Implementation
Implementation of goals and objectives is an important part of community planning. One of the priorities for Pasqua is the implementation of our 2010 Community Plan. In order to accomplish these goals the next phase of planning will focus on developing a Community Development plan that supports our short and long term goals. Throughout the year, a series of community workshops will be held where members can participate and give their feedback.
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Community Based Planning
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Jessica Gordon, Community Navigator Update on proposals submitted September - December
Currently I have applied for funding from a few sources but will also continue to seek out more funding sources and develop partnerships to implement these projects along with others that have been identified in our community plan.
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Pasqua Cultural Resurgence - Connecting Youth, Families and Elders
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This program will unite targeted groups to knowledge keepers in workshops, hands on learning and land based instruction based on Nakawe (Saulteaux) traditions and language.
Cultural Resurgence will be a yearlong program that focuses on restoring the Nakawe language, cultural and traditions to the people of Pasqua First Nation while embracing and building capacity of our knowledge keepers.
This program will be delivered in 3 phases.
Phase I will be delivered in the winter months which is traditionally the time for storytelling and learning. Phase I will be comprised of Nakawe traditional storytelling, games, teachings, language instruction and acquiring firearms licenses and making traditional coup sticks and ribbon skirts, hunting (snaring rabbits for the younger children, deer or goose hunting for the youth aged 11-18, moose and other game for the adults)wild meat processing and hide stretching.
Phase II will begin in the spring where the values taught during phase I will be implemented and acted on. Phase II will be comprised of harvesting medicines, rites of passage ceremonies, attending local ceremonies and continued language instruction.
Phase III will begin in the summer months with a family Nakawe language immersion camp. During this camp the families that have showed consistent attendance and commitment to the 2 previous phases will be immersed in two weekends back to back of language instruction while learning survival and tracking skills. Part of the purpose of survival and tracking skills is to remember the ways we traditionally lived which connects us to the earth and animals which will renew a sense of respect and knowledge of the natural world. It will also give practical skills to the community in the event of natural disasters. The program will work with health in developing an emergency preparedness committee and first responders of which a few may be recommended to be involved in the program.
Phase IV will be time for evaluation and preparation for the next cycle of programming.
Cultural self-identity is a major goal of Pasqua First Nation. Pasqua has expressed the need to ensure our culture, language and community becomes self-sustaining and healthy.
Many of our younger members do not have the cultural knowledge that is needed to be successful in school and career. Pasqua would like to be the facilitator of this renewed sense of belonging and identity.
Objectives
- To promote a sense of belonging, cultural self-identity, language learning and retention.
- To establish a continuing cultural program focusing on the youth and giving mentorship opportunities to adults and elders.
- To increase capacity and employment opportunities at the community level by accessing and utilizing Pasquas cultural resource people and building further capacity for the following.
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Pasqua Immersion Language Mentorship Project
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5 teams of mentors and apprentices will engage in activities that are only spoken in the Nakawe (Saulteaux) language
Each week, the mentor and apprentice will meet for a total of 9 hours. The instruction will be based using the work-plan that each team has agreed to and will also use the handbook. The activities and instruction will be communicated only in Nakawe (Saulteaux) and will be done during daily activities, hunting, gathering, at ceremony, household chores, putting children to bed and any activity the teams feel would assist in language retention and relevant to the learner.
Language Instruction CD’s
Create a language instruction CD’s using the mentor/apprentices instructing in English to state a phrase in Nakawe. Some of these will be examples of the activities the teams had partaken in during the project using lesson plans, best practices, basic teaching methodologies and conversational Nakawe (Saulteaux). The language retention and instruction CD will be done so by combining what was learned into 1 resource to be used by mentors/apprentices, parents and community members to teach the language at the beginner level. The CD is intended for the Immersion Language Mentorship program participants to use as an ongoing resource in language retention but could also be used by parents/caregivers, language keepers, early childhood teachers, community programs, etc. Although it is not our ways to place instruction on CD, in person and oral instruction is preferable, we know that we must find and use tools to ensure our languages survival.
The goal of the Mentorship project is to assist in language retention. Pasqua First Nation will utilize our fluent speakers to be mentors to committed learners (apprentices) in an immersion environment in the home and during cultural activities. The activities will preserve and revitalize the languages through attending community events, land based learning and relevant learning for the community. This project will also strengthen cultural identity which supports success in all sectors including Canadian society.
The ultimate goal of the Mentor Apprentice Project is to produce enough new speakers so that Pasqua community members can develop their own unique strategies for the daily use, retentions and transmission of our language.
Currently Pasqua First Nation has only a few fluent speakers left. Parents feel the need to support their children’s language learning when they get home from school but they do not have the resources or fluency to encourage continued learning after school.
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Recalling and Developing our Knowledge Keepers - Language and Survival Skills Camp
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Cultural Resurgence will be a yearlong program that focuses on restoring the Nakawe language, cultural and traditions to the people of Pasqua First Nation while embracing and building capacity of our knowledge keepers. The final phase will be our Language and Survival Skills camp to practice the knowledge learned throughout the year. This program will be delivered in 3 phases. Phase I will be comprised of Nakawe traditional storytelling, games, teachings, hunting and harvesting, language instruction Phase II will be comprised of harvesting medicines, rites of passage ceremonies, attending local ceremonies and continued language instruction. Phase III will begin in the summer months with a family Nakawe language immersion camp. During this camp the families that have showed consistent attendance and commitment to the 2 previous phases will be immersed in two weekends back to back of language instruction while learning survival and tracking skills. Part of the purpose of survival and tracking skills is to remember the ways we traditionally lived which connects us to the earth and animals which will renew a sense of respect and knowledge of the natural world. It will also give practical skills to the community.
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Building Community Belonging by recalling our Kinship
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According to elders priorities it was found that this project would be a good start at researching our families’ genealogy for kinship ties for the purpose of cultural and family identity which build pride and historical knowledge. This research and documenting will eventually be added into a repository and archives for our future interpretive centre.
Elders would be responsible for inputting findings from the research and interviews with the help of Pasqua Youth. Through workshops, Elders will learn basic computer skills, database input, genealogy workshop on how to trace your ancestry, visits to the Saskatchewan archives and SICC to research, find PFN photos and documents that can be repatriated eventually to our archives.
The results of this project will be
- Building capacity by training elders to convert findings to database (technical)
- Development of standards, performance and other measurement activities for Pasqua Archiving– Every 5 years Pasqua will hold an old photo day to bring the community together and archive historical items
- Will begin the foundation of Pasqua’s Citizen database and historical tracing for future membership (self-determination)
- Overall this project will increase access to and awareness of Pasqua peoples lineage and history and increase capacity of Pasqua Elders, administration and for the interpretive centre.
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