership camp. Student youth. Would you talk more about some of the ways that language and culture are incorporated? Sure. Well, when we first started the project, and you have to understand this project is new. It didn't come from anywhere. It was something that was just talked about around the table. Even the Red Road project, the name, has been thought of through a discussion around the table with a few educators, community members. And with the youth, the very first project that we had, or first activity that we had, was a leadership camp. So we had all of the youth representatives from each community come together in the western part of the province in Bear River. And Frank Mewes, he's a community member in Bear River, and he has a camp called Stone Bear, Tracks and Trails. So we found out about that camp and we thought, okay, let's try that out and see if that would be the good place to kind of nurture these youth to develop and to kind of enhance their leadership skills that they have already. So we brought them to this camp for five days. And at that camp, we did talking circles every day. We used traditional medicines to smudge and teaching the students how the youth to smudge. It was more of a time for them to kind of look at themselves and how they're going to lead the youth in their community. So we had sweat lodge ceremonies during this camp. We had medicine walks during the camp. So they learned through Frank, who was the camp owner, and he would take them on a walk through the trail and he would identify medicines that are native to our province, Nova Scotia. So we did that. We have an elder, his name is Lawrence Wells, and he's from Member Two First Nation. And he worked with all of our youth since 2012. So we've been doing this for six years. And he was there and he'd put on the sweat lodge ceremonies. He would be around the sacred fire. The students did storytelling and we did some crafts. We did drumming and just a lot of different activities that the youth wouldn't really be part of if they were just in their own communities. And it kind of developed a sense of community with our youth. They learned and they worked together collaboratively, which is well known for our youth and our people. We work well, you know, when we're in groups. So we did that first year. We did some videos. They made songs about the Red Road Project. We have a video on sweat lodge ceremonies. Lots of different, they would gather each year at our symposium that we have in our organization. And they had like a leadership symposium for the youth for Red Road. So we had some leadership activities that they would do. They also would learn about the sacred teachings, the seven sacred teachings. And we would weave that into all of their activities that they would do. Even like through the leadership camp, we would talk about different sacred teachings and what they mean and really stress, like put emphasis on those traditional teachings so that they live by them. And, you know, we didn't like say, for instance, humility. We wouldn't say, okay, we're going to learn about humility now. But we would embed it into our activities and teach them about it. It helps them become better people when they live by those teachings. So what shows you that the program is working? Well, it's been six years now. So that'll tell you that it is working. And, you know, we had some rough spots, you know, like we had, we couldn't really find or identify someone to facilitate it. But I think we have, well, I don't think we, I know we have a good leader now or a facilitator, two of them. And the interest, the youth, they want to be part of this Red Road project. I'm not sure how, like, we don't gather any data or anything like that, but I think that the communities are still interested. It shows that it's working. And, you know, that people know what the Red Road project is now. Have you seen a change in kids every time? Oh, yes, yeah. You see that, you know, when you go into communities, they're learning about who they are as MiGMA. And they're more involved in cultural activities that are in other communities. And they're going to, you know, we get them to promote the project at gatherings. So they're there and they promote it. And when you see them, they're promoting it with pride. And also, they, you know, we have them set up a booth and they have promotional items with the Red Road project. And they share with other youth in the community because not everyone knows about the Red Road project. So you see them and they're talking about the Red Road and what fun it is. And there's a few of the youth who've been at the camp and they said that was the best time they ever had was at the camp. And another reason why I think it works is because a lot of friendships have been made like with communities because in Nova Scotia we have 13 MiGMA communities, but not all the time those youth get to see each other. So you have people way down in Yarmouth which is on the west end of the province and then you have people in member two which is on the eastern part of the province. And sometimes those students don't or those youth don't have that opportunity to be together and to share activities or share parts of their culture or just share anything, you know, like just to know one another or be friends. And that, the Red Road project has given those youth that opportunity to connect. You know, it's different when you're older and you're a teacher or an educator. We're at a conference in Fredericton and I see people all the time from Newfoundland in different parts of Nova Scotia, different parts of New Brunswick and PEI and we have those opportunities but not a lot of times our youth do. So this is one of the projects that allow that. I don't know if it's a story of success but one of our youth leaders in the very beginning, he started, was Devin Paul and he started with us and we had, he was part of making a song for the Red Road project and he's a rapper and so he's done part of the Red Road song and so now he's touring from here to Ontario. So it's almost like this project kind of opened up that opportunity for him and so, you know, I see him now and I said, wow, six years ago you started doing this rapping and he probably did it before that but I think that through the Red Road he was able to get a few opportunities that he wouldn't normally get and so we had him songwriting and so that opened up some doors for him and that was a big success story and he had challenges in the early parts of his life with drugs and alcohol. His father was killed as a result of a drunk driver so he had some challenges to overcome and it was through music in the Red Road project that he ended up overcoming or getting past that in his life to do well. This is kind of a big question but what to you is Indigenous education? Yeah, that is a big question. There's a lot of talk now about Indigenous education and I think more people are getting what it is but I think it's really an understanding of what it is. It's more than just the surface of what Indigenous education is there's a lot of stuff involved and I think a big part of that is tapping into our elders and our knowledge holders and having them teaching the ways of our ancestors and bringing that all back because I think a lot of our technology and with TV and all of that so there's so much more to do rather than do the traditional ways and we're losing that a lot and people are now talking about Indigenous education because people are afraid now they're seeing it's reality that if we don't bring that back we're going to lose it and then who are we? The elders having them involved with education having our knowledge holders valuing all of those people and what they know and bringing all of that back and keeping at it don't just, you know, it's got to be consistent and but yes, I think there's a lot of different definitions of Indigenous education and what that means and there's a lot, it's a big term and there's a lot that falls under that umbrella of Indigenous education you know, there's a lot of land-based learning land-based learning is a lot of that you know, learning about our medicines learning about the land learning about the outdoors as educators we've locked ourselves inside these four walls and these institutions and not allowed for our students to go outside and learn from what's out there what Mother Earth has to offer we have so much out there that we could learn from unless we go out there and use that the outdoors to learn we'll never learn about it you could learn, you could read as much as you want about the outdoors but unless you go out there and experience the outdoors you're not going to know exactly what that is it's just like somebody telling you what medicines, different medicines even sweetgrass people could tell you what sweetgrass looks like what it feels like what it smells like but unless you actually take that piece of sweetgrass and hold it, burn it and smell it and see it then you don't really know what it is until you do that it's really hands-on we're doing a lot of that now in Nova Scotia we have a lot of our elders and our knowledge keepers who teach others about our medicines that are in our area and what they're used for and that knowledge is important because if we don't teach people that's going to die off but you know one of our educators from Escozoni I went into her office one day and all the people that were working in the office were sitting around the table and they were making moccasins and I said wow that's interesting it was like a staff development day or a staff wellness day and she says look we're learning to be elders so I think that we have to I'm going to be an elder someday I need to know I have to learn from knowledge keepers and elders if I want to learn that to pass that on to people coming up behind me if I don't then I'm part of where it dies and we don't want that we need to keep it alive and we need to we need to consistently be at it or else we're going to lose it all what would be your vision for Indigenous education in the next 10 years? I think what's important is that we're going to because a lot of this is going to be through our schools we need our teachers to get that they need to get it and they need to understand that this is what is needed we need to we need to bring in our knowledge keepers and elders I know I've said that before and we need to we need them to help us in our schools we need to value their knowledge and we can't be concerned about whether they have a Bachelor of Arts or education degrees because there are knowledge keepers you know I think too much we're looking at that everyone has to have a degree but just for instance language you know we have a lot of people who have language and they could be teachers of the language but they don't have a degree so they can't teach it which we're losing out because there's a lot of people who are experts in our magma language but we're not utilizing them you know because they're not educators they are educators we keep using the same people too and we have a you know if we just stop looking at the education part of it we'd have a lot more resources to look at we need a lot of human resources we need a lot of people like we had a session just during this conference it was just held right across the hallway here with Terry Denney and his son they're from well he's from Askezoni but he lives in Budlodec and they do a lot of land based learning and he's not a teacher you know through university but he is a teacher he's a traditional knowledge holder and he is now just being discovered he's Terry has been doing this stuff he lives that and it's just recently that he's been going to conferences and showing people because now land based education and you know it's calm and now people understand or they know that term you know it's only been recently that he's been doing or getting out there so we need a lot of people like him and that's a perfect example of somebody who's not you know doesn't have formal education and a Bachelor of Arts but he sure can teach people how to you know build or make something you know he's taught his son and his son I believe what he's doing with his son is he's shaping him and he's building that capacity he's going to he's teaching him what he knows so that when he's older then he can you know he can teach others and Terry can't do it all on his own so that's a good example of how we could use human resources and I think that's a key component and curriculum too you know curriculum you know if we're just going to follow the provincial curriculum as it is then we're just another school like everyone else you know but if we have that like at First Nations schools we have that flexibility you know our communities have control of their own education so we have that we have that the green light to do what we want to do and so that's a lot of the province doesn't have that a lot of provinces don't