Recently our film crew took a trip up north for our new CBC short film The Land is the Teacher. We arrived at Athabasca Delta Community School that organizes the Experimental Learning Initiative, a special program that is hoping to revitalize the traditional practises into our modern world. We met up with Mike Mercedi who brings together teachers, students, elders and others and makes the dreams for these young kids happen. Reintroduction of the trapping life to local youth means not only their re-discovered connection with the land. It also reminds them what used to be one of the most lucrative occupations up north in the past.
Instead of sitting in class all day, kids get to go out into the bush in the cold winter of -40C° Celsius. They have to use snowmobiles to get to Mike’s cabin. In the next few days they will learn how to set up snares, check traps, prepare the meat they capture, they will try ice fishing and other joys of living in one of the coldest places in Alberta.
Check out some of the stills from the film below.
And stay tuned for the CBC premiere.
