Immersed in the land
Trout Lake camp transmits cultural teachings and language to youth
Roxanna Thompson
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, October 23, 2014
SAMBAA K'E/TROUT LAKE
There was no television and no Internet for a week for a group of Trout Lake youth who participated in a culture camp.
Shannon Jumbo carries the aquatic plants she harvested from shallow areas in Trout Lake while duck hunting from a boat during the Sambaa K'e Dene Band's youth culture camp. - photo courtesy of Brenda Jumbo
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Sambaa K'e Dene Band staff usually organize a spring camp for youth from the community. This year, a fall camp was held instead.
Eight youth between the ages of three and 13 spent from Sept. 23 to 30 across the lake from the community at a site known as the old Trout Lake base camp.
"These kids really committed for the whole week," said Ruby Jumbo, the First Nation's executive director.
"Some of them didn't want to come back."
The camps are about taking the youth on the land so they can absorb cultural teachings and be encouraged to speak Dene Zhatie. The five elders at the camp, four of whom stayed for the full week, talked to the youth in the Dene language.
"You can see the difference in their behavior when they are out there for a week," Jumbo said.
"They are more grounded, they are more well behaved away from the TV, away from the games."
The youth were kept busy with a variety of activities for the week.
"They boys liked chopping wood," she said.
"The girls tend to like rabbit snaring and just hiking."
During the camp two moose were harvested by an elder. The youth helped make dry meat out of portions of the animals.
Some ducks were also shot. Although they were hard to pluck, the girls at the camp persevered and learned patience by removing one feather at a time, Jumbo said. The girls also learned how to singe and cook the ducks over a fire using green wood for the cooking stick so the meal isn't dropped in the flames.
The youth also helped set and check fish nets. The fish were prepared in a variety of ways. The trout was made into dry fish, the pickerel was filleted and the Northern pike was cut in half and left to dry in the sun like Arctic char is often prepared.
"It went very well," Jumbo said about the camp.
