High school graduation now a point of pride for Indigenous community in northern Alberta

Dennis Kovtun · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 29, 2025 8:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 9 minutes ago

Angela Marcel was astir 40 years aged erstwhile she graduated from precocious school. 

"I retrieve ever kicking myself that I didn't proceed my education," said Marcel, a member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation who lives successful Fort Chipewyan, Alta., a tiny assemblage about 740 kilometres northeast of Edmonton.

She got the accidental to gain her diploma acknowledgment to innovative programming astatine Therese Tuccaro Secondary School, an Indigenous-led schoolhouse launched successful 2020 to combat a worrying deficiency of students graduating from precocious school.

Between 2016 and 2019, lone 2 students graduated from the precocious schoolhouse serving the area. That prompted an acquisition exigency to beryllium declared successful 2019 by the Mikisew Cree First Nation, Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and Fort Chipewyan Métis.

In the 5 years since Therese Tuccaro opened as an autarkic nation, on-reserve school, 122 students person successfully earned their precocious schoolhouse diplomas.

Cultural traditions

The schoolhouse is unsocial successful that it incorporates Indigenous traditions and taste practices into its teaching, said Kerri Ceretzke, the school's main and manager of acquisition for the Mikisew Cree First Nation.

"We besides person a batch of land-based learning," said Ceretzke. 

"There's moose hunting in the autumn time. There is crystal fishing. There's sweetgrass picking and braiding. The taste constituent is not a one-off, it's woven into what we do," she said. 

Therese Tuccaro, the school's namesake, was an advocator for Indigenous acquisition and a subordinate of acquisition boards and councils. She died successful 2023 but her descendants are among the school's graduates.

The school, which operates year-round, has 117 progressive students in the 2024-25 schoolhouse year. 

About fractional of the students are members of the Mikisew Cree First Nation, 25 per cent are from the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, and 10 per cent are Fort Chipewyan Métis. The remainder is made up of non-Indigenous students arsenic good arsenic those from different Métis or First Nations. 

Almost a quarter of them are aged 22 and older. 

'Very inclusive'

Marcel said that for her, arsenic good arsenic younger students, the school's absorption connected taste learning inspired her to spell backmost each day.

"It's precise inclusive," said Marcel, who graduated successful March 2023.

"You person a pupil that's my age, successful their 40s — and past you besides person students that are 14 years old, oregon successful their 20s, and they're each taking portion successful these taste teachings that the precocious schoolhouse does offer. It brings the assemblage together." 

After graduating, Marcel enrolled into task absorption classes astatine the University of Alberta. Now, she works arsenic a supervisor of recreation and programming astatine the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo portion continuing to unrecorded successful Fort Chipewyan. 

Two of her sons, inspired by her example, besides went backmost to schoolhouse to decorativeness their secondary education. One of them was astir 20 erstwhile helium graduated, and different was pushing 22. 

"They worked precise hard, and they ever referred to maine — 'You know, that's the crushed wherefore I completed school was due to the fact that my ma did it.'"

School has opened doors

Mikisew Cree Nation Chief Billy-Joe Tuccaro said the schoolhouse has opened galore doors, both for the members of his federation and for the assemblage arsenic a whole. 

"When you travel from not having graduates for galore years, and past each of a abrupt you person a influx of 122 — that's thing that we tin beryllium arrogant of," helium said. 

One of the school's goals is to spouse with Alberta post-secondary institutions to connection higher acquisition programming successful Fort Chipewyan. 

Tuccaro said galore of his radical "feel much comfy being astir our assemblage members," and having post-secondary offerings "would beryllium monumental for america successful the assemblage here." 

The goal, helium said, is "to person radical that tin locomotion successful some worlds successful regards to the Western acquisition and our accepted knowledge, and to support that going successful regards to acquisition present successful community."