Fort Simpson (Oct 31/03) - After months of bake sales, cake walks and selling chocolates, 22 Deh Gah students boarded a bus bound for Edmonton on Oct. 15.

Every year some hard-working youths from Deh Gah school make the 2,300 km return trip to Edmonton for the annual Dreamcatchers conference, which accentuates aboriginal culture.

Cassandra Bonnetrouge, 16, enrolled in a session on Inuit culture.

She and others built Inukshuks and learned about their symbolism.

"There's small ones near the river and stuff that tell it's a good place for a fishing spot," Bonnetrouge explained. "And some of (the Inukshuks) are really big. People don't know how they were built without any machinery."

Another workshop she took taught her about the struggles of some youths in Mexico. The workshop participants made a booklet with encouraging messages to be sent to some of their Mexican peers.

She also made note of the impressive opening and closing ceremonies at Dreamcatchers, which included several types of aboriginal dance.

Outside the conference, Bonnetrouge said she also enjoyed browsing at the many stores at the Kingsway malls and West Edmonton malls.

She took advantage of the amusement rides at West Edmonton mall and then made a scale-model roller coaster of her own at the city's science centre. Jonah Bonnetrouge, 18, attended a healing session and a workshop on how to dissuade a friend from committing suicide. Although some of the subject matter was a little sombre, there were uplifting aspects to it, he noted. He also picked up his spirits by playing volleyball and shopping with friends.

"It was great," he said.

Violet Landry, one of several adult chaperons, said the youths also learned how to hold a pow-wow and to craft their own dreamcatchers. Landry participated in the latter workshop herself, learned how to make art from fish scales and listened to a non-aboriginal man tell of the lessons he's learned about native culture.

It was Landry's third trip to the conference and she said the students relish every time.

"Yeah, they're hyped about it. They get a chance to go shopping, some of them go to a hockey game, they dance and they meet different people," she said.