Leaders at Muskoday First Nation hope to see their video included with school curriculums. (File photo/ paNOW Staff)

By Nigel Maxwell

Reconciliation

Muskoday First Nation featured in short educational film

Oct 5, 2022 | 5:44 PM

The small community of Muskoday First Nation was chosen this year for a special project that could very well have a far-reaching impact.

Through a provincial government grant, a 30-minute video was created. It discusses among other things the First Nations’ governance structure and the importance of Elders. Sharon Meyer, the First Nations and Metis education consultant for the Northeast School Division, applied for the grant, and appropriately named the grant to support to reconciliation actions. She described the video as very contemporary.

“Not too many people get to visit inside a first nations community and see inside the facilities and visit with people and hear their stories and hear their voice,” she said.

Viewed for the first time by community members last Friday on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, the actual interview process for the film started last spring and included both Chief and Council as well as Elders. The end result was Meyer and her partner sorting and editing hours and hours of recordings. She explained when they first started the project, they did not know what the final outcome would be, only what the objectives were.

“We didn’t know what would be said because we didn’t want to script the community members and the elders,” she explained, citing one example where they asked Chief Ava Bear to explain what a Chief does, but to do so in a language that could be understood by a class of grade three and four students.

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When asked why Muskoday was chosen for the project, Meyer explained several communities were approached but there was a tight timeline, and Muskoday was the first one to step up.

Elwin Bear is the K-12 and post-secondary education coordinator at Muskoday and said everyone was very excited when they heard what was involved.

“The reception to it was wonderful because the idea of non-Indigenous people not understanding how First Nations work is that barrier to understanding, the barrier to relationship,” he said.

Moving forward, Bear expressed his desire to see the video integrated into the school division’s curriculum. Chief Bear supports this as well.

“I think it can be used as a teaching tool. I believe that any learning about the treaties, First Nation culture, the residential school, sixties scoop, any of that, helps with reconciliation,” she said.

Sharon Meyer aims to have the video available on the school division website, as well as the ones run by Muskoday, Sask. Teachers Federation site, and hopefully the Office of the Treaty Commissioner.

nigel.maxwell@pattisonedia.com

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell