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Learning in a traditional setting Deh Gah School organizes a six-week camp at Willow Lake
Roxanna Thompson
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, August 22, 2013
DEH GAH GOT'IE KOE/FORT PROVIDENCE
Twenty-one students from Deh Gah School have embarked on an on-the-land learning experience.
Jonas Landry, back left, Rick Lesage, Jeff Canadien, Edmund Gargan, Jody Williams and Greg Sabourin, front, are among the adults and students participating in a six-week camp at Willow Lake organized by Deh Gah School. - Roxanna Thompson/NNSL photo
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For the next six weeks, the students, along with 10 adults, will be living and learning at Willow Lake, a body of water accessible by float plane located approximately 117 kilometres northwest of Fort Providence.
Every student and community member in the hamlet was invited to participate in the camp.
The fact that 21 students, ranging from kindergarten to Grade 12, wanted to go speaks to the need for programs like this and the fact that schools need to take advantage of the opportunities the landscape in the North provides, said Lois Philipp, the school's principal.
The camp will give the students a meaningful experience that they will be able to reflect back on when they are facing challenges in their lives, she said.
This is the second time that the school has run an extended camp at Willow Lake. The first camp was held two years ago.
Traditional knowledge and fluency in Dene Zhatie will be two of the main focuses. Jonas Landry, a language and culture instructor at the school, is one of the adults leading the camp.
Waiting for a float plane to arrive on Aug. 16 to take him and four other members of the advance party to the lake, Landry was clearly excited.
"It's a really traditional area," he said about Willow Lake.
Landry was raised in the Willow Lake area until about age 14. This will be the first time he's returned to the lake in the summer in about 20 years.
There are plenty of caribou and moose in the area and good fishing, he said.
Landry said he is looking forward to teaching the students traditional skills.
"It's so important for these young kids to learn their language and their culture," he said.
Traditional knowledge can be used as a basis for personal growth, as well as success in the modern education system, said Landry.
"Without that traditional knowledge, I don't think I would have graduated from high school," he said.
Over the course of six weeks, Landry plans to teach the students boat and knife safety, survival skills, and traditional skills including drying beaver pelts, how to make tools from caribou bones and how to make dry meat and fish. If caribou are harvested, the students will be taught to make drums using the skin.
Dene values will also be stressed, including respect for the land, water and animals and for the elders who used to hunt and trap in the area, said Landry.
The participating students have also been asked what they would like to learn. Their list included learning Dene Zhatie, how to cook and for some, how to sew, said Diana Gargan.
Gargan, a kindergarten teacher in the school's Dene Zhatie language immersion program, will be at the camp along with her two children, her husband and their dog.
"I'm just excited to go," said Gargan on Aug. 16. "I'm looking forward to being out there for six weeks."
The camp is a very good opportunity for students to experience what it is like to live in the bush without technology, she said. The only electronics at the camp will be a satellite phone and some SPOT devices that send out GPS locations.
Instead of sitting in desks in a classroom, the students will participate in learning circles and have classes on Dene Zhatie and skills like sewing, she said.
If a caribou is shot, Gargan plans to show the students how to dye caribou hair and do tufting.
After students return to Fort Providence, they will be tested on how much Dene Zhatie they have learned. The school also has plans to build a website about the language and traditional skills.
The students also had medical exams before leaving. The exams will be repeated when they return to see if their time at the lake had an effect on their weight, heart rate and blood tests.
Approximately 40 community members lined the hill above the community dock to watch the advanced party leave on Aug. 16. The rest of the participants flew to the lake on Aug. 19. They are expected to return on Sept. 27 or 29.
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