Clearwater River Dene students learn language and cultural skills on the land

Louise BigEagle · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 20, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 10 minutes ago

Students astatine Clearwater River Dene School successful bluish Saskatchewan took portion successful a food campy past period arsenic portion of their school's land-based learning programme wherever they practise connection and taste skills.

Eden Fontaine, a teachers adjunct astatine the schoolhouse successful Clearwater River Dene Nation, said it was something she needed arsenic she grew up, being abundant successful connection but lacking knowledge about thing like cleaning and preserving fish.

Connecting the 2 unneurotic is simply a bully accidental for the students to larn much astir who they are, she said.

"I deliberation it motivates kids much to travel to schoolhouse and they cognize that they person to get their enactment done if they privation to spell retired and bash worldly with Paul and his class," said Fontaine.

Paul Haynes, a teacher from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., has worked in Clearwater River Dene Nation for 30 years and is the land-based pedagogue for the programme that started 3 years ago.

Students enactment successful things similar going on walks to place birds and plants successful their Dene language, and harvesting traditional foods similar moose, beaver, fish.

"We blended those with moving with younker connected their intelligence wellness and physical, envisioning the medicine instrumentality concept," said Haynes.

"We are teaching them respect, courage, enactment ethic, perseverance and conscionable being a bully quality being and what their situation has to connection them."

Elders also come retired to thatch the kids how to marque moose fell mitts and however to bash beadwork.

"Watching the elders enactment with the kids is conscionable phenomenal," helium said.

Philip Piche, who is successful Grade 6, said going to the food campy is "pretty cool" due to the fact that they get to spell retired connected the boat. 

"We spell each twelvemonth and it's the precise best," said Piche.

Although helium said idiosyncratic accidentally took his food helium caught and near him a food with "a large ol' spread successful it," helium inactive did the enactment of learning however to gut the fish.

"I'm truthful thankful, truthful we don't hide this opportunity," said Piche.

Piche said helium besides likes learning his connection due to the fact that it tin beryllium awkward erstwhile the elders are speaking to him and he doesn't cognize what they are saying.

The school has a Dene immersion program where students tin be classes from pre-school caput commencement and up.

Fontaine said her girl attends the schoolhouse and comes location counting to 10 in Dene truthful she sees the value of incorporating language into schoolhouse programming.

She said she's noticed successful the past 15 years that determination has been less Dene language speakers successful her community.

"Even myself, I utilized to beryllium ace fluent, but arsenic I got older, I talk English much than I astir apt should, adjacent with my ain people," said Fontaine.

Fontaine said including elders successful their school's onshore based programming has helped the students.

"If students request assistance with thing that has to bash with onshore based teaching oregon Dene language, they cognize wherever to go," said Fontaine.