 My name is Jordi Marshall. I'm the coordinator for the Red Rope Project here in Cape Breton and I have a colleague who is a coordinator for the mainland in Nova Scotia. The Red Rope Project is an anti-substance abuse program created by our chiefs in 2012. The philosophy of the program is that we live our life aligned with the creator and we live on a sacred path. And so a lot of what we do is we work with the youth within our communities who are chosen by their directors or they're chosen by their principals to lead the program for a year. And they learn a lot about their culture and who they are because we believe that culture identity plays a big part in combatant substance abuse. We have our elders and our culture camps throughout the year. So throughout the year we have our culture camps and we invite our elders to come in to teach the youth about who they are through one of the activities that they do is to learn how to build a teap key and how to build a sweat lodge and then they go and have a sweat lodge ceremony. Recently we took them out and taught them how to go ice fishing and just bringing these opportunities in with the youth to learn about who they are from the rich resources of which we have in our communities who still carry these teachings. I think it's an opportunity for those who haven't had the opportunity to do so and also gives an opportunity to youth to learn about who they are but also to become leaders within their communities to encourage those who do not know about their culture to encourage them that it is okay to learn about it and it's okay to be taken part of that journey to carry that on for our future generations. And so it's creating leaders within people within our communities to create ourselves stronger and building that bridge and that connection between the youth and the elders is a powerful thing in itself. Being witness to the connections and the relationships that we build with these students and so how I measure success is their character and them still building on that journey of which they started from being on the Red Row project and taking that within themselves and to continue to learn in their lifelong journey. You'll see people who are pow wow dance and you'll see people who are now comfortable regularly going sweats or you see people who are now comfortable to approach an elder or people inquiring more about basket making or who feel encouraged even for myself to like I'm a coordinator but I feel more encouraged now to be able to go ice fishing because I've learned from the people who I learned from the people who are the best at doing it within our community and know the exact protocol and respect for the animal. I really enjoy seeing the youth getting together even after they're done with the program. And they're still friends after not like not being part of the group for a couple years. So it's those lifelong relationships that they build amongst each other is really nice to see because that's what's going to help them as well. And part of their journey of walking on the Red Road is because when you walk on the Red Road in these times of days it's a very it's not it's not the most busy as road to walk. It can be quite lonely because of what youth are facing today because everyone in that age is getting into drinking and just getting into drugs. So it's nice to see that they're able to support one another on their journey and to be able to feel encouraged to continue on. Indigenous education is concepts of the reflections of who we are and to be able to feel encouraged and proud to be able to teach within our children or to our children. And within our schools and to be able to say you know what who we are there is nothing wrong with it and to open our eyes to the to our world view of who we were and who we are today and to be able to put them together. And Indigenous education to me is being able to live through that in the biggest and best potential but to be inclusive and encompassing every aspect of who we are today. But that also if you were to look at that in a model I see a circle and the way I can think of it and the teachers that we learned from the Red Road project is the four directions and everyone who has a role. There's the East who represents like the babies and the children, small children and then the South who represents the youth and the West who represents the adults and the North who represents the elders. And when you're able to fulfill all the roles and all the teachings within all of these cycles with all these directions that is Indigenous education that that is knowing how to where to and how was in that whole cycle of life because that is what it's all about. And so when we indigenize our education it's about being able to fulfill who we are as people and to not to conform to the ideas of what may have worked for another culture because it doesn't and it hasn't and it won't. I would like to see I guess to be in the sense of a visionary I guess like it's like I see sort of a collective of people just to gather around and say this isn't working and we need to find a way to make it work. And so in order to transform into something new we need to be able to have a steady foundation to clear and to be able to build new. And so I believe if we could come together as many nations across Canada it'd be nice to see how everyone's teachings can come and formulate something that'll work that is a more holistic for everyone and how I'd like to see education change in the future to be able to be more inclusive, more loving, more family oriented, more nurturing for the child because a lot of how I see my experiences from being a student and also working in the school is that there's a whole institutionalized concept and that is what we know and that is what that's the standard. But I know that there is a lot of nurturing that goes on within the school because there are indigenous teachers within the school and like let's say Escazoni who are able to take their teachings to teach the children to be that nurturing person because they're with them for a long time in a day. So that's what the child needs to help them to feel comfortable and to feel strong and proud enough to learn about whatever they need to learn in their education. So I guess what I want to say is that if we truly want to create change and to create positive change within our education then we must not be able, we must not lead ourselves in fear but to be able to speak truthfully and be proud of everything that we are every step of the way. Really stick to the four directions like your resources are within your communities and if not then there's communities elsewhere and I think this will be great for that because we're part of that circle of resources. So I have resources that I have resources that are elders who are great for help within our cause, I have adults who are great resources, I have youth who are great resources and we have children who come and they just bring joy when we give them t-shirts because they're promotional items and then being encouraged, they're part of that circle too, they're the future. So if we're able to see that and to find and map out within this model of who our resources are then that's the best way we can do to figure out what we need to do because what it's about is about our family, who we are in our language. Miigma roots from the word family or kin so that's the way we see it. We're going to treat each other as one big family and when we need help then we're going to figure out ways and the resources that we have within ourselves within that kinship to ensure that we can continue on on our journey. I guess on a personal level the impacts of my journey of working with this is that I wasn't really walking on the railroad before and when I learned I got this job it kind of it went like it like changed my life so I had to. I had no choice. Sometimes I didn't have a choice. It kind of led me to where I should have been going and so I didn't want to be someone who was teaching youth about the bad things about drugs and to encourage them to stay off them and to be on them at the same time so I really had to reevaluate on who I was and my identity as a person. I feel so strong and so connected to our creator when we're in ceremony and when we're sitting there and we're setting up a sacred fire teaching youth how to set up a sacred fire when we're getting together and we learn about who we are from our elders. No matter what it is or just sitting around having fun and laughing and those are all powerful moments that a person who especially at that young age who cherishes for the rest of their lives. So how it impacted me was it gave me the opportunity to figure out parts of my life on how I too can walk on the railroad and it was a struggle but my life has really changed and it's continuing and I take responsibility as one of the leaders for this program. To continue to better myself as a person so I can help these youth who are trying to figure out who they are to help them to figure out who they are. We have representation within all of the all of the reservations and that was in the 13 bands so there's two representatives per band so there's 26 youth each year. We meet quarterly but that's more to get them to recharge but what they do is that they have project funds of $2,000 and where they implement projects and events within their communities to help support the program and the visions of which they have. They'll do cultural events or they'll do crafts or sports with the youth just to keep them, to encourage them and they'll talk to them and they'll be there on the railroad with them but it's not the $2,000 isn't for employing other youth. It's more so just project funds and supplies and say if they wanted an elder to come in so they'll have one you'd have the elder to come in and to teach them. They're able to take what they learned from their camps and to be able to incorporate that into their daily life and into the job that they're working with the people within their communities and to encourage them. So one of the things that we're doing this year is this is a new project that we're going to be doing is that we're getting all the youth ready to be able to carry their own medicine bundle so they can go and they can conduct ceremony amongst their peers. So we're working very closely with our elders to make sure that we can do this in the most respectful way so we can ensure that they're keeping that part of our culture alive. Yes, they're going to go out and they're going to conduct ceremonies with their friends or with their peers or with people in their community and to take part in that that's going to be the helpful long run in the service to our community to ensure that the opportunity is there for them to be encouraged to walk on the railroad.